154 DISEASES OF THE HOESE. 



the disease ; but the difficulty lies in accounting for the appetite 

 which leads the animal to cram his stomach in such a manner. 



viz. bleeding (query, to wliat extent ? was It copious or otherwise?), hot baths, 

 calomel, purging medicine, salts, opium, camphor, James's powder, and assa- 

 foetida ; none of them appeared to be of service. 



Six horses that died of this distemper were examined by this gentleman. 

 " In four of them the stomach was loaded and much distended. In one the 

 stomach was nearly empty ; but the large bowels were much loaded. In the 

 sixth the large intestines were loaded, and the rectum was full of hard dung ; 

 but the stomach was not much distended with food. In all of them the lower 

 part of the stomach was more or less inflamed ; and in some the intestines 

 also, as well as the membrane which covers them, and by which they are 

 connected together." 



From the foregoing observations, it is evident that the Swansea distemper 

 is the stomach staggers in a more severe form than I have generally seen it ; 

 and this probably depended on the horses being kept in good condition and 

 full of blood. It seems to have occurred most connnf)nly at grass, when the 

 pasture was abundant and very nutritious : for though in one year, 1800, the 

 summer was remarkably dry, yet in meadows that had been well watered, the 

 little grass there was, or even the roots, were exceedingly nutritious, which is 

 evident from horses getting so fat as they are found to do in such pastures, 

 and at such seasons. 



In 1786, the first time any accurate account has been kept of this occur- 

 rence, though the disease had been traced back to the year 1760, the sum- 

 mer was wet, and it then began in June, and continued during July, August, 

 and September. In 1787 it began in July, and continued during August, 

 September, and great part of October. In this year the spring was wet, but 

 the summer warm, and there was a very luxuriant crop of after-grass. In 

 1800, the summer was unusually dry and hot; great crops of hay, but no 

 after-grass. 



It should be observed, that "animals at grass, in high condition, and at easy 

 or no work, appear to be most subject to it, and to have it ivith more violence ; " 

 that "it generally rages between July and the end of September ;" and that 

 " the cold weather has generally stopped it." The same writer says also, in 

 another letter, " I have mentioned our horses being attacked the year follow- 

 ing our neighbour's great loss, and when they were iVee from it: now most of 

 our horses were purposely kept in the stable, and I have some idea they were 

 fed upon hay of the same year that our neighbour's horses were fed upon the 

 preceding year : could this be ascertained, it might lead to a discovery of the 

 real caiise of the distemper." I perfectly agree with my intelligent corre- 

 spondent in this opinion; and if the hay was made in the tine dry summer of 

 1800, when the crojis are stated to have been so luxuriant, the cavise appears 

 to me very evident. With regard to the opinion of its being contagious, it 

 is not so easy to determine; but it is always advisable on such occasions to 

 act as if it really were so. The conclusion of the gentleman's letter is suffi- 

 cient to show the propriety of this advice. " When I began to fear conta- 

 gion," he says, " every horse that died of the distemper was buried without 

 being skinned, and we have had no return these five years." 



Whether the poison which produces this disease be contagious effluvia, or 

 arises from luxurious feeding, it is evident from dissection that the stomach 

 was the injured organ ; and that if, by the unusual strength of the stomach, 

 or by the medicine which was given, the load was removed from that f)rgan, 

 the great bowels were found loaded ; " and sometimes there was a little re- 

 pletion in the vessels of the Ijrain." One was relieved (recovered) by pro- 

 fuse bleeding. Now, though bleeding is mentioned as one of the remedies 

 employed, it is not said in what manner they were bled — probably it was in 



