446 Veterinary Medicine. 



with renal epithelium, imply nephritis and grave conditions. In persistent 

 paresis, muscles waste. Modes of death. Mortality 20 per cent. Diag- 

 nosis, by history of onset, etc. Prevention : When highly fed and hard- 

 worked, give daily exercise ; with comparative rest, reduce, ration and give 

 laxative or diuretic. Plenty of water. Treatment : Rest, sling, diffusible 

 stimulants, bleeding, bromides, water ad libitum, fomentations, unload liver 

 and portal vein, purgative, eserine, barium chloride, enemata, diuretics, for 

 remaining paresis, derivatives, strychina, diet, laxative, non-stimulating, 

 restore to work gradually, antiseptic, potassium iodide. 



Definition. An acute auto-poisoning occurring in plethoric 

 horse on being subjected to active exertion after a period of idle- 

 ness, and manifested by great nervous excitement and prostra- 

 tion, paresis commencing with the hind limbs and the passage of 

 haemoglobin in the urine. 



Nature and Causes. The most varied conclusions as to the 

 nature of this disease have been put forward by different authors. 

 In England, Haycock called it hysteria, mistakenly supposing 

 that it was confined to mares, and Williams attributed it to 

 uraemic poisoning, conveniently ignoring the fact that the sudden 

 manifestation of the most extreme symptoms in an animal which 

 just before was in the highest apparent health and spirits contra- 

 dicted the conclusion. In France (Trasbot) and Southern Europe 

 (Csokor) it has been looked on as a spinal myelitis, a conclusion 

 based on the disturbed innervation of the posterior extremities in 

 the great majority of cases, but which is not always sustained by 

 the pathological anatomy of the cord. In Germany veterinarians 

 have viewed the disease from widely different standpoints. 

 Haubner calls it myelo- renal-congestion (Nieren-Riickenmarks): 

 Weinmann, a rheumatic lumbago ; Dieckerhoff defines it as an 

 acute general disease of horses, manifested by a severe parenchy- 

 matous inflammation of the skeleton muscles, with a bloody in- 

 filtration of the bone marrow, especially of the femur, and with 

 acute nephritis and haemoglobinuria. He attributes the attack to 

 exposure to cold. If this were the real cause the attack would 

 be far more common in very cold weather when the horse is sud- 

 denly exposed to cold drafts between open doors and windows, 

 than when he is harnessed and driven so as to generate and 

 diffuse animal heat. Yet attacks in the stable are virtually un- 

 known, and in almost every instance the onset occurs during a 

 short drive. Friedberger and Frohner say that the epithet rheu- 



