22 VETERNARY HO.MCEOPATHV. 



how are you to proceed to determine first, ivhclher there is any- 

 thing the matter, and second, ivhat is it / In the early stages of 

 disease, before any decided symptoms present themselves, there is 

 nothing so surely indicative of prospective trouble as the exaltation 

 of the internal heat of the body above that recognized as the 

 normal standard; to enable any one to satisfy himself upon this 

 point a cheap little instrument, known as the thermometer, is avail- 

 able; it is so constructed that one portion of the quicksilver serves 

 as an indicator which remains in position after use until shaken 

 down; any instrument maker selling same will show a purchaser 

 ho V to proceed if he does not already understand its application 

 and use; most of these instruments are constructed on the Fahren- 

 heit record, and, according to this, the normal or healthy standard 

 is 98.5 degrees, and anything above loo degrees must be con- 

 sidered suspicious in the horse; a further test in a few hours 

 should be made to discover whether the thermometer continues to 

 rise, if it does so, then further, developments must be looked for; 

 this departure or variation in the temperature of the body from 

 the normal standard of 98.5 degrees may be taken as a most sig- 

 nificant indication of the development of disease, and no horse 

 owners, especially those who have to rely upon their own unaided 

 judgment in the management of their stables, should be without 

 a clinical thermometer; in England a good one costs about twelve 

 or fifteen shillings; not infrequently, in cases of simple fever 

 brought on by extra exertion on a very hot day, the temperature 

 will run up to 105 or 106 degrees rapidly, and, after proper treat- 

 ment, recede almost as quickly; but, as a rule, a high temperature, 

 say of 103 to 104 degrees that is maintained, means a serious ill- 

 ness: if such proves to be the case, the regular use of the ther- 

 mometer must be relied on at stated intervals, and, better still, at 

 positively exact hours, say 8 o'clock in the morning and 8 o'clock 

 in the evening. As a rule, under favorable conditions, the ther- 

 mometer will register two or three decimals of a degree higher at 

 night than in the morning. And so long as the instrument shows 

 an uniform register for several days, it is fair to conclude that the 

 crisis is not reached. Should the temperature rise still higher it 

 generally leads one to conclude that matters are rather worse than 

 better; again, if the thermometer shows a rapid fall in tempera- 

 ture and registers below the 98.5 degrees, .say 95 or 96 degrees, it 



