142 PHRENITIS. 



to their fall extent. The horse will often be materially relieved, and, perhaps, 

 cured by this decisive treatment ; but, if the golden hour has been suffered to 

 pass, or if remedial measures have become ineffectual, the scene all at once 

 changes, and the most violent reaction succeeds. The eye brightens— strangely 

 so ; the membrane of the eye becomes suddenly reddened, and forms a frightful 

 contrast with the transparency of the ccrnea ; the pupil is dilated to the utmost ; 

 the nostril, before scarcely moving, expands and quivers, and laboursj the 

 respiration becomes short and quick ; the ears are erect, or bent forward to catch 

 the slightest sound; and the horse, becoming more irritable every instant, 

 trembles at the slightest motion. The irritability of the patient increases — it 

 may be said to change to ferocity — but the animal has no aim or object in 

 what he does. He dashes himself violently about, plunges in every direction, 

 rears on his hind legs, whirls round and round, and then falls backward with 

 dreadful force. He lies for a while exhausted — there is a remission of the 

 symptoms, but perhaps only for a minute or two, or possibly for a quarter of an 

 hour. 



Now is the surgeon's golden time, and his courage and adroitness will be put 

 to the test. He must open, if he can, one or both jugulars : but let him be on 

 his guard, for the paroxysm will return with its former violence and without 

 the slightest warning. 



The second attack is more dreadful than the first. Again the animal 

 whirls round and round, and plunges and falls. He seizes his clothing and 

 rends it in pieces ; perhaps, destitute of feeling and of consciousness, he bites and 

 tears himself. He darts furiously at everything within his reach ; but no mind, 

 no design, seems to mingle with or govern his fury. 



Another and another remission and a return of the exacerbation follow, and 

 then, wearied out, he becomes quiet ; but it is not the quietness of returning 

 reason — it is mere stupor. This continues for an uncertain period, and then he 

 begins to struggle again ; but he is now probably unable to rise. He pants — 

 he foams — at length, completely exhausted, he dies. 



There are but two diseases with which phrenitis can be confounded, and they 

 are cholic and rabies. In cholic, the horse rises and falls ; he rolls about and 

 kicks at his belly ; but his struggles are tame compared with those of the 

 phrenitic horse. There is no involuntary spasm of any of the limbs ; the animal 

 is perfectly sensible, and, looking piteously at his flanks, seems designedly to 

 indicate the seat of pain. The beautiful yet fearfully excited countenance of 

 the one, and the piteous, anxious gaze of the other, are sufficiently distinct; and, 

 if it can be got at, the rapid bounding pulse of the one, and that of the other 

 scarcely losing its natural character in the early stage, cannot be mistaken. 



In rabies, when it does assume the ferocious form, there is even more violence 

 than in phrenitis; but there is method, and treachery too, in that violence. 

 There is the desire of mischief for its own sake, and there is frequently the 

 artful stratagem to allure the victim within the reach of destruction. There is 

 not a motion of which the rabid horse is not conscious, nor a person whom he 

 does not recognise ; but he labours under one all-absorbing feeling — the intense 

 longing to devastate and destroy. 



The post-mortem appearances are altogether uncertain. There is usually 

 very great injection and inflammation of the membranes of the brain, and even 

 of portions of the substance of the brain ; but in other cases there is scarcely 

 any trace of inflammation, or even of increased vascularity. 



The treatment of phrenitis has been very shortly hinted at. The first — the 

 indispensable proceeding — is to bleed ; to abstract as much blood as can be ob- 

 tained ; to let the animal bleed on after he is down ; and indeed not to pin up the 

 vein of the phrenitic horse at all. The patient will never be lost bv this decisive 



