1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



99 



horses three times a week, or feeding on salt hay, 

 he has lost none. 



Sprinkling hay with salt dissolved In water, or 

 salting hay too freely, is injurious, as over salting 

 diminishes the nutriment, and weakens and keeps 

 the animal too loose ; but when they have free ac- 

 cess to use or not, they are not apt to take more 

 than nature requues. 



Cutting provender, corn stalks, straw or coarse 

 hay, is a great saving. When cut, it is all eaten ; 

 there is no loss of material. A good milch cow will 

 tell her milker a good story when well supplied with 

 chopped corn stalks, or rye, or oat straw, wet and 

 well powdered with corn ground with the cob or 

 wheat, shorts, or buckwheat bran, and a little pow- 

 dered oil cake. My cows increased their milli and 

 flesh, and my sheep improved last winter, by Col. 

 Jaque's mixture, which was two bushels of turnips 

 cut fine, one bushel wheat bran, half a bushel pow- 

 dered oil cake, with seven bushels cut hay, wet with 

 ten gallons water — the mixture well stirred and in- 

 termixed, giving them as much as they would eat 

 of it thrice a day, and once a day a feed of good 

 English hay, with a tub of soft clean water to which 

 they had access as often as they chose. — Country 

 Gentleman. 



THE HORSE INFLUENZA. 



We hardly need recommend the following article, 

 from Dr. Dadd, to the close attention of our read- 

 ers. It is the result of thorough knowledge and 

 long experience, and its suggestions will be found 

 of great value. We especially hope that the clos- 

 ing paragraph will not be forgotten, but that all 

 who can exert any influence, will use it for the en- 

 couragement and extension of Veterinary Science. 



Editors of New England Farmer : — Gentle- 

 men — Your note requesting me to answer the in- 

 quiries of one of your subscribers, who seems 

 anxious to elicit information regarding the treat- 

 ment of the prevailing horse viftuenza, came to 

 hand. In reply, permit me to remark, that it 

 would be a matter of impossibility for me to give 

 the proper treatment of a disease, which, in both 

 attack and progress, assumes such a variety of 

 forms. In some cases the most consummate skill 

 has been baffled. I am informed that in the State 

 of New York, the disease has assumed a most ma- 

 lignant type, and the subjects die in the course of a 

 few hours, notwithstanding the efforts of the most 

 experienced . surgeons. 



During the past week several fatal cases have 

 occurred in this vicinity ; the cold snap of last 

 week operated very unfavorably on horses then suf- 

 fering under the primary stage of the above mala- 

 dy, and should the weather continue cold, I fear we 

 shall have to record a greater per centum of deaths 

 than heretofore. 



I have said that the disease assumes a variety of 

 forms, hence no special treatment can be adopted; 

 variations in the symptoms indicate the same as re- 

 gards treatment ; and what might be good medi- 

 cine at one stage, would be injurious at another. 



Some general ideas of the treatment, however, 

 may be gleaned from the following : — 



The disease is very prostrating, and as it pro- 

 gresses, the heart, lungs and brain become congest- 

 ed and embarrassed. The blood accumulates car- 

 bon ; the heart fails to propel, and the lungs to \i- 

 tahze the same. This state demands stimulants of 

 a character that shall excite vital action, and tend 

 t* effect chemical changes in the blood ; the most 

 valuable agent in this view is carbonate of ammo- 

 nia. In veterinary practice this agent is considered 

 as one of the most valuable diffusible stimulants ; 

 it acts first on the nerves of the stomach, and 

 through them excites the whole nervous system ; it 

 may be given in doses of from one to three 

 drachms, either in the form of bolus, or drench. 

 Its stimulating influence, over the heart and ner- 

 vous system, may be increased by the addition of 

 one or more drachms of good Jamaica ginger. 

 This treatment may be continued until congestion 

 subsides, which may be known by the fulness of 

 pulse, and heat of the external surface of the body, 

 and by other symptoms which usually attend fever 

 in its inflammatory stage. 



The exciting, or stimulating plan of treatment 

 must never be entirely abandoned ; to husband 

 the powers of the system, and thus guard against 

 subsequent prostration, must be our chief object ; 

 although the case may require a sedative to-day, 

 (in the form of camphor and white hellebore,) to- 

 morrow the symptoms, may again indicate excit- 

 ants, and thus the treatment must necessarily vary. 



Excitants, or counter-excitants, are also, at times, 

 needed externally ; if the patient has a deejj seated 

 cough, strong Uniment, composed of oil, harts- 

 horn and turpentine, (and sometimes camphor,) 

 must be applied. Often I annoint the parts with a 

 thick paste, composed of mustard and Aanegar. The 

 membranes of the fauces — throat — are excessively 

 sore, then the same course has to be pursued, at 

 the same time a mucilagenous drink, composed of 

 flaxseed, sweetened with honey, must be allowed. 

 The nervous system must also be aroused by the 

 aj^plication of the above liniment to the spinal col- 

 umn. 



At another stage of the malady, diaphoresis 

 must be excited by clothing the body with flannel, 

 and drenching with a preparation known as solu- 

 tion of acetate of ammonia, to the amount of six 

 or eight ounces per day, until the skin feels soft 

 and warm. 



In case cedema — local dropsy — of the body or 

 extremities sets in, the patient then requires diu- 

 retics ; one or two ounces of sweet spirits of nitre 

 may be given in linseed tea, until the kidneys 

 respond, and the secretion of urine becomes aug- 

 mented. The bowels are sometimes inactive, the 

 freces are clothed with mucus, and have a foetid 

 odor. I then prescribe : — 



