DISEASES OF THE BHAIN AND NEKVOUS SYSTEM. 63 



in fact, tlmt happens to oppose him, and in this posture paws with 

 his fore-feet, or performs the same action with them as he would 

 rt'cre ho trotting, evidently all the while unconscious of what he ia 

 alout. His eye, which at first was full of drowsiness, has now 

 acquired a wild, unmeaning stare, or has already hecouie dilated 

 and insensible to light. The respiration is tardy and oppressed ; 

 the pulse slow and sluggish ; the excretions commonly diminL^hed. 

 The late Professor Coleman used to relate a circumstance, in 

 Lis lectures, connected with this disease, which throws considerable 

 light on its origin. The artillery horses stationed in London dur- 

 ing the winter of 1817 suffered very considerably from stomach 

 staggers ; so much so that it was considered to be endemical, and 

 of an infectious character. With his usual jienetration, he soon 

 •liscovered the cause, and found that, from some new regulations 

 ubout that time, the stablemen were not allowed any candles, and 

 during the winter the horses were bedded up at five o'clock in the 

 •.'vening, and not fed again until eight o'clock on the following 

 raorning, w^hen they consumed their breakfast voraciously, gorging 

 iheir stomach, not to the degree likely to produce acute indiges- 

 lion, but sufficiently distending them as to oppress the blood-vessela 

 »nd the circulation through them. This j)ractice, continued day 

 jfter day, caused a sjjecijic inflammation of the stomach — an inflam- 

 luation of a peculiar character, differing from gastritis or inflam- 



• nation of the part. The symptoms produced were regarded aa 



• esulting from the sym])athetic connection between the stomach 

 ».nd the brain, united to the effects that would arise from the daily 

 distension, throwing a vast quantity of blood on the brain. Aa 

 iirder was obtained for candles for the use of the stablemen, whi(.h 

 enabled thi horses to be fed at a later hour in the evening, and an 

 earlier one in the morning, when the disease disappeared. 



A common error still prevails, in many districts, that staggers is 

 a contagious disease ; but should the horses on a farm be attacks] 

 occasionally with slight fits of this kind, the farmer may rest 

 tasured that there is mismanagement somewhere in the feeding 

 department. 



From isuch evidence as this, it will be inferred that there exists 

 tto doubt regarding the cause of stomach staggers. 



Treatmini. — We now propose to siiow how this disease ought to 

 be treated. The proposition of cure is, that the digestive function 

 shall be iroused^ and the only way to accomplish that is by adn)in- 



