INFLAMMATION OF THE BEAIN. 487 



often reminded that the qualities of the sire, good or bad, 

 descend, and scarcely changed, to his offspring. How moon- 

 blindness was first produced no one knows ; but its continuance 

 in our stables is to be traced to this cause principally, or almost 

 alone ; and it pursues its course until cataract is produced, for 

 which there is no remedy. Gutta serena — palsy of the optic 

 nerve — is sometimes observed, and many have been deceived, 

 for the eye retains its perfect transparency. Here also medical 

 treatment is of no avail. 



Tlie serous membranes are of great importance. Tlie brain 

 and spinal marrow, with the origins of the nerves, are sur- 

 rounded by them ; so are the heart, the lungs, the intestinal 

 canal, and the organs whose office it is to prepare the genera- 

 tive fluid. 



Inflammation of the Bkain. — Mad staggers fall under this 

 division. It is inflammation of the meninges, or envelopes of 

 the brain, produced by over exertion, or by any of the causes of 

 general fever, and it is characterized by the wildest delirium. 

 Notliing but the most profuse blood-letting, active j)urgation, 

 and blistering the head, will afford the slightest hope of success. 

 Tetanus, or locked-jaw, is a constant spasm of all the voluntary 

 muscles, and particularly those of the neck, the spine, and the 

 head, arising from the injury of some nervous fibril — that injury 

 sj)reading to the origin of the nerve — the brain becoming 

 affected, and universal and unbroken sjDasmodic action being 

 the result. Bleeding, physicking, blistering the course of the 

 spine, and the administration of opium in enormous doses, will 

 alone give any chance of cure. Epilepsy is not a frequent dis- 

 ease in the horse, but it seldom admits of cure. It is also very 

 apt to return at the most distant and uncertain intervals. Palsy 

 is the suspension of nervous power. It is usually confined to the 

 hinder limbs, and sometimes to one limb only. Bleeding, phy- 

 sicking, antimonial medicines, and blistering of the spine, are 

 most likely to produce a cure ; but they too often utterly fail of 

 success. Rabies, or madness, is evidently a disease of the 

 nervous system, and, once being developed, is altogether with- 

 out remedy. The utter destruction of the bitten part with 

 the lunar caustic, soon after the infliction of the wound, will. 



