408 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 



tion by a sort of internal compression, and this tendency is of coursw 

 increased by rapid exercise and the consequent heat. That this is one of 

 the primary causes is evinced by the fact that constipation attends nearly 

 every case. Indigestion and foul stomach are the natural results of con- 

 finement in hot and badly aired stables, unwholesome food, or food in 

 excess of the quantity required by the amount of daily exercise, of 

 extreme cold, of extreme heat, and of great fatigue. Hot weather, 

 when the horse is of full habit, will sometimes derange the digestive 

 functions, and undue exercise will then quickly develop a case of blind 

 fttafforers. 



Draft horses, and particularly those that are young and of a plethoric 

 or full blooded tendency, are most subject to it, though it is not confined 

 to any age. • It is rarely the case that a horse under the saddle is attacked 

 with it. 



The dread of l;he whip, combined with the consequent fretting and in- 

 terference with both the digestive and circulatory functions, is thought 

 to produce it in sensitive horses. 



It is ordinarily regarded as an incurable disease. If there is an organic 

 predisposition to epilepsy, entire recovery is of course out of the ques- 

 tion ; and when a horse has been once attacked, though previously free 

 from any such tendency, he is subject to a return of the complaint be- 

 cause the vessels have been weakened by violence, and offer less resist- 

 ance to the rapid flow of blood in the arteries, or the abnormal gathering 

 of it in the small veins of the brain. 



How to know it. — In its final manifestations it is unmistakable ; but the 

 careful and intelHgent owner ought to be able to detect some symptoms 

 of an appoaching attack in time to guard against its most hurtful effects. 

 That condition of body which superinduces congestion by internal com- 

 pression and derangement is not difficult to detect, and attention to this 

 may be the means of warding off a violent attack. This is indicated by 

 an offensive breath ; somewhat impeded respiration, or expelling of the 

 air from the lungs ; chewing food slowly, perhaps letting some of it fall 

 from his mouth only partly masticated ; a foul tongue ; a dry and clammy 

 mouth ; disposition to plunge his head into the water above the nostril* 

 when drinking; faices (or dung) hard and difficult to pass; and urin© 

 ejected in small quantities. 



As previously observed, the attack very seldom comes on while the 

 horse is ridden, but Avhile he is being rapidly driven, or after he has been 

 subjected to a long, hot pull under a tight collar, a closely-drawn check 

 rein, or a throat-latch buckled almost chokingly. 



Occasionally the attack will be sudden and without the slightest warn- 

 ing; he will fall almost as though shot, or make an effort to run around 



