Among Horses in India. 65 



being rather difficult of digestion by a horse which is unable 

 to take exercise. Fully one ounce of salt should be mixed 

 in the food daily, and even double that quantity to a large 

 horse. 



Anthrax. 



Anthrax fever is one of the most fatal diseases to which 

 horses in India are subject. It is usually called Loodiana 

 fever, because it was first brought into prominent notice by 

 a very .severe outbreak having occurred some years ago at 

 Loodiana in the Punjab. It sometimes appears in isolated 

 cases. For instance, one horse only in a whole regiment 

 may be attacked on the line of march at a camping-ground. 

 Usually, however, many horses are affected within a few 

 days when there was previously no reason whatever to expect 

 an outbreak of the disease. 



On its first appearance it is generally very virulent, by far 

 the greater number of those attacked dying ; but at the end 

 of the outbreak it becomes milder in its character, allowing 

 a larger proportion to recover. This fact, which is observed 

 also in cholera and other epizootics, is very apt to mislead 

 practitioners with regard to the action of various remedial 

 agents. Having in the early part of an outbreak failed to 

 cure, they try new plans of treatment, and at last, finding 

 themselves successful in a large proportion of cases, they 

 attribute the recoveries to the action of the new remedies. 



Some years ago, during my residence in India, a surgeon 

 tried tartar emetic in the treatment of cholera with such 

 success that many thought the specific for that disease had at 

 last been found. 



During an epidemic of cholera in the West Indies, a 

 surgeon treated the last seventeen cases with iced sea-water, 

 and they all recovered. 



Neither tartar emetic nor iced sea-water seem to be much 

 used now, and the proportion of deaths in those attacked by 

 cholera appears to be as great as it was sixty years ago. 



A salutri in the Bengal cavalry, in his evidence before a 

 committee some years since, asserted that he could cure 



5 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



