32 INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 



mashes, by which his fever will not be increased while 

 his bowels are kept sufficiently relaxed. 



We know but of two diseases with which it is at all 

 possible that this complaint can be confounded — they 

 are colic and hydrophobia ; but in the first the horse 

 strikes and stamps his belly ; he rolls rather than 

 plunges, and looks piteously at his flanks, and is per- 

 fectly conscious. In hydrophobia, although the ani- 

 mal plunges about, and does much mischief, there is 

 method and perfect consciousness in that mischief. 

 Any sudden and violent disorder may to a degree 

 approach in its symptoms to inflammation of the 

 brain ; but scarcely any to that extent which can be 

 positively deceptive. 



The most puzzling case is when congestion of the 

 brain is present. It is absolutely necessary to get at 

 the cause of the stupor, or the mode of treatment 

 cannot be determined. If the horse is at grass, the 

 practitioner should carefully inquire whether he has 

 been lately turned on to a richer pasture ; if he is in 

 the stable, whether he may have got at the corn-bin 

 and gorged himself; whether he has been lately 

 worked long and hard on an empty stomach, and 

 then fully fed. If the cause can be traced to an 

 overloaded digestion, water must be withheld, for it 

 would swell the mass which is already distending the 

 stomach. A strong purgative (Recipe No. 3), to 

 which may be added two drachms of carbonate of 

 ammonia and three ounces of sulphuric ether, should 

 be administered without delay, and the stimulant 

 (omitting the purgative) ought to be repeated every 

 hour. The body should be clothed, the legs ban- 



