192 MOULTING-FEVER MISTREATED. [BOOK II. 



the respective terms we give to the various kinds 

 of attack would signify much less than they de- 

 serve, were it not for the danger we should other- 

 wise fall into of treating one disorder for another, 

 when the symptoms (some of them) so much re- 

 semble each other. This danger is more likely to 

 come upon us in cattle medicine than in the other 

 practice, since we are under the necessity of find- 

 ing out what is the matter with our patients, whilst 

 the human doctor receives the information at once, 

 in words. 



As inflammatory fever is more prevalent in the 

 spring and summer, owing to the high condition of 

 most horses when first attacked, so does low fever, 

 or irritation of the animal system of a horse in low 

 condition, mostly prevail in autumn and winter. 

 We owe this latter in great measure to the debility 

 or weakness brought on by the moulting of his 

 summer coat, when the autumnal equinox sets in. 

 Being then much exhausted by the heat of the sea- 

 son just gone by, he sweats profusely on the least 

 exercise : then his coat becomes dry and husky 

 when at rest, and his skin sticks tight to his ribs, 

 slightly resembling hide-bound. The animal hav- 

 ing lost much of his natural covering, and no care 

 being taken to palliate this loss, he is more liable 

 to catch cold if exposed and still pushed in his 

 work. If not relieved from its severity, post-horses 

 in particular become unserviceable in great num- 

 bers, to an alarming degree, resembling much the 

 distemper of the spring season. Too often it 



