154 PALSY. 



CHOREA. 



Thia is a convulsive involuntary twitching of some muscle or set of muscles, 

 A few, and very few, cases of it in the horse are recorded. Professor Gohier 

 relates one in which it attacked both fore legs, and especially the left, hut the 

 affection was not constant. During five or six minutes the spasms were most 

 violent, so that the horse was scarcely able to stand. The convulsions then 

 became weaker, the interval between them increased, and at length they dis- 

 appeared, leaving a slight but temporary lameness. All means of cure were 

 fruitlessly tried, and the disease continued until the horse died of some other 

 complaint. In another case it followed sudden suppression of the discharge of 

 glanders and disappearance of the enlarged glands. This also was intermittent 

 during the life of the animal. 



FITS, OR EPILEPSY. 



The stream of nervous influence is sometimes rapid, or the suspensions are con- 

 siderable. This is the theory of Fits, or Epilepsy. Fortunately the horse is 

 not often afflicted with this disease, although it is not unknown to the breeder. 

 The attack is sudden. The animal stops — trembles — looks vacantly around 

 him, and falls. Occasionally the convulsions that follow are slight ; at other 

 times they are terrible. The head and fore part of the horse are most affected, 

 and the contortions are very singular. In a few minutes the convulsions cease ; 

 he gets up ; looks around him with a kind of stupid astonishment ; shakes his 

 ears ; urines ; and eats or drinks as if nothing had happened. 



The only hope of cure consists in discovering the cause of the fits ; and an 

 experienced practitioner must be consulted, if the animal is valuable. Generally 

 speaking, however, the cause is so difficult to discover, and the habit of having 

 fits is so soon formed, and these fits will so frequently return, even at a great 

 distance of time, that he who values his own safety, or the lives of his family, 

 will cease to use an epileptic horse. 



PALSY. 



The stream of nervous influence is sometimes stopped, and thence results 

 palsy. The power of the muscle is unimpaired, but the nervous energy is defi- 

 cient. In the human being general palsy sometimes occurs. The whole body — 

 every organ of motion and of sense is paralysed. The records of our practice, 

 however, do not afford us a single instance of this ; but of partial paralysis there 

 are several cases, and most untractable ones they were. The cause of them 

 may be altogether unknown. In the human being there is yet another dis- 

 tinction, Hemiplegia and Paraplegia. In the former the affection is confined 

 to one side of the patient ; in the latter the posterior extremity on both sides is 

 affected. Few cases of hemiplegia occur in the horse, and they are more 

 manageable than those of paraplegia ; but if the affection is not removed, they 

 usually degenerate into paraplegia before the death of the animal. It would 

 appear singular that this should be the most common form of palsy in the 

 human being, and so rarely seen in the quadruped. There are some considera- 

 tions, however, that will partly account for this. Palsy in the horse usually 

 proceeds from injury of the spinal cord ; and that cord is more developed, and 

 far larger than in the human being. It is more exposed to injury, and to injury 

 that will affect not one side only, but the whole of the cord. 



Palsy in the horse generally attacks the hind extremities. The reason of this 

 is plain. The fore limbs are attached to the trunk by a dense mass of highly 

 elastic substance. This was placed between the shoulder-blade and the ribs 

 for the purpose of preventing that concussion, which would be annoying and 

 even dangerous to the horse or his rider. Except in consequence of a fall, there 



