436 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOll. 



the di«-estive functions are deranged by either excessive burdens imposea 

 upon them or want of sufficient nutrition in that food which is digested. 



It is difficult to assign any reason why the general predisposition should 

 be determined primarily to the face. 



It has been observed to prevail mostly in those regions where Indian 

 com is constantly fed, and in those, whatever be the predominant food, 

 where the animal uses only, or chiefly, free stone water — a fluid lacking 

 in that phosphate element so essential to bony structures. 



Hard labor and abuse, poor food and bad stable management, doubtless 

 do much to precipitate the disease. 



How to know it. — Before the visible swelling of the face there will 

 generally be evident weakness, loss of appetite, laziness ; a slight suffu- 

 sion of the eyes with tears — one or both according as one or both sides 

 of the facial bone is affected ; then a swelling, about half way between 

 the eye and the nostril, small and hard, but gradually increasing in size. 

 If the swelling is pressed upon with some force the horse will wince with 

 pain, but gentle rubbing seems to give ease. The lower jaw, under th» 

 chin, will next appear thickened ; a degree of general stiffness sets in ; 

 at last the joints are swollen, and seem puffed up with wind ; the horse 

 rapidly fails in flesh ; and the head becomes enormously swollen, and 

 finally breaks into little openings which discharge an offensive pus. 



What to do. — It is well, perhaps, to warn the reader in the outset not 

 to do any of those foolish things which characterized the old practice, 

 such as boring into the diseased part and injecting corrosive poison ; lay- 

 ing open the jaw and sawing out a portion of the bone ; blistering, burn- 

 ftig, etc. The disease is not local, but constitutional, and though perhaps 

 having no other visible manifestation than on the face, it has extensive 

 connection with various portions of the frame, so that purely local treat- 

 ment is of little consequence. 



The first step will be to see that the patient is well stabled or other- 

 wise cared for according to the season of the year, and put upon a sys- 

 tematic course of food, drink, and moderate exercise in the sun. Give 

 him from five to seven quarts of oats per day, and if these are boiled and 

 mixed with a little wheat bran, all the better. When green vegetables 

 can be had, they should be fed liberally, to counteract a sort of scorbutic 

 or scurvy tendency which marks this disorder. Apples, beets, carrots, 

 turnips — whatever fruit or vegetable you can get him to take is good. 

 When seasonable, put him upon a bountiful pasture. 



Give the following in eight doses, night and morning, with such food as he 

 ivill most readily eat: 



