STAGGERS. 91 
till a distended stomach produces an oppressed brain. An uneasy sleep 
interrupts the gormandizing. The eye closes and the head droops. 
Suddenly the horse awakens with a start. It looks around, becomes 
assured and takes another mouthful. However, before mastication can 
be completed, sleep intervenes, and the morsel falls from the mouth or 
continues retained between the jaws. 
This state may continue for days. The horse may perish without 
recovering its sensibility; or mad staggers may at any period succeed, 
and the animal exhibit the extreme of violence. 
Mad staggers equally results from carelessness in the horsekeeper. 
The animal which gives itself up entirely to the custody of man, too 
often experiences a fearful return in recompense for its trustfulness. 
Any neglect with regard to the feeding of a horse, may entail the 
worst; and a most cruel death upon the inhabitant of the stable is too 
often its reward. The groom, perhaps, may slight his work, lock the 
stable door and hurry to his beer-shop, leaving the lid of the corn-bin 
unclosed. The horse in his stall, with his exquisite sense of smell, 
scents the provender and becomes restless, His desire is to escape from 
the halter. With fatal ingenuity the object is accomplished, and the 
next moment the animal stands with its nose among the coveted oats. 
It eats and eats as only that being can whose highest pleasures are 
limited to animal enjoyments. After a time it becomes lethargic; but 
from that state it is soon aroused by a burning thirst. The corn has 
absorbed all the moisture of the stomach, the viscus being dry and dis- 
tended. Pain must be felt, but thirst is the predominant feeling. Water 
is sought for. None is to be found; and the sufferer takes his station 
near the door, to await the appearance of his attendant. 
No sooner is the entrance opened, than the quadruped dashes out. 
With all speed it makes for the nearest pond. There it drinks the long 
and the sweet draught few in this life can taste; but to know which, is 
to die a terrible death. The corn swells more with the liquid imbibed. 
The stomach is now stretched to the uttermost. Continued tension 
causes inflammation. The brain sympathizes, and the horse speedily 
becomes acutely phrenitic. ; 
There is, however, a strange symptom, in which the two disorders 
appear mingled. The sleepy fit is not entirely removed, nor are the 
violent symptoms fully developed. The horse, in this condition, will 
press its head against a wall. In doing this, it only displays an impulse 
common to most animals in the sleepy stage; but the peculiarity is, that 
the eye may be half unclosed and the limbs vigorously employed, as 
though a trotting match were going forward. The breath will quicken 
and the creature be coated with perspiration. This attitude and motion 
