493 



about ten miuutes on two successive mornings, and in six days devel- 

 oped the disease. On the morning- when the trouble in the colt was 

 recognized it stood in an infirmary with a dozen horses being treated 

 for various diseases, but was imDiediately isolated; within one week 

 two-thirds of the other horses had contracted the pink-eye. 



Sij}n2:)toms.—Aiter the exposure of a susceptible horse to infection 

 a period of incubation of from five to seven days elapses, during 

 which the animal seems in perfect health, before any symptom is vis- 

 ible. When the symptoms of influenza develop they may be intense 

 or they may be so moderate as to occasion but little alarm, but the 

 latter condition frequently exposes the animal to use and to the dan- 

 ger of the exciting causes of complications which would not have hap- 

 pened had the animal been left quietly in its stall in place of being 

 Avorked or driven out to show to prospective purchasers. The disease 

 may run its simple course as a specific fever, with alterations only of 

 the blood, or it may become at any period complicated by local inflam- 

 matory troubles, the gravity of which is augmented by developing in 

 an animal with an impoverished blood and already irritated and 

 rapid circulation and defective nutritive and reparative functions. 



The first symptoms are those of a rapidly developing fever, which 

 becomes intense within a very short period. The animal becomes 

 dejected and inattentive to surrounding objects; stands with its head 

 down, and not back on the halter as in serious lung diseases. It has 

 chills of the flanks, the muscles of the croup, and the muscles of the 

 shoulders, or of the entire body, lasting from fifteen to thirty minutes, 

 and frequently a grinding of the teeth, which warns one that a severe 

 attack may be expected. The hairs become dry and rough and stand 

 on end. The body temperature increases to 104°, 104^°, and 105° F., 

 or even in severe cases to 107° F., within the first twelve or eighteen 

 hours. The horse becomes stupid, stands immobile with its head 

 hanging, the ears listless, and it pays but little attention to the sur- 

 rounding attendants or the crack of a whip. The stupor becomes 

 rapidly more marked, the eyes become puffy and swollen with excessive 

 lachrymation, so that the tears run from the internal eanthus of the 

 eye over the cheeks and may blister the skin in its course. The respi- 

 ration becomes accelerated to twenty-five or thirty in a minute, and the 

 pulse is quickened to seventy, eighty, or even one hundred, moderate 

 in volume and in force. There is great depression of muscular force; 

 the animal stands limp as if excessively fatigued. There is diminu- 

 tion, or in some cases total loss, of sensibility of the skin, so that it 

 may be pricked or handled without attracting the attention of the 

 animal. On movement, the horse staggers and shows a want of 

 coordination of all the muscles of its limbs. The senses of hearing, 

 sight, and taste are diminished, if not entirely abolished. The visi- 

 ble mucous membranes (as the conjunctiva), from which it is known 

 as the "pink-eye," and the mouth and the natural openings become 



