DISEASES OF THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 63 
in fact, that happens to oppose him, and in this posture paws with 
his fore-feet, or performs the same action with them as he would 
were he trotting, evidently all the while unconscious of what he is 
about. His eye, which at first was full of drowsiness, has now 
acyuired a wild, unmeaning stare, or has already become dilated 
and insensible to light. The respiration is tardy and oppressed ; 
the pulse slow and sluggish ; the excretions commonly diminished. 
The late Professor CoLEMAN used to relate a circumstance, in 
is lectures, connected with this disease, which throws considerable 
ligkt on its origin. The artillery horses stationed in London dur- 
ing the winter of 1817 suffered very considerably from stomach 
staggers; so much so that it was considered to be endemical, and 
of an infectious character. With his usual penetration, he soon 
discovered the cause, and found that, from some new regulations 
ubout that time, the stablemen were not allowed any candles, and 
during the winter the horses were bedded up at five o’clock in the 
evening, and not fed again until eight o’clock on the following 
vaorning, when they consumed their breakfast voraciously, gorging 
‘heir stomach, not to the degree likely to produce acute indiges- 
tion, but sufficiently distending them as to oppress the blood-vessels 
ind the circulation through them. This practice, continued day 
rfter day, caused a syecific inflammation of the stomach—an inflam- 
raation of a peculiar character, differing from gastritis or inflam- 
nation of the part. The symptoms produced were regarded as 
esulting from the sympathetic connection between the stomach 
snd the brain, united to the effects that would arise from the daily 
listension, throwing a vast quantity of blood on the brain. An 
urder was obtained for candles for the use of the stablemen, which 
enabled tke horses to be fed at a later hour in the evening, and an 
earlier one in the morning, when the disease disappeared. 
A commoa error still prevails, in many districts, that staggers is 
a contagious disease ; but should the horses on a farm be atlackrd 
occasionally with slight fits of this kind, the farmer may rest 
assured that there is mismanagement somewhere in the feeding 
department. 
From such evidence as this, it will be inferred that there exista 
ao doubt regarding the cause of stomach staggers. 
Treatment.—We now propose to show how this disease ought to 
be treated. The proposition of cure is, that the digestive function 
shal] be aroused, and the only way to accomplish that is by admin- 
