92 THE HORSE AND ITS DISEASES. 



inflammation of vital organs. A regular pulse is some- 

 times found under very diseased affections, but it is 

 usually increased in its fullness or smallness, or in its 

 hardness or softness. A regular pulse, with a propor- 

 tionate fullness, is one of the strongest marks of health. 

 An irregular pulse in fever shews great danger; it 

 usually accompanies mortification and gangrane, and 

 when inflammation of the lungs terminates in this way, 

 it is usually present. 



Inflammation. 



I think it very necessary to give my readers an idea 

 of the meaning of the word " Inflammation," as it often 

 comes in question. 



It was supposed by the celebrated Boerhave, and 

 other physiologists of his time, that inflammation depen- 

 ded on a vicidity of the blood, which renders it unfit for 

 circulation in the finer vessels, and hence arose obstruc- 

 tions, and those appearances by which the disease is 

 characterized. This opinion, however, has obtained very 

 little credit with modern physiologists, and is now 

 universally rejected, it having been proved, that blood 

 drawn from an animal laboring under inflammation is 

 more fluid, and remains fluid longer than that which is 

 taken from the same animal when in health. 



The most prevailing opinion at present respecting 

 inflammation is, I believe, that it consists in an increased 

 action of the heart, and arteries in general, whereby the 

 blood circulates with unusual velocity through the whole 

 system into derangement and when local, or existing in 

 a particular part, the increased action is in like manner 

 confined to the vessels of that paii;. 



When a part is infiamed, there arises in it an unusual 

 degree of heat, generally attended with considerable 

 swelling. The sensibility and irritability are always 

 increased, and produced by it, in the parts where it did 

 not before exist. In bones and tendons, for example, 

 scarcely any sensibility can be perceived, when they ai^e 



