96ii PRACTICE OF AGllICULTURE. Pakt III. 



communicated through the stomach to the nervous system. DigitJtlis purpiirea or foxglove, Tlixus 

 baccJlta or yew, ffiii&uthe crocata or water dropwort, Clciita virjisa or water hemlock, Phellandrium aqu&- 

 tlcum or water parsley, Cbnium niaculatum or common hemlock, are all poisonous in a high degree to 

 horses, and may be taken accidentally by the animal as food, or given injudiciously as medicine. Nicot'i- 

 hx\a. or tobacco, and the vegetable acid or vinegar, are also poisonous, and are sometimes productive of 

 injurious consequences by over-doses, when intended as remedies. It is little known that a pint of strong 

 vinegar has destroyed a horse. As we cannot remove the matters from the stomach, we must endeavour 

 to neutralise their effects by acids and demulcents, as oil, butter, &c. : thus, when narcotics have been 

 taken, a drachm of sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol maybe given in a quart of ale; or six ounces of 

 vinegar, with six of gin, and a quart of ale, may be tried. An excellent domestic remedy might be found 

 in two ounces of flour of mustard mixed with ale or other fluid. 



64f>i. Stomach staggers. This peculiar complaint, which is even yet but little understood, appears de- 

 pendent on a particular state of stomach, acting on particular foods ; and not on what is taken in acting 

 on the stomach, as was supposed by Coleman, White, and others. From later communications of White, 

 he also now appears to consider it as originating in " a peculiar state of stomach." Blaine appears always 

 to have characterised it as " a specific inflammation of the stomach." It api)ears among horses of every 

 description, and at grass as well as in a stable ; and there is reason to think it epidemic, as it is prevalent 

 in some seasons more than in others. It may, perhaps, be regarded now and then as endemic also ; under 

 which circumstance it appears confined to low wet situations, where long marshy grass is abundant, and 

 where noxious aquatic plants mix themselves with the grasses. When it occurs at grass, the horse is 

 found stupidly dull or asleep with his head resting against something. This has occasioned the disease 

 to be called the sleepy staggers : and it has often been confounded witli the phrenltis, or inflammation of 

 the brain. (6i29.) In the stable the horse dozes, and rests his head in the manger : he then wakes up and 

 falls to eating, which he continues to do until the distention of the stomacii becomes enormous ; for the 

 peculiarity of the complaint consists in the total stop that is put to digestion, and tlie uneasy feel of the 

 distention consequent to such indigestion appears to deceive the horse, and by a morbid excitement to force 

 him to take in more. In this way he continues eating until the distention prevents the return of the blow! 

 from the head, and the animal dies apoplectic, or his stomach l)ursts with over-distention. More fre- 

 quently, however, the stomach becomes flabby, inert, and paralytic, and after death presents marks ol 

 inflammation towards the pylorus. 



6465. The treatment. When recovery has taken place, it has occurred only when the disease has been 

 very mild, and has been assisted by stimulating the stomach into action by purgatives, at once active and 

 invigorating, as an ounce of aloes dissolved in half a pint of gin. When a horse of extreme value is 

 attacked, croton oil might be tried to the amount of 120 or 25 drops in two ounces of tincture of aloes. 

 Warm water in small quantities, or mixed with common salt, should be frequently passed down. Remove 

 every eatable ; rake, clyster, and hand-rub j and, if the determination to the head be extreme, bleed, other- 

 wise avoid it 



6466. Infiammation of the bowels^ enteritis, or red colic, is a very distinct disease from the gripes, 

 gullion, or fret, with which it is, however, very apt to be confounded to the destruction of many horses. 

 The peritoneal inflammation of the bowels, the one here treated on, is an affection of their outer 

 covering. 



6467. The causes are various. It is not unfrequently brought on by a sudden translation of cold after 

 great heats, as swimming during hunting, or from the removal of a horse from grass at once into heated 

 stables ; neglected gripes, or lotig-continued costiveness, excessive riding, and the immediate drinking of 

 cold water, have brought it on. It begins by restlessness, loss of appetite, and some uneasiness ; the mouth 

 is hot and dry ; the inner membranes of the mouth, nose, and eyelids are often redder than natural. As 

 the disease advances, the pain, before not violent, now increases so as to force the horse to lie down and 

 rise again frequently ; and when very violent, he kicks at his belly, or looks round at his sides, pawing 

 his litter very frequently. The pulse is usually small, quick, or hard ; sometimes it is more full and 

 small, but always hard. Breathing is quickened, and the flanks heave ; the extremities are alternately hot 

 and cold, but continue longer cold than hot ; and the animal is costive : sometimes pain may force away 

 a few hardened balls of fa;oes, but the principal contents are retained. Blaine has given the distinguishing 

 features between this disease and colic, under which head we have stated them. 



6468. The treatment must be active and immediate, or a fatal termination may be expected. Begin by 

 abstracting a considerable quantity of blood, from a large horse to the amount of seven or eight quarts ; 

 proceed to back-rake; throw up a large clyster of warm gruel. Give by the mouth, if the expense be not 

 considered an object, a pint of castor oil, mixed by means of the yolk of two eggs, with half a pint of broth 

 or gruel. If the expense be objected to, give olive oil instead, following it up in half an hour by a gruel 

 drench, in which six ounces of Epsom salts have been dissolved. A sheep- skin, immediately as it is re- 

 moved from the sheep, may be applied to the belly, which should first be well rubbed with the stronger 

 liquid blister. \Vet. Pharm. 6562.) In four hours repeat the bleeding; if a considerable improvement 

 have not taken place, and if the bowels be not unloaded, give more oil, and clyster frequently, having first 

 back-raked. Avoid exercise ; first hand rub, and afterwards wrap up the extremities to the knees. As 

 a clear passage for the dung is found, the symptoms mitigate, and the animal slowly recovers ; but he 

 must be fed at first very sparingly. 



6*69. Inflammation of the inner szirfacc of the intestines is, in some measure, different from the former, 

 which, as before stated, is an affection of their outer covering; whereas this is usually confined to their 

 villous surface, and may be brought on by superpurgation from over-strong physic, or from mineral acids 

 being taken in, particularly mercurials, which often exert more influence on the bowels than on the 

 stomach. It differs from the former in the symptoms being generally accompanied with purging ; neither 

 is there usually so much pain or uneasiness present, nor such cold extremities ; but where from the 

 violence of the inflammation these symptoms are present, bleeding to the amount of three or four 

 quarts is a proper preliminary, but can hardly be with propriety continued. The same stimulants to the 

 outside of the belly should be used as in the last disease ; but here, warm general clothing is recom- 

 mended as well as warmth in the f>table, as also hand-rubbing to keep up the circulation in the extre- 

 mities. Give astringent drink {Fet. Pharm. 6552. No. 1. or 2.) with a pint of boiled starch every 

 three hours, and give the same by clyster with two quarts of pot liquor, or tripe liquor, free trom salt. 



6470. Dysenteric inHammation of the horse's boivels is happily not very common, but now and then 

 appears, and is then called by farriers molten grease ; they mistaking the morbid secretion from the in- 

 testines, for the fat of the body melted down and passing off' thus : but dysentery is a peculiar inflam- 

 mation of the mucous surface of the intestines, not contagious as in the human, nor epidemic, nor 

 exhibiting a putrid tendency ; but is peculiarly confined to a diseased increase in the mucous secretions, 

 yet very different from simple diarrhoea, which is a mere increase in the peristaltic motion, by which the 

 common aliments are quickly passed through the intestines, and ejected in a liquid form by an increase 

 in their watery secretion. Whereas in the dysentery of the horse, the mucous of the intestines separates 

 from them in large quantities, and comes away with the dung surrounding it ; but when it does not pass 

 in this way it appears in membranous films like sodden leather, or in stringy evacuations, like morsels of 

 fat floating in water ; sometimes there is a little bloody appearance. The usual symptoms of fever are 

 always present, but not in a very high degree. 



6471. The causes are cold, over-riding, and not unfrequently acrid substances within the intestines : 

 change of food has occasioned it, and now and then superpurgation from strong physic. 



6472. The treatment. In the first stages bleed (considerably, and give, as the first internal remedy, six 

 ounces of castor oil, which will amend the fa'cal evacuations considerably; afterwards administer the 



