EXAMINATION, — DIAGNOSIS. 125 



Examination of the Patient. — Diagnosis. — Having 

 noticed a few of the principal appearances presented bj the 

 horse when in health, I have now to treat upon such peculiarties 

 as are manifested by the animal when affected with disease. 



Before medical treatment can be resorted to with at least a 

 fair hope of success, it is first necessary to determine the nature 

 and seat of the malady requiring treatment. The determination 

 of the precise nature of the disease constitutes what is called 

 its Diagnosis, from the Greek word Bcayiyixoia-Ketii (diagignoshein) 

 signifying to discern, or to distinguish rightly. 



One of the primary essentials to the diagnosis of a disease, 

 is the observer recognising the vital state of the patient ; or in 

 other words, to know the peculiar condition of the organism as 

 a whole, with reference to the life force within it ; because by 

 this, our treatment for the eradication of the malady should, 

 in a great measure, be directed. The state of the organism 

 will give to the disease whatever peculiarity of character it 

 possesses. If the system, for example, be debilitated from 

 old age, severe labour, insufficient food, or from all these 

 causes acting in association, we shall find the disease to be of 

 the class denominated asthenic. On the contrary, if the system 

 be vigorous, and its vital power unimpaired, the disease will 

 partake of a similar character, and as a natural consequence, 

 our treatment should vary accordingly. An inflammatory 

 disease, when manifiested by an enfeebled organism, is very 

 different from an inflammatory disease when the vital force of 

 the patient is vigorous. In the latter case it will be necessary to 

 have recourse to the most powerful remedies we possess, to 

 lower the violence of the disease ; while in the former, the way 

 to benefit the patient is to raise the natural force of the organism, 

 and afterwards to support and economise it to the utmost extent 

 in our power. To gain a clear knowledge then of the nature 



