550 NERVOUS DISEASES. 



or injury, in which case, rest, physic, and warm fomentations might 

 be employed. Slings would be of special use, in order to give rest, 

 if the animal was not inclined to lie down. 



LEGAL ASPECT. — Stringhalt is an unsoundness (Thompson v. 

 Patteson, Oliphant's " Law of Horses "), on account of its always 

 giving rise to lameness. In Anderton v Wright (Wigan. County 

 Court, 1871, "Veterinarian" for 1871, p. 522), "His Honour said 

 that it was perfectly clear that stringhalt constituted unsoundness." 



This disease not only impairs the present and future useful- 

 ness of an animal, but it also, as a rule, greatly increases the 

 difficulty of treatment in case of injury to a limb affected with 

 it, on account of the unnaturally high sensibility of the part. 



Australian Stringhalt. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION.— This disease, which appears to 

 be of a nervous origin, is peculiar to Australia, where it affects 

 large numbers of horses in certain districts. As I have no practical 

 acquaintance with it, beyond seeing two or three cases of it in 

 horses which were imported to Calcutta from Melbourne, I have 

 taken the following notes and extracts from veterinary reports 

 made to the Minister of Ao-riculture for Victoria (Australia) by 

 Mr. W. T. Kendall, M.R.C.V.S. (Principal of the Melbourne Veter- 

 inary College) and Mr. Edward Stanley, F.R.C.V.S., both of whom 

 have had much practical experience of it. 



HISTORY. — As far as Mr. Kendall can learn, Australian string- 

 halt was not seen before 1865 or 1867 in Victoria, where it made 

 its first appearance in some of the oldest-settled districts, such as 

 Dandenong, Heidelberg and Fern-Tree Gully. It seems to have 

 been imported to New South Wales from Victoria. 



OCCURRENCE. — Mr. Kendall states that it appears to follow in 

 the wake of agriculture, and that it breaks out most frequently in 

 paddocks which have been ploughed and then laid down in grass, 

 although it is not exclusively confined to them. As a rule it 

 prevails in low-lying rich lands and river flats, but sometimes it 

 occurs on high ground. It always comes on suddenly, and without 

 any assignable cause. 



CONTAGIOUSNESS.— Mr. Stanley gives several instances to 

 prove his reasonable assumption that an animal suffering from 

 A-Ustralian stringhalt may indirectly communicate the disease to 

 other horses, by contaminating the herbage on which they are 

 grazing. 



