DIABETES. 223 



endeavor to allay this b}' topical applications, such as flannel 

 wrung out in hot water, laid on the loins, and covered with oil 

 cloth and externall}- a horse rug to keep up a state of warm moist- 

 ure to the parts; this may be renewed whenever the pain seems 

 specially marked; the feeding should be of the light, nutritious, 

 easily digestible order, and the drink consist of linseed gruel and 

 barley water. 



If the horse is brought down low in condition it will be desirable 

 to give him China 0, ten drops, night and morning for a week; 

 discontinue same for a week, giving one intermediate dose of 

 Sidpluir 3, and recommence the China for another week and so 

 on till condition is decidedly improved. 



DIABETES. 



This maladjMS, without doubt, more frequently met with among 

 Tiuman than veterinary patients, and one peculiar feature in con- 

 nection with it is, that whereas tnere are two distinct manifesta- 

 tions of the disease, the one that more generally appears in the 

 human subject, is of rare occurrence in the horse; while that 

 which is observed among equines is less frequentl}' noted in man. 

 It cannot be affirmed that diabetes is strictly a disease of the 

 urinary organs, but we have indicated it thereunder because its 

 chief manifestation, so far as human observation goes, is through 

 this channel. 



Diabetes is ascribed by some to dietetic causes, but our own 

 -opinion is that some reasons, other than these, are called for to 

 account for its development. Already we have referred to the 

 fact that the malady assumes two distinct forms and two names 

 are accordingly employed to designate the one from the other, 

 namely diabetes mellitus in which traces of the presence of sugar 

 are observable and diabetes i?isipidus which is by no means of un- 

 common occurrence among equines; to the con.sideration of this 

 form of the uialadj^ we shall mainly confine out attention, simply 

 pointing out in passing that if the specific gravity of the urine at 

 any time points to a probability that sugar is present the doubt 

 can soon be set at rest by submitting samples of the water for 

 several successive da^^s to an analytical chemist, and in the event 

 of the test affirming the suspicion three times out of four, it will 

 be fair to assume that a case of diabetes mellitus has to be contended 



