278 INFLUENZA OR CATARRHAL FEVER IN HORSES, 



With regard to its cause, it is more honest to confess our 

 ignorance, than to talk largely about atmospheric influence, 

 of which we know nothing : though excessive fatigue, par- 

 ticularly on young horses, and more so during a variable 

 spring, when heat and cold, drought and moisture, quickly 

 alternate, may have something to do in generating the dis- 

 order. It is decidedly epidemic in its nature ; is more fre- 

 quently encountered in spring than in autumn ; more often 

 in autumn than in summer ; and in winter more rarely than 

 in either of the other quarters of the year. 



The influenza or distemper, as it is occasionally called, 

 is singularly prevalent in some seasons ; and although 

 it exhibits general characters in common, yet the epi- 

 demic of one year will be marked with some particular 

 symptoms wdiich will not appear in the epidemic of the 

 next. Horses of large cities and crowded towns are more 

 obnoxious to it than those of the country ; and in the 

 country, those are most liable to be attacked which are 

 most confined. It has been disputed, whether it be con- 

 tagious or not, and both thd negative and affirmative 

 may be maintained with some show of reason. In some 

 seasons it exhibits little or no contagious characters ; in 

 others it is apparently infectious, particularly among young 

 horses. 



It is of great consequence to distinguish this complaint 

 from pneumonia or inflammation of the lungs; for, if bleed- 

 ing and other parts of the depletive system, which are 

 usual in pneumonia, be carried too far in this, the conse- 

 quences nearly always are dropsy of the chest. To an 

 attentive observer even, such a mistake is likely to hap- 

 pen ; even the defluxion from the nose, and its tendency 

 to become purulent, is exhibited too late to prevent the 

 mischief; the tenderness and swelling of the submaxillary 

 glands, with the early prostration of strength which gene- 

 rally accompanies the disorder, rarely sufficiently early 

 characterize influenza ; the pulse is by no means to be 

 depended upon ; and although often small and frequent, yet 

 it often has the wiry, oppressed, and indistinct feel usual in 

 pneumonia. 



Catarrhal symptoms. — The disease occasionally com- 

 mences with a rigor, or shivering fit, which is frequently 



