OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. ^7 



terminate favorably. The rational treatment should be mild 

 and need not be so prompt. Small doses less often repeated 

 are given ; in fact with no treatment at all, the case will re- 

 cover. 



A chronic case is one of long standing. The rational treat- 

 ment is slow, and employs such remedies as tend to produce the 

 absorption of inflammatory deposits. 



RATIONAL TREATMENT OF A FEVER. 



Ephemeral fever or fabricula is a fever in which it is the 

 disease, there is no morbid anatomy. Fabricula is a simple 

 fever. 



Nature. — Fabricula is in itself the disease; it does not ori- 

 ginate in any particular organ ; runs a benign course ; termi- 

 nates favorably in 2 to 8 days. The nature of this disease 

 considers whether it is febrile or inflammatory, the organ af- 

 fected, the course the disease is likely to run, and its probable 

 termination. 



Etiology. — The main factors in causing a simple fever are 

 exposure to wet and cold, fatigue from hard work, irregular 

 feeding, improper diet, sudden change from the open air to con- 

 finement in the stable, change of climate, change from natural 

 life to artificial, — any one of these conditions may cause a sim- 

 ple fever. 



Symptomatology or Semeiology. — Fabricula comes on sud- 

 denly; a severe case will be preceded by rigor, the symptoms 

 of which are : 



1. Coldness of extremities. 



2. Surface of the body cold. 



3. Nose and ears cold. 



4. Shivering — begins slight and increases 



in severity until the animal is shaking 

 vigorously all over. 



5. Breathing increases in frequency, and 



a peculiar whistling sound is pro- 

 duced. 

 The number of normal respirations in the horse is 10, but in 



