4 
It is nevertheless usually more prevalent at spring time and autumn than at 
other seasons, though it may appear at any time of the year, and already 
during the month of February, 1886, the writer has had under treatment many 
horses attacked by a very severe though not fatal form of the disease. 
There is no doubt that defective sanitary arrangements predispose the 
horse to attacks of this disease, or render the system a more fit receptacle 
for the growth of the germs of influenza, and no doubt also enhance the 
severity of the symptoms which are manifested. We would specially draw 
attention to insufficient ventilation and bad drainage. A due supply of pure 
air is of paramount importance to the well-being of the horse, while on the 
other hand small, dark, stuffy, badly-drained stables predispose him to all 
forms of disease. It has been observed that horses are, as a rule, affected 
with a more severe form of influenza in large towns than in country districts, 
and this is doubtless largely due to the smaller size of the stables and the 
bad ventilation. Indeed, defective drainage and ventilation are sufficient of 
themselves to produce fatal disease, by causing the animal to breathe air 
contaminated by poisonous effluvia and emanations. Furthermore, neglect 
of any description, as well as insufficient food and excessive work, predispose 
the horse to severe attacks of influenza. 
Many of our readers are doubtless acquainted with the more usual 
symptoms of influenza. The dry staring coat, the coldness of the extremities, 
and the redness of the lining membranes of the nose, are early manifestations. 
The temperature, which should reach but 100°.5 F. in health, is raised three 
degrees or more ; and the number of ‘the beats of the pulse, which should 
number but 36 in a healthy horse, rises to 50 or 60 beats or more per minute. 
There is sneezing and hacking cough, and from the nostrils there runs at 
first a thin glairy fluid, which, as the disease is established in two or three 
days, becomes thicker and more abundant. The temperature often rises a 
degree or two higher, and the cough also becomes more severe and 
cistressing, while the pulse is still quicker and more feeble. 
The breathing of the animal is also increased, the appetite is impaired,. 
and sometimes almost totally lost. Soreness and swelling of the throat 
cause pain and difficulty in swallowing, and the excreta become more 
scanty. After about three to six days the symptoms usually abate, leaving 
the horse much enfeebled, but the strength usually returns in about a. 
fortnight from the first onset of the attack. 
Influenza does not by any means always thus speedily terminate in 
recovery, for in some instances “bronchitis,” or inflammation of the bronchial 
tubes, which are the continuations of the windpipe, may supervene, more 
especially in weakly and debilitated animals. In these cases the danger is 
seriously increased—-the breathing becomes very difficult, the nostrils are 
widely opened, and the lining membrane of the nose becomes of a livid 
purplish hue, owing to the fact that the blood is no longer properly aérated 
in the lungs. Such cases as these are attended with great risk, and may 
prove fatal in a week or so. They require-all the care of the scientific veterinary 
surzcor, and their treatment cannot be undertaken by amateurs. .Again, 
