DISEASES OF THE BRAIN AND NEKVUUS SYSTEM. im) 
of blood to the head. After the horse has fallen, by his struggles 
and herculean efforts to battle with the malady, although uncon. 
ciously, he soon breaks out into a profuse perspiration. This has 
the effect of relaxing the capillaries so that the blood circulates more 
freely and uniformly. An equilibrium of the circulation takes piace, 
and this is the end of epilepsy fur the time being. But a horse once 
having had a fit of this kind must be looked upon with suspicion ; 
for ke is liable, when under excitement from wanton punishment, 
or from exercising great feats of strength in drawing heavy loads, 
to have a re-attack. 
Cause.—The predisposing cause of epilepsy has an hereditary 
origin. Horses subject to it have a misshapen head. It is not 
symmetrical!—dves not correspond with the conformation of the 
neck and bedy. In the language of the turf, “the head is toc 
coarse.” It has been found, also, among members of the human 
family, that epileptics have heads of an unnatural shape. Wart- 
son says: “There is no doubt that a tendency to epileptic disease 
is frequently hereditary. It may be bequeathed from parent to 
child, or it may skip over a generation or two, and appear in the 
grandchild or great- grandchild ; or it may be traceable only in the 
collateral branches of the ancestry.” Epilepsy, however, may uot 
always arise as an hereditary affection; for a mere passive conges- 
tion of the brain, owing to a loss of equilibrium in the circulatior 
of the blood, may produce it. In regard to the horse, it is ver, 
difficult for us to decide on the universal hereditariness of the 
tialady, because we have no reliable history of the ancestry and 
idiosyncrasies of our equine patients; yet if we study carefully the 
external conformation of well-formed horses, and make ourselves 
conversant with anatomy, we shall be better able to judge whether 
or no such an auimal carries about with him the inherent tenden- 
cies to particular diseases; and this knowledge will make up, to a 
certain extent, for the advantage which human medicine has over 
the veterinary in this department of knowledge. The principal 
symptoms of epilepsy are as follows: 
Symptoms.—Suppose the horse attached to a vehicle, and trav- 
eling along at any given pace. He gives a sudden, snorting, 
loud noise, and falls to the ground instantly, as if felled by some 
anknown power. Here he lies, to all appearance, totally uncon- 
scious, violently convulsed in every limb, his eyes staring as 
thorgh they would burst out of their sockets: the mouth foams 
