FETEES.] 



THE HORSE, AND 



[feteus. 



Remove all internal obstructions ; and by a 

 proper and judicious administration of medi- 

 cines, calculated to subdue the original cause, 

 all dependent symptoms will certainly subside. 

 Eor tliis purpose administer emollient clysters, 

 after having back-raked the horse, so that easy 

 evacuations may be promoted, and give 



Digitalis . . , from H to 2 drachms 

 Aloes, Cape .... 1 do. 

 Make into a ball, with soft soap. 



Administer one every morning, which will 

 lower the action of the heart and arteries, and 

 entirely remove their inflammatory action : or 

 give the saline draught, as prescribed. (See List 

 of Medici7ies). Give nitre, about an ounce in 

 the horse's water every night ; feed with bran 

 mashes, or green food, if it can be provided 

 fresh ; if not, a few sliced carrots mixed with 

 his mash, and a handful of oats, will entice him 

 to eat, and prevent that considerable debility 

 which frequently arises from symptomatic 

 fever. Have his legs well rubbed, and mode- 

 rately clothed, and let him be well littered 

 down with clean dry straw. 



CATARRH, OR COMMON COLD. 



Catarrh, or common, cold, is one of the most 

 frequent attacks of fever to which the horse is 

 subject. Cold, indeed, is an indefinite name 

 for catarrh, which consists in an inflammation 

 of the rima glottis, or top of the windpipe, 

 which is covered with a highly sensitive mem- 

 brane, even more sensitive than the nerve 

 itself. 



This is the seat of catarrh and cough ; and 

 when it is affected, the horse is said to have 

 caught cold. This expression, however, is apt 

 to mislead from the true nature of the real 

 cause ; for this cold defines no particular de- 

 gree in which it has been caught. The truth 

 is, it is the change from one degree of tem- 

 perature to another, the warm air acting as a 

 stimulus, and the cold as a sedative ; and thus 

 people, without reflection, attribute the attack 

 to catching cold. Horses are necessarily ex- 

 posed to these variations of temperature many 

 times a day ; and this is demonstrated par- 

 ticularly in man, without going to individual 

 cases, but to numbers ; for, in removing a 

 whole regiment from comfortable barracks to 

 open camp, cold operates, but no catarrh ; but 

 on again returning to barracks, which pro- 

 268 



duces the effect of high temperature, catarrh 

 becomes common ; and it is a known fact, 

 tliat deaths are never so few as in the open 

 field. 



Horses that are kept in the open field in 

 winter, are not attacked with catarrh, inflamed 

 lungs, grease, &c. ; but when brought into the 

 stable, catarrb immediately makes its appear- 

 ance. This sudden change cannot be referred 

 to simple heat, but to a poisoned atmosphere, 

 which is generated in stables, breathed many 

 times over ; nature not having intended 

 animals to breathe the same air a second time. 

 The closer we adhere to her laws, the less pro- 

 bability is there of disease. 



Horses will certainly lose flesb by being 

 kept in cold fields ; for animal oil wants a cer- 

 tain temperature for its increase. Horse- 

 dealers are well aware of this in preparing 

 their animals for sale. By these facts, dif- 

 ferent changes are proved ; hence badly-con- 

 structed stables, and contaminated air, are the 

 veterinary surgeon's best friends. 



Thus, then, taking cold is, properly speak- 

 ing, taking heat, the disease being of an in- 

 flammatory nature. 



Catarrh being proved to be an inflammation, 

 originating in congestion, cold cannot possibly 

 produce this, but the direct contrary. This 

 may be proved by bringing a frozen animal to 

 the fire, by which means you excite inflamma- 

 tion, and destroy him ; but if you rub him 

 with snow, he revives, because the snow, with 

 friction, is warmer than the body, and becomes 

 of a sufficient degree of heat. But the idea 

 that cold produces catarrh, arises from its 

 existing mostly in cold weather ; but what the 

 cold does is this — it renders the parts more sus- 

 ceptible of heat. Persons may ask, why aro 

 the cartilages of the windpipe more particu- 

 larly affected ? The» answer is, that they have 

 been made thus sensitive as a kind of safe- 

 guard to the lungs ; and when we consider 

 that, in bringing horses into stables, it is from 

 cold to heat, and from a pure to an impure 

 atmosphere — this being more than a simple 

 change — the question then arises, how are we 

 to prevent it ? We must acknowledge that 

 all animals fatten sooner in a warm tempera- 

 ture than in one of the reverse ; but then the 

 change must be gradual, being mindful that 

 the air all this time should be pure ; for the 



