479 



on end. The body temperature increases to 104'^, 104^, and 105° F., or 

 even in severe cases to 107° F., within the first twelve or eighteen hours- 

 The horse becomes stupid, stands immobile with its head, haugiug, the 

 ears listless, and it pays but little attention to the surrounding attend- 

 ants or the crack of a whip. The stupor becomes rapidly more marked, 

 the eyes become puffy and swollen with excessive lacrymation, so that 

 the tears run from the internal canthus of the eye over the cheeks and 

 may blister the skin in its course. The respiration becomes accelerated 

 to twenty-five or thirty in a minute, and the pulse is quickened to 

 seventy, eighty, or even one hundred, moderate in volume and in force. 

 There is great depression of muscular force ; the animal stands limp as 

 if excessively fatigued. There is diminution, or in some cases total loss, 

 of sensibility of the skin, so that it may be i^ricked or handled without 

 attracting the attention of the animaL On movement, the horse stag- 

 gers and shows a want of coordination of all of the muscles of its limbs. 

 The senses of hearing, sight, and taste are diminished, if not entirely 

 abolished. The visible mucous membranes (as the conjunctiva), from 

 whi(;h it is known as the " pink-eye," and the mouth and the natural 

 openings become of a deep saffron, ocher, or violet-red color. This latter 

 is especially noticeable on the rim of the gums and is a condition not 

 found in any other disease, so that it is an almost diagnostic symptom. 

 If the animal is bled at this period the blood is found more coagulable 

 than normal, but at a later period it becomes of a dark color and less 

 coagulable. There is great diminution or total loss of appetite with an 

 excessive thirst, but in many cases in cold-blooded horses the animal 

 may retain a certain amount of appetite, eating slowly at its hay, oats, 

 or other feed. 



We have, following the fever, a tumefaction or eedema of the subcu- 

 taneous tissues at the fetlocks, of the under surface of the belly, and of 

 the sheath of the penis, which may be excessive. This infiltration is 

 non inflammatory in character and produces an insensibility of the skin 

 like the excessive stocking which we see in debilitated animals after ex- 

 posure to cold. In ordinary cases the temperature has reached its 

 maximum of 105° or 100° F. in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours 

 from the origin of the fever. It remains stationary for a period of from 

 three to four days without the variation between morning and evening 

 temperature which we have in pneumonia or other serious diseases of 

 the lungs. At the termination of the specific course of the disease, 

 which is generally close to eighty six hours, the fever abates almost as 

 rapidly as it commenced, the swelling of legs and under surface of belly 

 diminishes, the appetite returns, the strength is rapidly regained, the 

 mucous membranes lose their yellowish color, which they attain so raj)- 

 idly at the commencement of the disease, and the animal convalesces 

 promptly to its ordinary good condition and health, and rapidly re- 

 gains the large amount of weight which it lost in the early part of the 

 disease, a loss which frequently reaches 30, 50, or even 75 pounds each 



