NEW ENGLrANB FARMEffi. 



VOL. X 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agbicoltdral Warehouse.) — T. G, FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



NO. 28. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 25, 1832. 



(s©sasaw£ra>siisa(osr39 



DISEASE IN HORSES. 



Thomas G. Fessendex, Esq. — As there were many 

 opinions respecting the late epidemic which proved so fa- 

 tal to horses, I addressed a line to Dr. Peck of Foxbor- 

 ough, a gentleman of sound judgment, and an accurate 

 observer of facts, and who had lo5t a valuable horse by 

 the complaint, requesting him to give me his opinion res- 

 pecting the disease, and the proper treatment to be pur- 

 sued, and to make such remarks as he thought proper. — 

 The following is a copy of his answer. Should you think 

 it will be useful to the public, you are at liberty to give 

 it a place in that depository of useful knowledge, the New 

 England Farmer. 



Vour obd't servant, 

 jVansfield, Jan. 1832. R. GREEN. 



Foxborougli, Not. 8, 1831. 



Sir — Numerous professional duties liave delay- 

 ed a compliance with j'our request, much longer 

 than was expected, when it was received. Tlie 

 demands of friendship, and the benevolence of the 

 object forbid me to hesitate in giving you my views 

 respecting the epidemic, which has effected so 

 great a loss of property, inflicted so much suffer- 

 ing, and occasioned death in so many instances in 

 that noble race of animals, the horse. It is net, 

 however, without embarrassment and diffidence of 

 opinion created by the novelty of the subject, and 

 increased by the want of leisure, and the means lo 

 ascertain wliat is already made public in books on' 

 veterinary medicine. 



My opinions will be founded principally upon 

 the disease, as it occurred in the mare I lost in 

 September last. A concise history of this case 

 will afford you the best means of judging of their 

 correctness and prevent the necessity of introduc- 

 ing detached portions by the way of exiilanation. 



On the 7th of September my boy took her from 

 the pasture a httle before sunset and harnessed her 

 in the sulkey. While standing at the door, I ob- 

 served she slavered freely and was stupid and 

 downcast, in her appearance. I discovered that 

 she was loath to go faster than tlie walk, and al- 

 though repeatedly urged forward by the whip, 

 would shortly resume the walk. Once or twice 

 on ascending a hill, she stopped for a moment, as 

 if fatigued, or in pain, and several times in descend- 

 ing small pitches she appeared in great danger of 

 falling from the very bungling manner of using 

 her fore feet. 



She had been turned to grass lor a few weeks 

 to recover from an injury of one of her limbs, and 

 deprived of grain to wliich she had long been accus- 

 tonitd. This change in her living and want of exer- 

 cise, I thought at first might account for' her lack 

 of spirit and activity, as well as for the awkward- 

 ness of her gait. I therefore continued my ride 

 without discovering anything farther till the latter 

 part of the evening, except tliat whenever the whip 

 was appUed, a distinct interval was obvious be- 

 tween the tune it struck her and the time she per- 

 ceived the blow. When she did perceive it, the 

 effect was greater than was expected, for she start- 

 ed oft" as if surprise had been added to the usual ef- 

 fects of the lash. This singular plienomenon I 

 observed several times in the course of the evening. 



I might also mention, that checking her up appear- 

 ed to cause pain and very much retarded her mo- 

 tion. On my return home in the latter part of the 

 evening, I experienced great difficulty in keeping 

 her in the road, on account of an obstinate and 

 constant tendency to the left, that required a strong 

 effort to counteract. She could scarcely be urged 

 out of the walk, and it was perfectly evident that 

 she was laboring under some alarming disease. — ■ 

 I now made a careful examination and found the 

 wliole smface of the body cold and ti-emulous, 

 countenance dull and U.stlcsS, a leaning and step- 

 pii:g to the left, with so much appearance of gen- 

 eral weakness, as to induce the fear that she would 

 fall in the harness. With much ado I got home, 

 which was then but a short distance. She how- 

 ever grew worse very fast, and when she arrived 

 home, did not recognise her own stable. Sin was 

 now well rubbed and a gallon of blood taken from 

 the neck. While this was doing, and afterwards, 

 she often kicked violently with her left foot. About 

 11. P. M. I was called from home and did not re- 

 turn till ne.xt day about 2 P. M., when she was 

 down and incapable of rising. She was left in the 

 care of a fan-ier who had bled her again and given 

 her several cathartic medicines without effect. 

 Sh^ lay stretched out upon the floor Avith her head 

 drawn back and the muscles of the neck, abdomen, 

 anil limbs frequently convulsed. At short inter- 

 vals she would- revive, or attempt to get tip, but 

 could only get upon her hind feet, for her fore 

 legs appeared to' be completely paralyzed, fehe 

 V ould, however, make a powerful exertion to rise 

 forwards, and throw herself several feet ahead, 

 without regarding anytliing that might be in her 

 way. No material alteration took place till next 

 morning, except a gradual diminution of stremgth 

 and exertion. In the morning she commenced 

 moving her legs backwards and forwards, was gen- 

 erally convulsed and apparently in the greatest dis- 

 tress. This state of things contiimed till 9 A. M. 

 when s!ie expired. 



From the first appearance of illness, her fore 

 legs were disproportionally affected. The retina 

 retained its sensibility to the last ; it did not how- 

 ever, appear to communicate any impression to 

 the brain. 



Examination one hour after death. — The cavity 

 of the chest and abdomen were opened and each 

 visciis carefully examined : no disease was discov- 

 ered except a slight inflammation of the nmcous 

 surface of the urinary bladder, which probably re- 

 sulted from a retention of urine. 



The vessels of the brain were remarkably turgid 

 and between the pia mater and arachnoid mem- 

 brane, numerous small collections of water were 

 found in the depressions upon the surface of the brain. 

 The water in the ventricles did not not much ex- 

 ceed half a gill. The cerebellum was suiTounded 

 with water inclosed in the membranes above men- 

 tioned and the effusion was still more abundant 

 around the medulla oblongata and medulla spinalis. 

 The interior of both cerebrum and cerebellum ap- 

 peared more vascular than I supposed to be natu- 

 ral. The head was separated from the trunk by a 

 section between the second and third ceroical ver- 

 tebrte, and the extremity of the spine being made 

 dependent, water to a considerable amount gradu- 



ally dripped from h. The posterior half of the 

 processus tentoric was found completely ossified. 

 This circumstance I mention, not as having any- 

 thing to do with the disease, but as it was probably 

 a morbid deposit ; hence we learn how unimportant 

 was this affection of the animal, which, until this 

 illness had been perfectly good. 



The morbid appearances discovered on dissec- 

 tion will explain the symptoms except the inclina- 

 tion to the left, which might have been owing to 

 an imequal affection of the two hemispheres of the 

 brain. The affection of the fore legs resulted, prob- 

 ably from inflammation of tlie spine. 



Such were the symptoms and such the aiitopsic 

 appearances ; but the more difficult and the more 

 important of your inquirifls remain to be answered. 

 To .start an hypothesis oij to dictate a treatment 

 from the observations ma^e in a single case, would 

 seem a most hazardous, if not presumptuous under- 

 taking ; but from w hat I can learn of others, there 

 is a great uniformity of Nymptoms in cases that 

 have occurred in this quailter, and as it is evident- 

 ly an epidemic disease, thfre can be little doubt 

 that it exhibited its peculiar attributes, more or less 

 clearly, in all cases that occurred unmixed with 

 other compliints. If this be so, we are warranted 

 in drawing general conclusions respecting the na- 

 ture of the disease, frotn the case before us, 

 and in deducing therefrom the principal ob- 

 jects to be itept in view in the use of therapeuti<^ 

 means. 



In respect to the cause, numerous opinions are 

 in circulation Some impute this malady to the 

 watery quality of the grass arising from frequent 

 rains and heavy dews ; others to the great abund- 

 ance of it, supplying an excess of nutriment and 

 thence inducing an inflanmiatory diathesis ; while 

 others again, ascribe it to noxious plants and 

 poisonous insects eaten by the horse. The two 

 first of these although directly opposed to each 

 other, may be worthy of a passing notice. That 

 very wet and very dry seasons produce material 

 and opposite effects upon grasses, is well known 

 to every one. In very dry seasons, they contain 

 much more nutritive matter, in a given quantity, 

 than in very vet seasons. 



The past setison has abounded with rains and 

 hence the quality of grass has been inferior to thai 

 of common years. I have heard many remark 

 that horses slivered much more than common. 

 No doubt an inferior quality of food and so copi- 

 ous a salivation may very much weaken the animal 

 and prepare bis system to be acted upon with 

 greater facilitj by morbific agents. In order to 

 show that it Avas of itself competent to produce 

 the disease, it will be necessary in the first place 

 to prove that tlia disease was co-extensive with 

 this deterioration of the grass ; but this I suspect 

 will not be ]M-ctcnoed. The second is less adequate 

 than the first, unlpss it be supposed that the excess 

 in quantity be mi^rc than sufficient to counterbal- 

 ance the deficien«y in quality. But were it even so, 

 the effect must be limited to a geueral effection or 

 of the system very diftcrent from actual disease 

 and the same objection might be brought against 

 it as against the first. Great and sudden changes 

 in the temperature of the atmosphere sometimes 

 produce epidemic diseases ; but this was not only 



