108 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Oct. 19, 1831. 



Coinmunications. 



EPIDEMIC IN HORSES. 



I'l.vmouth, Sept. 23, 1831. 

 T. G. Fessenden, Esq. 



Dear Sir — Having no opportunity to investigate 

 the subject of the epidemic among horses, of which you 

 desired me to give you an account, I addressed a letter 

 to Dr Arad Thompson of Middlcborough, to obtain 

 the information you requested, and he has favored me 

 with the inclosed reply. 



I am, your iiumble servant, 



James Thacher. 

 MidJIebiiro', Sepl. 26, 1631. 



Sir, — Yours of the 19th iust. asking information 

 of the number of horses that liave died (lately) 

 in this town, tlie nature and cause of the disease, 

 the remedies, the appearances on dissection, &c, 

 was received ou tlie 22d of the same. Permit me 

 to premise that I am unacquainted with the ana- 

 tomy of the horse, know nothing of the pulse in 

 health or disease, and have never reail a treati.se 

 on their diseases. It will be uiiiKicessary for ine 

 after this acknowledgment to say that I am in 

 uo measure qualified, to write on thee|>idcmic for 

 the instruction of the public. In the few uncon- 

 nected facts and remarks that I may make 1 shall 

 not make any attempt at veterinary style. If I 

 can |)rescnt any facts or give any information, that 

 will aid you in your reply to tlic Eilitcu- of tlie 

 New England I'^armer, I shall be highly gratified. 

 The disease commenced about the tirst of August 

 last. The nunibt^r, as near as I can ascertain, 

 that have died may be estimated at 75. Fifty of 

 this number may have died in the llrst tiiree weeks. 

 After that the cases became less frequent. No 

 case has occurred that has come to my knovvledg'e 

 since last Monday, when one case after a shoit 

 sickness proved fatal. 



The number that have had the disease in a 

 greater or less degree and recovered, may be es- 

 timated at 25. All ages from the sucking colt 

 and upward have been equally subject to it and 

 to its fatal effects. The duration of it was va- 

 rious. Some cases jiroveil fatal within 12 hours 

 after the indisposition was discovered, while 

 others continued 4 days before the fatal termina- 

 tion. 



Those that recovered generally improved be- 

 fore the third day. 



I know some that recovered and have regained 

 their health that were reduced very low, while 

 others that lived through the severity of the ills- 

 ease, continued in a very ])oor and weak condi- 

 tion, and either died by e.\haustion (the disease, 

 probably continuing in a chronic form) or killed 

 because their recovery to usefulness was deemed 

 hopeless. 



When the horse was first obsei-ved to be indis- 

 posed, be was dull and moping, the eye dull and 

 heavy, ceased to cat, inattentive to surrounding 

 objects, inaptitude to motion, when driven or mov- 

 ing voluntarily disposed to gyrate in a greater or 

 less circle. The same horse when driven or led 

 by the bridle would continually incline to the 

 right or left and the same horse always the same 

 way. They all had an expression of sutTer- 

 ing, pain, or uneasy sensation. Some frequently 

 putting the nose to the side. Some, when first 

 discovered to be sick, were down on the side .and 

 unable after to remain on the feet. All, as the 

 disease progressed, remained down, and occasion- 

 ally making, (or having spasmodically) violent mo- 



tions with the legs, and some became, perhaps 24 

 hours before death, apparently wholly insensible 

 to surrounding objects, some sooner or later deli- 

 rious, while others seemed to possess all the op- 

 erations of instinct until tlieir last moments. The 

 bowels in no case within the result of my inquiry 

 presented indications, by the discharges or bloat- 

 ing, that they were diseased. 



We might enter into speculations on the cold win- 

 ter, the wet and hot summer, in talking of the re- 

 mote cause. 



Some peculiar state of the grass, may with 

 much plausibility be ranked as a remote cause of 

 the disease, for there lias been no case in this town 

 where the horse had been fed on dry hay &c. 



It is a well established fact, that almost every 

 horse, where the condition of the system was as- 

 certained by the detraction of blood, that fed on 

 grass, labored under a very inflammatory diathesis; 

 because the blood of all, with very few excep- 

 tions, bore indubitable evidence of such diathesis. 

 The disease in my opinion is a local inflammation 

 of a very high grade. 



From what I have heard of the examinations 

 after death of others, and seen myself, I am of 

 the opinion, that the stomach is the part much the 

 most frequently primarily attacked. Popular 

 opinion, both in tliis and former epidemics, loca- 

 ted the disease wholly in the head. It has been 

 denominated the Blind Staggers. Many perhaps 

 drew the inference from the name that the horse 

 was blind. I saw several charged with blindness 

 which on examination, proved not to be blind. I 

 believe that blindness is not a distinguishing mark 

 of the disease. I believe it takes place in no case 

 until the very last stages of some fatal cases. 



I have seen but two examined after death. 

 The first was n horse 20 years of age, had been 

 sick three day.s, had the throat ciit, being in arli- 

 culo mortis, immediately before the examination 

 both lobes of the brain presented equal traces of 

 inflaminution. The minute arteries were injured, 

 giving to the whole surface a very faint reddish tint. 

 No adhesion appeared on its removal. On one ofthe 

 lungs a stirface five by three inches showe<l miirks 

 of (nflammation. The maw was filled with grass 

 liartly digested, and coar.se Indian meal undiges- 

 ted which had been eaten the day before the attGck. 

 The meal was two <]uarts. One half of the stomveh 

 appeared in a healthy state. The other half instead 

 of (jresenling the natural rugae showed a smooth 

 surface of a very dark pink color, inclining to 

 chocolate. The intestines had a healthy appear- 

 ance, excepting where they came in contact with 

 the inflamed maw. The other viscera of the ab- 

 domen showed no marks of having been inflamed 

 or diseased. 



The other examination was of a horse 8 years 

 old and had been sick nearly 4 days, and in a si'iii- 

 lar state of the other was bled to death. The braiu 

 presented the same appearance (with a less 

 degree of inflammation) with the foregoing case. 

 The lungs showed no evidence of having been in- 

 flamed. They had a few small spots of dark ex- 

 travasated blood near the surface. The perito- 

 neum exhibited no trace of disease. The inside 

 of the stomach presented a smooth surface or 

 wholly deprived of all tlie rugae and covered by 

 a whitish, tenacious, mucous and pus like mat- 

 ter. On the removal of this, the mucous mem- 

 brane was ulcerated in numerous small spots ; and 

 between the ulcerations, the mucous coat had a 

 strong pink tint, and the small arteries evidently 



injured, the other viscera showed uo marks of hav- 

 ing been diseased. 



At the commencement of the epidemic, popular 

 opinion making the head the sole part diseased, 

 the practice was directed to that part, as steaming 

 the head, filling the ears with various substances, 

 and throwing into the stomach as many different 

 articles and mi.xtures as the different individuals 

 who advised them could imagine. The practice 

 was wholly empirical. 



It should be observed that the horse was bled 

 two or at most three quarts. After the natme of 

 the disease was supposed to be better understood, 

 and the quantity of blood that the horse in inflam- 

 mation required to lose, the detraction of blocil 

 became the principal remedy with the exhibition of 

 some mild cathartic, as Suits or Oil. 



Let it be admitted that the disease is one of a 

 high grade of inflammation ; to the physician the 

 method of cure would be readily suggested. The 

 practice would be sanguinary. Blood would be 

 drawn, not by quarts, but by gallon upon gallon. In 

 the early stages from three to four gallons should be 

 drawn ; if it is borne without fainting, the oper- 

 ation should be repeated according to the severity 

 of the case, in 8, 12, or 18 hours. But admitting the 

 stomach the part inflamed, and highly, and compar- 

 ing it with that of man, in the same condition, great 

 confidence of a complete removal of the inflam- 

 mation cannot be |)laced in large detractions of 

 blood from the large vessels alone. The stom- 

 ach in man, is in some measure, so isolated from 

 the vessels of the limbs &c, (or not to speculate,) 

 when inflamed is not so readily cured, by large 

 bleedings, as the lungs, for instance. In this case 

 then, local detractions of blood, and local appli- 

 cations, over the part affected, as epispostis after 

 removing the hair, might be beneficial. The same 

 remarks would I think apply to the bowels when 

 inflamed. Admitting also that the mucous mem- , 

 brane, of the stomach or bowels, or both are iu- 

 flatned, the judicious physician would not pre- 

 scribe drastic cathartics. He would carefully 

 avoid throwing upon an irritated or an inflamed 

 surface of these organs an irritating substance. If 

 laxatives are required they shoulii be ofthe mild- 

 est kinds, mild mucilaginous liquids might he 

 thrown into the stonuich with advantage. But in case 

 the disease has attacked other organs, as the brain, 

 lungs, liver, plura or peritoneum, &c, and the 

 mucous membrane, free, ilrastic cathartics might 

 be exhibited with advantage. Before I made my 

 examinations some unacquainted with the appear- 

 ance of the organs in a diseased condition, made 

 partial examinations, as ofthe head and thorax only, 

 and gave very unsatisfactory accounts of the 

 cause. The mucous membrane of the stomach, 

 Sfc, had not been examined. After my examina- 

 tions others were made ofthe stomach, bowels, &.c, 

 and reported to exhibit the same appearance of 

 the internal coats of the stomach as I have reported 

 mine to present. The ajipearance of the stomach, 

 in those cases that I examined, when compared 

 with the state of the other organs, carried strong 

 conviction to my mind that in these cases, this 

 organ was primarily affected ; and that this affec- 

 tion was inflammation of a high grade : in the 

 first case wholly suspending all secretion and in 

 the second, resulting in ulceration, &c. The state 

 of the head in man in many fevers, where the 

 mucous membrane of the stomach is inflamed 

 might easily admit the inference to be drawn, in 

 both cases, that the inflammation of the brain was 



