SPECIAL REPORT 
ON 
DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
THE EXAMINATION OF A SICK HORSE. 
By Lronarp Pearson, B. S., V. M. D. 
In the examination of a sick horse it is important to have a method 
or system. Ifa definite plan of examination is followed one may feel 
reasonably sure, when the examination is finished, that no important 
point has been overlooked and that the examiner is in a position to 
arrive at an opinion that is as accurate as is possible for him. Of 
course, an experienced eye can see, and a trained hand can feel, slight 
alterations or variations from the normal that are not perceptible to 
the unskilled observer. A thorough knowledge of the conditions that 
exist in health is of the highest importance, because it is only by a 
knowledge of what is right that one can surely detect a wrong condi- 
tion. A knowledge of anatomy, or of the structure of the body, 
and of physiology, or the functions and activities of the body, lie at 
the bottom of accuracy of diagnosis. It is important to remember 
that animals of different races or families deport themselves differ- 
ently under the influence of the same disease or pathological process. 
The sensitive and highly organized thoroughbred resists cerebral 
depression more than does the lymphatic draft horse. Hence a de- 
gree of fever that does not produce marked dullness in a thorough- 
bred may cause the most abject dejection in a coarsely bred, heavy 
draft horse. This and similar facts are of vast importance in the 
diagnosis of disease and in the recognition of its significance. 
The order of examination, as given hereafter, is one that has proved 
to be comparatively easy of application and sufficiently thorough for 
the purpose of the readers of this work, and is recommended by 
several writers. 
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