264 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



systems, and that unless these relations are recognized, and allow- 

 ances made accordingly, it is not to be expected that treatment can 

 be successful; the fact that injudicious feeding, both as to the 

 quality of the food and the time of giving the same, may possibly 

 exercise an unwarrantable demand upon the functions of the 

 nervous system, which, in its turn, avenges itself upon the heart, 

 and through that organ the lungs, points a moral and teaches a 

 lesson which an intelligent horseman should not be slow to appre- 

 ciate and put to practical application; fortunately for those who 

 practice on homoeopathic principles, it is not necessary to wait 

 until ever}^ detail of the cause of disorder is discovered; the totality 

 of the symptoms furnish the guide to a remedy, but among the 

 symptoms must be included those that are observable through 

 careful examination of the heart and how it performs its functions, 

 bearing in mind when conducting such examination, the influence 

 of the nervous system over that organ. There is still one other 

 special action with which the nervous system is endowed, namely, 

 co-ordination; to illustrate the meaning of this term it is only 

 necessary to remind our readers of the loss of control which, under 

 given conditions, horses occasionally experience over their powers 

 of movement; as the attempt is made to walk the animal rolls 

 from side to side, and in extreme cases is unable to retain its foot- 

 ing; this peculiar inability to control the movements may, some- 

 times be observed in the disease commonly called " staggers,'' of 

 which there ar.e two kinds, or at all events two kinds are described; 

 one being considered due to the brain and the other to the stomach; 

 however this may be, there is the fact that under these conditions 

 the animal is unable to perform the complex muscular movements 

 which the act of walking requires; other illustrations of co-ordina- 

 tion occur in the acts of swallowing and coughing, both of which 

 acts call forth a regular succession of muscular contractions, one 

 after the other, for their perfect performance; these complex 

 movements are governed by certain nerve centres located in the 

 spinal cord, where the co-ordinating impulses are developed. This 

 brings us to the conclusion of the consideration of the physiologi- 

 cal aspect of the nervous system; but for the fact that the subject 

 has such an important bearing, alike upon health and disease, we 

 should have refrained from any reference thereto; it seemed, how- 

 ever, desirable to attempt to show how the nervous system (albeit 



