140 APOPLEXY. 



Horses at grass arc occasionally attacked by this disease j but they are 

 generally poor, hard-worked, half-starved animals, turned on richer pasture 

 than their impaired digestive organs are equal to. Perhaps the weather is hot, 

 and the sympathy of the brain with the undue labour of the stomach is 

 more easily excited, and a determination of blood to the brain more readily 

 effected. 



Mr. Percivall gives a very satisfactory illustration of the production of staggers 

 in this way. He says that " when his father first entered the service of the 

 Ordnance, it was the custom to turn horses which had become low in condition, 

 but were still well upon their legs, into the marshes, in order to recruit their 

 strength. During the months of July, August, and September, nothing was 

 more common than an attack of staggers among these horses, and which was 

 naturally attributed to the luxuriant pasture they were turned into, combined 

 with the dependent posture of the head, and the sultry heat to which they were 

 exposed." 



Occasionally it will be necessary for the owner or the veterinary attendant to 

 institute very careful inquiry, or he will not detect the real causes of the dis- 

 ease. Does it arise from improper management, to which the horse has been in 

 a manner habituated ? Had he been subjected to long labour and fasting, 

 and had then the opportunity of gorging to excess ? Did it proceed from acci- 

 dental repletion — from the animal having got loose in the night, and found out 

 the corn or the chaff bin, and filled himself almost to bursting? There is 

 nothing in the appearance of the animal which will lead to a discovery of the 

 cause — no yellowness or twitchings of the skin, no local swellings, as some have 

 described ; but the practitioner or the owner must get at the truth of the mat- 

 ter as well as he can, and then proceed accordingly. 



As to the treatment of staggers, whatever be the cause of the disease, bleed- 

 ing is the first measure indicated — the overloaded vessels of the brain must be 

 relieved. The jugular vein should be immediately opened. It is easily got at — 

 it is large — the blood may be drawn from it in a full stream, and, being also the 

 vessel through which the blood is returned from the head, the greater part of 

 the quantity obtained will be taken immediately from the overloaded organ, and 

 therefore will be most likely to produce the desired effect. No definite quantity 

 of blood should be ordered to be abstracted. The effect produced must be the 

 guide, and the bleeding must be continued until the horse falters, or begins to 

 blow — or, perhaps, with more assured success, until he falls. Some persons 

 select the temporal artery. This is very unscientific practice. It is difficult, 

 or impossible, to obtain from this vessel a stream that promises any decisive suc- 

 cess. It is likewise difficult to stop the bleeding from this artery, and, after all, 

 the blood is not drawn from the actual seat of the disease — the brain. » 



The second step is to ascertain what is the cause of the apoplexy. Has the 

 animal got at the corn or the chaff bin ? Had he been overfed on the evening 

 before, and is his stomach probably distended to the utmost by what he has 

 eaten ? In such a case, of what avail can physic be, introduced into a stomach 

 already crammed with indigestive food ? Or what effect can twelve or twenty 

 drachms of aloes produce, a small portion only of which can penetrate into the 

 stomach ? Recourse must be had to the stomach-pump, one of the most valu- 

 able discoveries of modern times, and affording the means of combating several 

 diseases that had previously set all medical skill at defiance. Warm water must 

 be injected. The horse is now incapable of offering much resistance, and the 

 injection may be continued not only until the contents of the stomach are so far 

 diluted that a portion of them can escape through the lower orifice of that 

 viscus, but until the obstruction to vomiting offered by the contracted entrance 

 of the stomach is overcome, and a portion of the food is returned through 

 the nostrils or mouth. 



