DISEASES OF THE GLANDS. 125 



Another method was to drive a chisel through tne frontal 

 hone, just below the region of the brain, and let the accumu- 

 lation of purulent fluid run out. This sometimes succeeded, 

 and from two to three pints of yellow and quite offensive 

 water were thus discharged. But, although sometimes suc- 

 cessful, this operation was attended with great danger. The 

 shock of bursting the skull-bone killed the horse oftener 

 than the treatment gaved him. 



Boring with a gimlet was tried as a substitute for the 

 chisel, but this, likewise, proved extremely hazardous. The 

 wedge-like action of the gimlet commonly split the skull 

 'and killed the horse. 



One great difficulty in treating the staggers was found to be 

 the horse's extreme restlessness, amounting frequently to per- 

 fect frenzy. This was much aggravated by the harshness of 

 these processes. It was generally impossible to operate upon 

 the animal without throwing him to the ground. The fall, 

 and his subsequent struggliugs, sometimes killed him. Even 

 in those stages of the disorder in which he was drooping, and 

 perfectly still when unmolested, as soon as touched he grew 

 perfectly excited, or even furious. 



- The practice of these different methods proves clearly 

 enough that the people generally understood that the dis- 

 eased water from the eyes had somehow accumulated within 

 the head, and was the cause of the mischief, and that, if it 

 could be drawn off in time, the horse might be saved. With 

 this idea was connected the belief, as already stated, that the 

 worm-eaten corn was in some way — they hardly knew how — 

 instrumental in developing the disorder. 



PREVENTIVES. 



"An ounce of prevention," s-ays the old proverb, "is worth 

 a pound of cure." This is emphatically true in regard to 

 the staggers. 



Horses and colts that run constantly in pasture are not 

 troubled with the disease. Let the stable-fed horse have a 

 diet from which corn is excluded, and he will be almost 



