380 Veterinary Medicine. 



If the food above recommended is boiled or pulped, and mixed 

 with some saccharine agent as molasses its restorative action is 

 enhanced. 



If, however, we add to these hygienic and dietetic measures a 

 prolonged course of arsenic, the symptoms generally disappear. 

 From five to seven grains of arsenic made into a powder with a 

 drachm of bicarbonate of soda and ten grains digitalis may be given 

 daily in the food until improvement is noticed or symptoms of the 

 poisonous action of the agent appear. When these are manifested 

 in loss of appetite, colicy pains or red and watery eyes the medi- 

 cine must be suspended and begun again some days later in 

 smaller doses. 



The therapeutic value of arsenic in this case is probably largely 

 due to its action on the nervous system, which has long been 

 recognized. As early as the first century of the Christian Era, 

 Dioscorides recommended its use in asthma and in recent times 

 it has acquired a considerable reputation for the treatment of 

 neuralgia. Another — though perhaps an allied — physiological 

 action of arsenic no doubt adds to its value in this equine disorder. 

 This is its power of retarding the waste of tissues. This property 

 it possesses in common with tea, coffee and some other agents, 

 but to a greater degree. This has led to its extensive employ- 

 ment by the peasants in I^ower Austria, Styria, and the mountains 

 separating Austria from Hungary, who found that it improved 

 their personal appearance, increased their weight and enabled 

 them to sustain greater exertions in climbing without fatigue. It 

 was the revelations of Dr. Tschudi concerning the Styrian arsenic 

 eaters that first led Professor Bouley to try this agent in broken 

 wind. 



Examination of Broken-winded Horses. Though the 

 symptoms enumerated above are sufiicient to detect broken wind 

 in all ordinary cases, yet it may not be time thrown away to cau- 

 tion the reader against pronouncing it absent when the more 

 prominent symptoms are not seen. Unscrupulous dealers do not 

 hesitate to avail of a variety of devices to conceal the symptoms 

 and make the animal pass for a sound horse. Digitalis and othef 

 sedatives are so employed, but are mostly rejected because they 

 render the horse dull and sluggish. By some the bowels are un- 

 loaded by a dose of physic, the horse is kept on a spare diet of 

 oats, beans and other grain, water is withheld, and on the morn- 



