DISEASES OF THE KRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM 63 



in fact, that happens to oppose him, and in this posture paws with 

 his fore-feet, or performs the same action with them as be would 

 vverc he trotting, evidently all the while unconscious of what he is 

 about. His eye, which at first was full of drowsiness, has now 

 acquired a wild, unmeaning stare, or has already become dilated 

 and insensible to light. The respiration is tardy and oppressed ; 

 the pulse slow and sluggish ; the excretions commonly diminished. 

 The late Professor Coleman used to relate a circumstance, in 

 his lectures, connected with this disease, which throws considerable 

 light on its origin. The artillery horses stationed in London dur- 

 ing the winter of 1817 suffered very considerably from stomach 

 staggers ; so much so tbat it was considered to be endemical, and 

 of an infectious character. With his usual penetration, he soon 

 ttiscovered the cause, and found that, from some new regulations 

 about that time, the stablemen were not allowed any candles, and 

 during the winter the horses were bedded up at five o'clock in the 

 evening, and not fed again until eight o'clock on the following 

 morning, when they consumed their breakfast voraciously, gorging 

 iheir stomach, not to the degree likely to produce acute indiges- 

 l ion, but sufficiently distending them as to oppress the blood-vessels 

 k.nd the circulation through them. This practice, continued day 

 » fter day, caused a specific inflammation of the stomach — an inflam- 

 mation of a peculiar character, differing from gastritis or inflam- 

 mation of the part. The symptoms produced were regarded as 

 lesulting from the sympathetic connection between the stomach 

 and the brain, united to the effects that would arise from the daily 

 distension, throwing a vast quantity of blood on the brain. An 

 urder was obtained for candles for the use of the stablemen, which 

 enabled the horses to be fed at a later hour in the evening, and an 

 earlier one in the morning, when the disease disappeared. 



A common error still prevails, in many districts, that staggers is 

 a contagious disease ; but should the horses on a farm be attacked 

 occasionally with slight fits of this kind, the farmer may rest 

 assured that there is mismanagement somewhere in the feeding 

 department. 



From such evidence as this, it will be inferred that there exists 

 qo doubt regarding the cause of stomach staggers. 



Treatment — We now propose to show how this disease ought to 

 be treated. The proposition of cure is, that the digestive function 

 glial 1 be aroused, and the only way to accomplish that is by admin- 



