348 VETERINARY LECTURES 



for instance, derangement or disease of any portion of the digestive 

 organs, such as stomach-staggers in horse and cow, or worms in 

 the stomach and intestines ; or it may arise from affections of the 

 urinary and generative systems, such as hysteria, epileptic fits, 

 puerperal eclampsia and parturient apoplexy, biliary and uraemic 

 poisoning, and it also may be due to mineral (lead) and vegetable 

 poisoning. Before, therefore, suitable treatment can be adopted, it 

 is of the utmost importance to find the cause ; failing this, the acute 

 and most prominent symptoms must have immediate attention, and 

 be relieved as far as possible. 



DISEASES OF THE BRAIN. 



567. Professor Williams, in ' The Principles and Practice of 

 Veterinary Medicine' (p. 619, gth edition), gives in a tabulated form 

 the difference in symptoms, so as to distinguish between disease of 

 the brain substance and of its coverings. Usually, when the sub- 

 stance of the brain is affected, the symptoms are of a quiet, drowsy 

 nature, whereas, when the coverings are attacked, the symptoms are 

 of a very excitable, convulsive, and spasmodic character. 



568. Phrenitis, or inflammation of the brain and of its coverings, 

 in the horse is, happily, very rare. In two cases observed by me 

 the horses were seized suddenly, and commenced to worry and bite 

 surrounding objects. On putting them into a loose-box, they roamed 

 round and round, rushing first to one side, and then to the other, 

 biting at the manger and hay-rack, snapping at the bars of the latter, 

 and even worrying at their own limbs, attempting to climb up the 

 sides of the box with their fore-feet, falling over backwards, and, when 

 lying on their side, the limbs moved as if in full trot ; the breathing 

 was loud and quick, perspiration rolled off their bodies, eyes were 

 staring, rolling, and bloodshot, mouth open and frothy, and at intervals 

 they gave out peculiar screams or cries. When on their feet they 

 were dangerous to approach. Treatment. — While down, the animals 

 were secured and well bled from the temporal artery ; chloral hydrate 

 and bromide of potassium were also administered, and cold water 



