THE HORSE IN SICKNESS AND DISEASE 277 



or in a way in which ready escape is at hand, is fraught with 

 imminent peril. As the disease increases, instead of lying 

 quiet as before, in a state of apparent insensibility after a 

 throe, convulsions will follow so quickly upon one another 

 that the patient will be kept in a continual struggle, 

 panting and perspiring, and perhaps foaming at the mouth, 

 leading his attendants to believe he is not only phrenitic, 

 but actually rabid. This is a circumstance engendering so 

 much apprehension and alarm, that not only is a prompt 

 and decisive opinion demanded of the veterinarian, but, at 

 the same time, such a line of conduct on his part as will at 

 once convince his employers that he is right in his decision. 



Mad Staggers must not be confounded with rabies — there 

 being no dog, or mad dog at least, visibly connected with 

 the case, is "prima facie evidence. Further, the symptoms 

 of the two cases are different, there being, according to 

 Mr. Blaine, in rabid phrenitis, " not merely a frantic, but a 

 decidedly mischievous disposition," the animal purposely 

 attacking everything, living and dead, all around him ; 

 rack, and manger, and stall are all laid prostrate. 



In the true staggers nothing of tins kind appears. The 

 horse is wild and beats himself about, and endangers every- 

 thing about him, but not with premeditated design. On 

 the contrary, he merely labours under spasmodic contrac- 

 tions of the muscles, which force him to these violent 

 efforts. He rears, plunges, falls, and injures himself in 

 the frenzy of pain. Veterinary authorities recommend 

 the opening of both temporal arteries in mad staggers. 

 Recovery is, however, scarcely to be hoped for, as a return 

 of the disorder is to be feared, or an entire loss of energy, 

 without which the animal is almost valueless. 



Mr. Percivall's experience furnished him with several 

 cases of recovery from phrenitis. He says, after speaking 

 of bleeding from the temples : " I have had several cases 

 which were despaired of, until, as a last resource, while the 

 animals were desperately struggling and throwing them- 

 selves about, I have contrived to plunge the lancet into 

 their temples, and allowed them to bleed ad libitum, 

 regardless of the quantity lost, pa\dng attention, in fact, 

 only to effects. In several instances, to the surprise of all 

 around, the frantic patient, from kicking about in a pool of 

 blood, jumped suddenly and unexpectedly upon his legs, 

 and, after shaking himself once or twice, appeared, as it 



