STOMACH STAGGERS. 151 



scarcely any, and high-coloured ; sometimes none is voided, and 

 occasionally it is discharged by a convulsive effort. Sometimes 

 the disorder is attended with locked jaw, ending in paralysis and 

 death. In the early stage of the disorder the horse is often 

 suddenly roused by opening the stable door : he lifts up his head, 

 and sometimes neighs ; but this is only a momentary effort. 

 When the disease happens at grass, the animal is generally found 

 forcing his head against the hedge, or a gate, or moving about 

 in a state of stupor and apparent insensibility. Sometimes he 

 is found struggling in a ditch, and in that situation he often 

 dies. In the low country, in the neighbourhood of Glastonbury 

 and Wedrnoor, the disorder was very prevalent before the en- 

 closures were made, and the land drained. It generally, or 

 always, ended fatally ; but the horses lived sometimes a month 

 or two under the symptoms of the disorder, but in a less degree. 

 It is probable the disease was thus slow in its progress, from the 

 stomach not being so loaded as in the cases which commonly 

 occur. The horses generally at length fell into a ditch, and 

 died. The disorder was attributed by the proprietors of the 

 country to tlie plant named ragwort, which cattle were observed 

 to eat freely, and were said to die in consequence, in a similar 

 manner to horses. The truth, however, appears to be, that the 

 disorder was brought on by the coldness of the situation, and the 

 poor keep or very bad hay that is generally given to horses and 

 cattle in that country ; for it was observed that sheep ate 

 greedily of ragwort, and never suffered from it : but they would 

 eat the plant during the first year only of its growth, when it is 

 tender and succulent, while cattle and horses were observed to 

 eat it in the second year of its growth, when the stalks become 

 large, and of course difficult of digestion. If horses had but 

 little else to eat, and were thus compelled to eat such indigestible 

 food, the disease might have been so produced ; but the hay in 

 that country is generally bad, and the country low, open, cold, 

 and damp, and the horses and cattle of course unhealthy. 



Since the land has been drained the grass and hay have been 

 improved, and the staggers seldom occur. Some time since I 

 received a letter from a gentleman of Swansea, in which he says 

 that a disease has many times occurred among the horses that 

 work in the mines, resembling stomach staggei's, but in a more 

 violent lorm. It has been so destructive at times, that one pro- 

 pi-ietor lost more than a hundred horses by it. It uniformly 

 proved fatal ; and though it was carefully investigated, no satis- 

 factory account could be given of it.* 



* The following is a copy of the letter alluded to : — 



" Sir, — Permit me, thoiigh a stranger, to address some observations to you 

 on a disease which you have described under the name of Stomach Staggers 

 in your first volume, or Compendium of the Veterinary Art. I have never 



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