DISEASES OF THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 247 



the difficulty, but this is more than the owner ever has any 

 right to calculate upon. 



APOPLEXY. 



Apoplexy is caused by the pressure of blood upon the 

 brain, and is common in the human subject. It is rarely 

 recognized in the veterinary practice of the farmer, and he 

 would probably be surprised to know, how many horses die 

 of it yearly. The animal's death is usually attributed to some 

 other disease, and the treatment pursued, being in accordance 

 with the erroneous diagnosis, in nine cases out of ten, aids 

 materially in hastening a fatal result. Perhaps nearly one 

 fourth of those severe attacks of disease which go among the 

 masses by the name of hots, is really apoplexy ; and we ven- 

 ture the opinion that in the I^Torthern States, as well as in 

 Europe and other grass-growing countries, the'disorder w^hich 

 the schools, the veterinary practitioner, and the farmer all 

 alike call staggers is, in a very large majority of instances, no 

 other than the same disease. As we have elsewhere stated, 

 that awful scourge of the Southern States, blind staggers, 

 is not known north of about the latitude of thirty-six. 



Apoplexy does not often attack any other than the horse in 

 very plethoric condition. Sometimes it may result from 

 other diseases ; and the animal which has been greatly over- 

 tasked and reduced in flesh, and then kept for a time with 

 nothing to do, and an abundance of high feed, will undoubt- 

 edly be a proper subject for it. Young colts, while teething, 

 are rather apt to be troubled with it also. But, after all, 

 plethora, with its usual accompaniments of high feeding and 

 limited exercise, constitutes by far the most frequent cause 

 of apoplexy. 



Happily, notions now prevail very diflerent from those 

 which fonnerly obtained, in relation to the condition of flesh 

 most conducive to the horse's beauty, utility, and health. It 

 is not now esteemed desirable that the animal should be made 

 fat enough for the butcher, nor that it is even safe to keep 

 him housed up nearly all the time without exercise. 



