ANASARCA. 419 



ANASARCA. 



Anasarca, or moor-ill, occurs chiefly among horses turned 

 out in marshes or low commons, and may readily be known by the 

 general swelling of the body, increasing by gravitation in the legs 

 during the standing posture, but showing itself chiefly in the lower 

 side of the body in the early morning, when the horse has been 

 lying down all night. The disease is now rare, but it occasionally 

 appears under the circumstances above described. The treatment 

 must be by acting on the kidneys, the following being a useful 

 recipe for the purpose : — 



Take of Nitre 4 drachms. 



Powdered Resin 3 drachms. 



Ginger 1 drachm. 



Spirit of Nitrous Ether li oz. 



Warm "Water . . 2 pints. 



Mix and give as a drench every night. 



served. Soon the horse staggers and is unable to walk, and in the majority 

 of cases, lies or falls down unable to rise again. 



There are other symptoms presented in this affection which might be 

 described, but are unnecessary, as they are common alike to other debilita- 

 ting diseases, such as the quickened and wiry pulse, heaviness of the head, 

 fetid breath, shortened breathing, and wasting of the muscles of the body. 

 The animal dies in from three to ten days, though sometimes lasting as long 

 as two weeks, a loathsome siglit, with nothing but skin and ligament covering 

 the bones. 



No disease of the horse can, after the third day, or when the animal is 

 unable to stand, be mistaken for typhoid fever, if it be not paralysis, which 

 occurs only in single and separate cases, whereas, in typhoid fever it is 

 almost always epizootic (epidemic), attacking every horse on the place and 

 even neighborhood. 



The causes of typhoid fever in the horse do not differ from those that give 

 rise to typhus in man, namely, miasma arising from level land, decaying 

 vegetable matter, and stagnant Avater. 



On many splendid country seats overlooking our noble rivers and bays 

 along the eastern coast, the stables are often, for the sake of convenience, 

 located near the river banks, with sometimes pools of stagnant water in the 

 immediate vicinity. This is a fruitful source of this disease, especially during 

 an unusually rainy season. In treating it, it is especially important that the 

 horse be removed from the neighborhood of the miasma to a dry location : 

 thus the cause will cease, and a cure is more likely to be effected. 

 Give the following in a drench, morning, noon, and night : 



Cold Water 1 pint. 



Powdered Carbonate of Ammonia ^ oz. 



Capsicum 1 drachm. 



Powdered Pimento Berries ^ oz. 



Tincture Nux Vomica 20 drops. 



If the horse is unable to stand, give him a good bed and turn him from 

 one side to the other twice daily, to prevent sores on the body ; and if 

 unable to swallow, drench him with cold water and meal several times 

 j^aily — adding thirty drops of commercial sulphuric acid to the drench.— 

 Editor. 



