HORSE. 



stant gazing at the flank, and an un- 

 willingness to move. A successful 

 treatment of such a case can be found- 

 ed only on the most prompt, and fear- 

 less, and decisive measures. The 

 lancet must be freely used ; counter- 

 irritants must follow as soon as the 

 violence of the disease is in the slight- j 

 est degree abated ; sedatives must 

 succeed to them, and fortunate will 

 he be who often saves his patient af- 

 ter all the decisive symptoms of pneu- 

 monia are once developed. 



'•Amongthe consequences of these 

 severe affections of the lungs are 

 chronic cough, not always much in- 

 terfering with the usefulness of the 

 horse, but strangely aggravated at 

 times by any fresh accession of ca- 

 tarrh, and too often degenerating into 

 thick wind, which always materially 

 interferes with the speed of the horse, 

 and in a great proportion of cases 

 terminates in broken wind. It is 

 rare, indeed, that either of these dis- 

 eases admits of cure, nor does that 

 obstruction in some part of the re- 

 spiratory canal, and varying in al- 

 most every horse, which produces 

 the peculiar sound termed roaring. 



" Glanders, the most destructive of 

 all the diseases to which the horse 

 is exposed, is the consequence of 

 breathing the atmosphere of foul and 

 vitiated stables — the winding up of 

 almost every other disease, and in 

 every stage of it most contagious. 

 Its most prominent symptoms are a 

 small but constant discharge of sticky 

 matter from the nose, an enlarge- 

 ment and induration of the glands 

 beneath and within the lower jaw, 

 on one or both sides ; and, before the 

 termination of the disease, cancer- 

 ous inflammation of the nostril on 

 the same side with the enlarged 

 gland. Its contagiousness should 

 never be forgotten, for if a glandered 

 horse is once introduced into a sta- 

 ble, almost every horse in it will soon- 

 er or later become infected and die. 



" The urinary and genital organs 

 are also lined by mucous membranes. 

 l"he horse is subject to injlammalion 

 of the kidneys from eating musty oats 

 or mow-burned hay, from exposure 



L L 



to cold, and tl-oin injuries of the loins. 

 Bleeding, physic, and counter-irri- 

 tants over the region of the loins 

 should be had recourse to. Diabetes, 

 or 'profuse staling, is difficult to treat. 

 The inflammation that may exist 

 should first be subdued ; and then 

 opium, catechu, and the uva ursi ad- 

 ministered. Liflammation of the blad- 

 der will be best alleviated by mucila- 

 ginous drinks of almost any kind. In- 

 flammation of the neck of the bladder, 

 evinced by the frequent and painful 

 discharge of small quantities of urine, 

 will yield only to the abstraction of 

 blood and the exhibition of opium. 

 A catheter may be easily passed into 

 the bladder of the mare and the urine 

 evacuated ; but it will require a skil- 

 ful veterinary surgeon to effect this 

 in the horse. A stone in the bladder 

 is readily detected by the practition- 

 er, and may be extracted with com- 

 parative ease. The sheath of the 

 penis often becomes diseased from 

 the presence of corrosive mucous 

 matter : it may easily be removed 

 with warm water and soap. 



" To the mucous membranes belong 

 the conjunctival tunic of the eye, and 

 the diseases of the eye generally may 

 be here considered. A scabby itchi- 

 ness on the edge of the eyelid may be 

 got rid of by a diluted nitrated oint- 

 ment of mercury. Warts should be 

 cut off with the scissors, and the roots 

 touched with lunar caustic. Inflam- 

 mation of the haw should be abated by 

 the employment of coohng lotions, 

 but that useful defence of the eye 

 should never, if possible, be removed. 

 Common ophthalmia will yield as read- 

 ily to cooling applications as inflam- 

 mation of the same organ in any oth- 

 er animal ; but there is another kind 

 of inflammation, commencing in the 

 same way as the first, and for awhile 

 apparently yielding to treatment, but 

 which changes from eye to eye, and 

 returns again and again, until blind- 

 ness is produced in one or both or- 

 gans of vision. The most frequent 

 cause is hereditary predisposition. 

 The reader cannot be too often re- 

 minded that the qualities of the sire, 

 good or bad, descend, and scarcely 



397 



