412 HYDROCEPHALUS, OR DROPSY OF THE .HEAD, 



be sufficient to check the flow ; and the same remedies 

 may be appUed in cases where violent diuretics have been 

 the cause. It will also be prudent to apply a warm strength- 

 ening charge over the region of the loins ; this we have 

 found very serviceable in the urinary fluxes in old horses. 

 If the urine be very turbid, if there is evident wasting of the 

 body and loss of appetite, giving reason to suspect much 

 derangement of the digestive and assimilating powers, try 

 the following drink every day : — 



Uva ursi, in powder four drachms. 



Oak bark, in powder one ounce. 



Catechu, in powder two drachms. 



Opium, in powder half a drachm. 



Support liberally on wheat or barley, or ground beans ; but 

 more particularly the former given in lieu of oats, or mixed 

 with the corn ; feeding with grasses, carrots, or beet, &c. 

 If this, after a sufficient trial, does not benefit, try the fol- 

 lowing night and morning, clothing the body warmly. Or 

 if the above measures produce no evident change in a day 

 or two, administer the ensuing daily, in the form of a 

 ball:— 



Iodide of potassium one drachm. 



Common mass a sufiiciency. 



CHAPTER VII. 



DISEASED COLLECTIONS OF FLUID WITHIN CIRCUMSCRIBED 



CAVITIES. 



HYDROCEPHALUS, OR DROPSY OF THE HEAD. 



Hydrocephalus internus is a rare disease in the adult horse ; 

 but it sometimes appears as a congenital affection. It 

 seems, when it does occur, to be the effect of some mor- 

 bid irritation of the brain or its membranes, terminating in 

 serous effusion within the ventricles, or between the arach- 

 noid membrane. Such irritation may be acute or chronic ; 

 it may be sufficiently violent to produce the active symp- 

 toms of mad staggers ; or it may be the consequence of only 

 a slow pouring out of the interstitial fluid, which shall 

 occasion sleepy staggers, or the megrims ; it may, how- 



