Equine hijluema. Adynamic Catarrhal Fever of SoHpeds. i5i 



In the worst cases death may ensue by the third or fourth day, 

 but in others the diarrhoea is critical and heralds an improvement 

 which goes on to a speedy recovery. In still other cases the 

 bowel troubles continue, the fever does not give way and the pri- 

 vation of food and rapid metamorphosis of tissue produce steady 

 emaciation and fatal marasmus. 



A striking feature of the gastro-intestinal disease is the extra- 

 ordinary susceptibility to laxatives. So much is this the case 

 that I have known of two drachms of aloes proving fatal by super- 

 purgation in a large, mature Percheron horse. It is never safe to 

 use laxatives in equine influenza until one has ascertained whether 

 in the special form of the epizootic in question the gastro-intestinal 

 organs are or are not especially involved. 



Disorders of the eye are so common or constant as to have pro- 

 cured for certain epizootics the name of pink-eye. They set in 

 suddenly, and equally in both eyes, with infiltration of the lids 

 and particularly of the mucosa which is of a more or less deep 

 red, and may bulge between the margins of the eyelids, (che- 

 mosis). The flow of tears is profuse, seropurulent matter ac- 

 cumulates at the canthi and in the lachrj'mal sacs, vision is im- 

 paired and there is intolerance of light. The cornea becomes 

 bluish, cloudy or milky white, with a red zone around its margin 

 and, above all, on the adjacent sclerotic. In some cases the 

 aqueous humor becomes turbid or flocculent, and the iris changes 

 its clear, healthy dark lustre for a dull brown or yellow tint. 

 The tension of the globe may be materially encreased. They are 

 readily distinguished from recurrent ophthalmia by the attendant 

 weakness, stupor and hyperthermia, and by their non-recurrence 

 in case the patient survives. 



The nervous symptoms are especially manifest in the sudden 

 seizure, great prostration, extreme weakness, profound stupor or 

 lassitude, the staggering gait, in bad cases, insensibility to voice, 

 slap or, it may be, even to the whip, the rigidity of the loins, 

 their insensibility to pinching, the difficulty of turning in a short 

 circle, or of backing. The high fever, disproportionate to the ap- 

 preciable local lesions, and its sudden improvement at the critical 

 period, the excessive weariness and the disposition to lie down 

 contrary to the habit of other inflammatory chest diseases are 

 further indications. 

 II 



