274 IXFLUEXZA. 



thickened and nearly closed, tlie eyes supercharged with fluid, and the 

 eyelids pufl'ed out and completely closed — the sore throat always more 

 or less present, but only as a secondary symptom ; and in this distressing 

 form we occasionally meet with it still. 



The most decided character in this disease is debility. Not the stiff, 

 unwilling motion of the horse with pneumonia, and which has been 

 mistaken for debility — every muscle being needed for the purposes of 

 respiration, and therefore imperfectly used in locomotion — but actual loss 

 of power of the muscular system generally. The horse staggers Jfrom the 

 second day. He threatens to fall if he is moved. He is sometimes down, 

 permanently down, on the third or fourth day. The emaciation is also 

 occasionally rapid and extreme. 



At length the medical treatment which has been employed succeeds, or 

 nature begins to rally. The cough somewhat subsides ; the pulse assumes 

 a more natural standard; the countenance acquires a little more animation; 

 the horse will eat a small quantity of some choice thing ; and health and 

 strength slowly, very slowly indeed, return : but at other times, when 

 there has been no decided change during the progress of the disease, a 

 strange exacerbation of symptoms accompanies the closing scene. The 

 extremities become deathly cold ; the flanks heave ; the countenance betrays 

 greater distress ; the membrane of the nose is of an intense red ; and 

 inflammation of the substance of the lungs, and congestion and death, 

 speedily follow. 



At other times the redness of the nostril suddenly disappears : it becomes 

 purple, livid, dirty brown, and the discharge is bloody and foetid, the 

 breath and all the excretions becoming foetid too. The mild character of 

 the disease gives way to malignant typhus : swellings, and purulent ulcers, 

 spread over different parts of the frame, and the animal is soon destroyed. 



Post-mortem Examination. — Examination after death sufficiently displays 

 the real character of the disease, — inflammation first of the respiratory 

 passages, and, in fatal or aggravated cases, of the mucous membranes 

 generally. From the pharynx to the termination of the small intestines, 

 and often including even the larger ones, there will not be a part free 

 from inflammation ; the upper part of the trachea will be filled with 

 adhesive spume, and the lining membrane thickened, injected, or ulcerated; 

 the lining tunic of the bronchi will exliibit unequivocal marks of inflam- 

 mation ; the substance of the lungs will be engorged, and often inflamed ; 

 the heart will partake of the same affection ; its external coat will be red, 

 or purple, or black, and its internal one will exhibit spots of ecchyraosis ; 

 the pericardium will be thickened, and the pericardiac and pleuritic 

 bags will contain an undue quantity of serous, or bloody-serous, or 

 semi-purulent fluid. 



The oesophagus will be inflamed, sometimes ulcerated — the stomach 

 frequently so ; the small intestines will uniformly present patches of 

 inflammation or ulceration. The liver will be inflamed — the spleen 

 enlarged — no part, indeed, will have escaped ; and if the malady has 

 assumed a typhoid form in its latter stages, the universality and malig- 

 nancy of the ulceration will be excessive. 



This disease is clearly attributable to atmospheric influence, but of the 

 precise nature of this influence we are altogether ignorant. It is some 

 foreio-n injurious principle which mingles with and contaminates the air, 

 but whence this poison is derived, or how it is diffused, we know not. It is 

 engendered, or it is most prevalent, in cold ungenial weather ; or this 

 weather may dispose the patient for catarrh, or prepare the tissues to be 

 affected by causes which would otherwise be hai-mless, or which may at 

 all times exist. 



