466 



The termination of congestion is by resolutiou or inflammation. In the 

 first case, the choked-up blood vessels find an outlet for the excessive 

 amount of blood and are relieved 5 the transuded serum or fluid of the 

 blood is reabsorbed, and the part returns almost to its normal condi- 

 tion, with, however, a tendency to weakness predisposing to future 

 trouble of the same kind. In the other case further alterations take 

 place, and we have inflammation. 



INFLAMMATION. 



Injlammation is a hyperuutrition of a tissue. It is described by Dr. 

 Agnew, the surgeon, as " a double-edged sword, cutting either way for 

 good or for evil." The increased nutrition may be moderate and cause 

 a growth of new tissue, a simple increase of quantity at first; or it may 

 produce a uew growth differing in quality, as a cancer; or it may be so 

 great that, like luxuriant, overgrown weeds, the elements die from their 

 very haste of growth, and we have immediate destruction of the part. 

 According to the rapidity and intensity of the process of structural 

 changes which take place in an inflamed tissue, inflammation is de- 

 scribed as acute or clironic, with a vast number of intermediate forms. 

 When the phenomena are marked it is termed sthenic ; when less dis- 

 tinct, as the result of a broken down and feeble constitution in the ani- 

 mal, it is called asthenic. Certain inflammations are specific, as in 

 strangles, the horsepox, glanders, etc., where a characteristic or spe- 

 cific cause or condition is added to the origin, character of phenomena, 

 or alterations which result from an ordinary inflammation. An inflam- 

 mation may be circumscribed or limited, as in the abscess on the neck 

 caused by the jjressuie of a collar, in imeumonias, ia glanders, in the 

 small tumors of a splint or a jack ; or it may bo diffuse, as in severe 

 fistulas of the withers, in an extensive lung fever, in the legs in a case 

 of grease, or in ti><;' spavins which affect horses with poorly nourished 

 bones. The causes of inflammation are practically the same as those of 

 congestion, which is the initial step of all inflammation. 



The temperament of a horse predisposes the animal to inflammation 

 of certain organs. A full-blooded animal, whose veins show on the 

 surface of the body, and which has a strong, bounding heart pumping 

 large quantities of blood into the vascular organs like the lungs, the 

 intestines, and the laminiB of the feet, is more apt to have pneumonia, 

 congestive colics, and founder, while lymphatic, cold-blooded animals 

 have pleurisies, inflammation of the bones, spavins, ring bones, etc., 

 inflammation of the glands of the Isss vascular skin of the extremities, 

 greasy heels, thrush, etc. 



Young horses have inflammation of the membranes liuiug the air 

 passages and digestive tract, while older animals are more subject to 

 troubles in the closed serous sacks and in the bones. 



The work to which a horse is put (saddle or harness, speed or draft) 



