276 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



into a lethargic state. His appetite is rather interrupted 

 than lost. The horse is found with his head hanging 

 between his fore legs, or resting in the manger and forced 

 against the wall of the stable ; or, if at grass, against 

 a tree or wall. The eyelids droop, and when forced open, 

 show the pupil unnaturally dilated. The lining membrane 

 of the nostrils is of a dull leaden colour (we have found 

 them, as well as the conjunctiva, just the reverse, increased 

 in redness). Costiveness is present, and the stupor extending 

 to the absence of all nervous irritability. It is only in this 

 stage of the disorder that remedial measures prove efficacious. 



Treatment. — Copious blood-letting is urgently indicated. 

 Open both jugulars and let the blood flow till the eye 

 awakens or the animal sinks. Give purgatives (see List) 

 every three hours till the bowels are fully relieved, and 

 sedative infusions : half a drachm of aconite, or a drachm 

 of digitalis, with a pint of hot water poured upon it. Cool, 

 and give this quantity every half hour till weakness, not 

 stupor, supervenes. He will then (if down) breathe more 

 gently, open his eyes and look at, and perhaps recognise 

 things or objects. When this treatment fails, and the mere 

 congestion or surcharging of the vessels of the weakened 

 brain ensues, then inflammation comes on, and we have the 

 second stage, or. 



Mad Staggers, Phrenitis. — This fatal termination is 

 ushered in by the animal waking out of his sleepy state, 

 and staring about him with a fearful wildness and vacancy, 

 his breathing becomes quicker and laborious, and the pulse 

 rising with the respiration. Suddenly, he makes a fright- 

 ful throe, dashing himself against rack, manger, or wall, or 

 throwing himself down, and then lying breathing ster- 

 torously, his eyes looking as if starting out of their orbits, 

 no light at the time affecting the dilated pupils, and the 

 animal totally heedless of anything that may be done or 

 said to him. On other occasions the frantic animal will 

 rear both his fore legs into the manger, and in this posture 

 stand, with his head erected, for several minutes, no person 

 daring to approach, lest he should unexpectedly spring up, 

 or reel and fall upon the intruder. In a word, our patient 

 is now " mad " — furiously so, in the worst sense of the 

 word as applied to staggers ; and how, or where, or upon 

 whom he may in his delirious plunges precipitate his body, 

 is so uncertain, that any approach without extreme caution, 



