INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 



301 



relief, and he will rise again to renew the same scenes, 

 until exhausted by the irritation. 



Phrenitis may he mistaken for the phrensied symptoms 

 apparent in the rabid malady : but the following observa- 

 tions will sufficiently indicate the difference between the 

 two. In the rabid phrenitis the symptoms evidently be- 

 token, not only a frantic, but a decidedly mischievous dis- 

 position, which prompts him purposely to attack every 

 thing living and dead : all around him suffers ; rack, stall, 

 and manger, are all laid prostrate. In the true staggers 

 nothing of this kind appears ; the horse is wild, and beats 

 himself about, and endangers every thing around him, but 

 not by premeditated design: on the contrary, he simply 

 labours under spasmodic contraction of his muscles, which 

 force him into violent efforts ; he rears, plunges, falls pros- 

 trate, or kicks, from mere excess of pain. 



Post-mortem examination will not unfrequently present 

 an altered structure in the cerebral mass itself. Mr. Per- 

 civall notices his having seen a remarkable yellowness of 

 the substance of the cerebellum. In some instances, par- 

 ticularly where death has early succeeded to a very violent 

 attack, the cerebral pulp has been tinted with an inflamma- 

 tory blush; the membranes, but particularly the plexus 

 choroides, have also been intensely vascular.^ In protracted 

 cases, and especially where serous effusion has taken 

 place, the whole cerebral mass has been found more pale 

 than natural, as well as soaked and tender with serosity. 

 It is remarkable that in all instances which have been 

 examined, there has been abdominal affection also. The 

 stomach either being distended with food, or violently in- 

 flamed ; the inflammation extending down the intestines. 

 Sometimes the stomach is found ruptured, and a portion of 

 its contents within the abdominal cavity. 



The cause is, in every instance, the allowance of an 

 undue quantity of food, or the too tempting quality of the 

 pasture, which induces the horse to eat too much. This 

 disease was frequent in the agricultural districts formerly, 

 but since the introduction of the nose-bag it has now be- 

 come, happily, very rare. It is now not unusual among 

 the horses which draw the London night cabs, a long absti- 

 nence in them creating an uncontrollable appetite. 



