mVEES.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[fevers. 



according to tlie violence of the attack. The 

 horse's mouth is generally found dry and hot, 

 and he is seeu frequently to lick his lips, as if 

 he wished for some moisture. The skin is 

 found alternately hot and cold, with occasional 

 sweatings ; the bowels rumble, and are flatu- 

 lent, and he appears altogether uneasy, and 

 seems more in want of a restorative than any- 

 thing else, by v/hich means the debility and 

 fever would be carried off. 



Such is usually the first stage of fever ; but 

 it is very common for it, at this period, to sink 

 its specific character of true fever, into a local 

 attack on some particular organ, as the brain, 

 lungs, bowels, kidneys, and not unfrequently 

 the feet. Under any of these circumstances, 

 the primary character of fever is lost, and the 

 remaining febrile symptoms become secondary 

 and symptomatic. 



The preference it may have in these in- 

 stances for any one organ over another-, is not 

 easily accounted for ; but it may be connected 

 with local circumstances, particularly with 

 such as have had a tendency to produce an 

 unusual determination of blood to a part. 

 Violent and long-continued exercise will in- 

 duce a disposition to it in the lungs, from the 

 very great quantity of blood forced through 

 them during exertion. AVater, if thrown over 

 a horse when hot, is very apt, by checking 

 perspiration, to bring on a state of the bowels, 

 or of otlier viscera, predisposing them to in- 

 flammation. 



A heavy and awkward rider, travelling a 

 great distance, subjects the kidneys to such 

 injury, that they often require but little addi- 

 tional stimulus to assume inflammation. It 

 is equally notorious, that severe riding in tlie 

 enow, or the custom of washing the feet when 

 a horse is very hot, particularly in frosty 

 weather, will produce, by reaction, a determi- 

 nation of blood to these parts, with a febrile 

 irritation. The consequence of severe and 

 injudicious management, may, by translation, 

 be converted into acute founder, and such ap- 

 pears the origin of many acute founder cases. 

 The disease is then said to have settled in the 

 horse'' s feet. It remains to be noticed, that in- 

 dependent of these purely local attacks, there 

 is great reason to believe that this fever not 

 unfrequently degenerates into the catarrhal 

 epidemic ; for many cases which commence 

 204 



with a simple rigour, are often prevented from 

 proceeding further by overcoming the first 

 attack. 



Should none of these attacks occur, how- 

 ever, but, on the contrary, should this fever 

 remain, after the first stage, purely idiopathic 

 (vvliich is very seldom the case), ib is invari- 

 ably the same in any two subjects, although 

 marked by sufficient general characters to de- 

 scribe them. The pulse loses fullness, but is 

 hard, and increased in quickness. 



What we have described, may be considered 

 as constituting the principal stage of this 

 fever, to which, under favourable circum- 

 stances, there succeeds a softer and less fre- 

 quent pulse. The countenance looks more 

 lively; and although the muscular weakness 

 rather increases, the irritability lessens, tlie 

 secretions also return to their natural state? 

 the mouth feels cool and moist, and the heat 

 of the body becomes gradually natural. Slight 

 sjMuptoms of returning appetite also appear, 

 under which circumstances a resolution of the 

 fever is formed. 



Eor the treatment of simple fever, which 

 generally comes on after a journey, the groom 

 should immediately report the same the in- 

 stant the cold fit or rigour comes on ; then 

 procure two or three men to work at the 

 horse with dry straw with all their vigour, 

 whilst he, in the meantime, is preparing the 

 following drau";ht : — 



Give immediately ; and after rubbing the ani- 

 mal well, clothe him warm, give him a good 

 bed of clean straw, and bandage his legs up 

 with flannel. Should the reader have one of 

 the cordial balls, recommended in the list 

 of medicines at the end of the first section of 

 this work, take one and break it up, and dis- 

 solve it in the warm ale. If warm ale cannot 

 be immediately procured, take half-a-pint of 

 gin, and three half pints of water, to which 

 add either the ginger or the cordial ball. On. 

 the morrow give the following alterative : — 



Cape Aloes 2 drachms. 



Juniper Berries .... 1 do. 

 Form into a ball with soft soap, and sufficient 

 linseed meal. 



