266 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov. 



of it. I shall only refer to a few cases, under 

 my own care. In one very bad case, where I 

 judged that the mucous membrane of the lungs 

 was affected, 1 bled very freely, and the blood 

 drawn was in a highly inflammatory condition, 

 as indicated by the buff coat. Gave saline ca- 

 thartics, with antimony. The latter was contin- 



Epidemic among Horses. 



[The following article, written by one of our corres- 

 pondents, we copy from the Boston Medical and Surgical 

 Journal. — Ed.] 



In this section (the western part of Ontario 

 and eastern part of Livingston counties, N. Y.,) 



there is at present prevailing an epidemic among ued for a number of days in small doses. This 

 horses; an account of which I have thought treatment was successful. In another, where 

 might be of interest to some of the readers of j there was a congestion of the liver, calomel 

 your valuable journal. with antimony was exhibited, and the latter con- 



During the past winter and spring an epidem- tinned until the highly injected state of the mu- 

 ic erysipelas has been prevailing, and still pre- cous tissue of the nares had subsided. In very 

 vails, among the human species ; and some time 'mild cases, a warm stable, short diet, and nitre 

 in March it was first observed, by the writer of and antimony in the water drank, were sufficient 

 this article, that many of the horses he met on ' In cases of swollen glands a liniment of sweet 

 the road were frequently snorting and oftentimes oil, six ounces; oil vitriol, two ounces; spirits 

 coughing; and this, too, when the condition of turpentine, eight ounces ; was used for discuss- 

 the animal would not lead one to infer it wasjing the tumors. The heroic remedy, as in all 



cases of inflammation of the horse, was bleeding. 

 Not one horse has died where this was used 

 promptly and decidedly. 



It is a point of interest to the philosophical 

 pathologist, how far the epidemics of the "lords 

 of creation" extend to the inferior orders of ani- 

 mals. In the epidemic just described, no one 

 who has seen the epidemic prevailing among 

 the human species, will at all doubt that there is 



with the glanders, colt distemper, or 

 even a common cold. The latter part of April 

 my own favorite horse commenced snorting — a 

 short, rough, spiteful, irritated snort — as if some 

 insect, or offensive particle of dust, was highly 

 irritating the nares, and he was endeavoring, 

 partly in anger, to dislodge it from the mucous 

 membrane. It increased, and in a few days I 

 was led to make a careful examination of his 



morbid mucous membranes, and compare his an " identity of unity" in the two. I have in 



case with some eighty or a hundred others 



Diagnosis. — The mucous membrane of the 

 nares bright red, like scarlet, with numerous 

 minute, dark-red points. The blood vessels 



remembrance an epidemic bilious pneumonia, 

 which prevailed in my ride in the winter and 

 spring of 1813, which extended to horses, and 

 destroyed twelve in my own neighborhood. My 



highly injected. In slight cases, thin ichorous! beautiful horse died of gangrene. In the epi 



matter covered the whole membrane, and in 

 snorting was blown out, in a shower of fine mist, 

 perhaps full in the face of the examiner. In bad 

 cases, patches of aphthae, or ulcerations, could 

 be seen, with pus trickling down from the high- 

 er portion of the nares. At the angles of the 

 jaws, the cervical glands swollen and enlarged, 

 and sometimes indurated. The tongue pale, 

 cold, and smooth. Appetite poor, or very vari- 

 able. Pulse 60 to 95, hard, wiry, and demand- 

 ing venesection. Ears cold, also heels and 

 ankles. Eyes heavy and sunken. In bad cases, 

 the pulse would be full and hard, the hair rough 

 and staring, and the mane and tail easily starting 

 from the root. The glands of the neck very 

 much enlarged. A short, frequent, and uneasy 

 cough, with scanty expectoration, or discharge 

 from the nose. In almost all of these cases, 

 death was the finale ; oftentimes very speedy, 

 from exposure to damp atmosphere or a change 

 of temperature. I presume, within the circle of 

 a few towns, I have heard of more than thirty 

 deaths. Ten were out of one lot of western 

 horses. There were no symptoms of its being 

 contagious — at least I know of none. 



Treatment. — " Horse doctoring," as usually 

 practised, is so much like quackery, if not es- 

 sential quackery, that one is hardly free to speak 



demic fevers of 1838, of the western country, 

 hogs and dogs, as well as horned cattle and 

 horses, were affected, not only with the fevers, 

 but the sequelse of them, in diseased livers, en- 

 larged spleens, dropsies, marasmus, and broken- 

 down constitutions. Equus. 

 E. Bloomfield, N. Y., July, 1847. 



A Life Preserver for Thrashers. — Tear 

 a piece off the finest sponge, enough to cover the 

 mouth and nostrails, hollow it out so as to fit 

 closely ; tack a tape string around the outside, 

 long enough to tie over the top of the head ; 

 soak the sponge in soft water and squeeze the 

 water out with the hand, and when ready to com- 

 mence work, tie it on tightly and evenly, so as 

 to cover the mouth and nostrails completely. 

 You can breathe and talk through the sponge al- 

 most as freely as without it — and you can thrash 

 where the dust from the machine rises like a 

 dense fog around the head, and the lungs will be 

 as free from harm as if you were hoeing corn. 

 I have thrashed with a machine for the past four 

 years, and always suffered much from the dust 

 inhaled into the lungs, until last year, when I 

 tried the sponge ; and I can truly say it has been 

 a life pn^server to me. — Correspondent of Ohio 

 Cultivator. 



