102 CONGESTION. 



animal would die ; as it is, they try to leave just enough to 

 keep up a low form of vitality. Most authors agree that in 

 "megrims, mad staggers, stomach staggers, apoplexy, and 

 congestions, there is a determination of blood to the head, 

 and may be produced by causes that mechanically impede, 

 or obstruct, the flow of blood." Then they should be re- 

 moved by regulating the unequal distribution. If a horse 

 has too much blood in the head, he will have too little in the 

 tail and extremities. The difference of symptoms in the 

 derangements just enumerated, differ only according to the 

 state of the organs, and the manner in which the blood is 

 thrown on the brain, and retained there. There is no real 

 difference in the nature of the malady. The same indications 

 of cure are to be fulfilled that we have just laid down, viz., 

 to relax the whole horse, and remove obstructions from the 

 alimentary canal and external surface. 



Dr. Marshall Hall says, " Physical impediments to the 

 return of blood by the veins will cause congestion." These 

 impediments consist in any thing that weakens the force of 

 the circulation, as bloodletting, narcotizing, calomelizing, 

 &c., as practised by the disciples of Saiubel. Few cases of 

 disease occur without the parentage of some of these Sam- 

 sons of the regular school. The veins, having but little 

 forcing power at their base (like the arteries) to propel the 

 blood back to the heart, are the first to feel the impediments 

 and compel the blood to accumulate ; hence congestions. 



Professor Coleman considers that this disorder takes its rise 

 from over-distention of the stomach. He was once consulted 

 about some horses, among whom there had been a strange 

 mortality ; and he found that they were in the habit of con- 

 tinuing at work for ten hours together, during the day, and 

 on their return home at night were abundantly supplied with 

 food. The professor soon discovered the source of the evil, 

 and ordered, for the future, that the horses should be fed in 

 the middle of the day also, by means of nose-bags ; which 

 salutary practice put flight to the epizootic. Now, this is 



