EXAMIlfATIOlf — DIAGNOSIS. 125 



Examination oi' the Patient. — Diagnosis. — Having 

 noticed a few of the principal appearances presented by the 

 horse when in health, I have now to treat upon such peculiari- 

 ties as are manifested by the animal when affected with disease. 



Before medical treatment can be resorted to with at least a 

 fair hope of success, it is first necessary to determine the 

 nature and seat of the malady requiring treatment. The deter- 

 mination of the precise nature of the disease constitutes what 

 is denominated its Diagnosis, from the Greek word SiayiyiioxrKei.ii 

 (diagignosTeein) signifying to discern, or to distinguish rightly. 



One of the primary essentials to the diagnosis of a disease 

 is the observer recognising the vital state of the patient ; or in 

 other words, to know the peculiar condition of the organism as 

 a whole, with reference to the Hfe force within it ; because by 

 this our treatment for the eradication of the malady should, in 

 in a great measure, be directed. The state of the organism 

 will give to the disease whatever peculiarity of character it 

 possesses. If the system, for example, be debilitated from old 

 age, severe labour, insufficient food, or from all these causes 

 acting in association, we shall find the disease to be of the class 

 denominated asthenic. On the contrary, if the system be 

 vigorous, and its vital power unimpaired, the disease will 

 partake of a similar character, and as a natural consequence, 

 our treatment should vary accordingly. An inflammatory 

 disease, when manifested by an enfeebled organism, is very 

 different from an inflammatory disease when the vital force of 

 the patient is vigorous. In the latter case it will be necessary 

 to have recourse to the most powerfid remedies we possess, to 

 lower the violence of the disease ; while in the former, the way 

 to benefit the patient is to raise the natural force of the organism, 

 and afterwards to support and economise it to the utmost extent 

 in our power. To gain a clear knowledge then of the nature 



