208 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



come lacerated between the teeth; he foams at the mouth and falls 

 down in a spasm. The urine flows away involuntarily, and the 

 breathing may be temporarily arrested. The paroxysm soon passes 

 off, and the animal gets on his feet in a few minutes after the return 

 of consciousness. 



TreatTnent. — Dashing cold water on the head during the paroxysm. 

 After the recovery, 1 dram of oxide of zinc may be given in his feed 

 twice a day for several weeks, or benefit may be derived from the 

 tonic prescribed for chorea. 



PARALYSIS, OR PALSY. 



Paralysis is a weakness or cessation of the muscular contraction, 

 by diminution of loss of the conducting power or stimulation of the 

 motor nerves. Paralytic affections are of two kinds, the complete and 

 the incomplete. The former includes those in which both motion and 

 sensibility are affected ; the latter those in which only one or the other 

 is lost or diminished. Pa:ralysis may be general or partial. The 

 latter is divided into hemiplegia and paraplegia. When only a small 

 portion of the body is affected, as the face, a limb, the fail, it is desig- 

 nated by the term local paralysis. When the irritation extends from 

 the periphery of the center it is termed reflex paralysis. 



Causes. — They are very varied. Most of the acute affections of the 

 brain and spinal cord may lead to paralysis. Injuries, tumors, disease 

 of the blood vessels of the brain, etc., all have a tendency to produce 

 suspension of the conducting motive power to the muscular structures. 

 Pressure upon, or the severing of, a nerve causes a paralysis of the 

 parts to which such a nerve is distributed. Apoplexy may be termed 

 a general paralysis, and in nonfatal attacks is a frequent cause of the 

 various forms of palsy. 



General paralysis. — This can not take place without producing 

 immediate death. The term is, however, usually applied to paralysis 

 of the four extremities, whether any other portions of the body are 

 involved or not. This form of palsy is due to compression of the 

 brain by congestion of its vessels, large clot formation in apoplexy, 

 concussion, or shock, or any disease in which the whole brain structure 

 is involved in functional disturbance. 



Hemiplegia, or paralysis of one side, or half, of the hody. — ^Hemi- 

 plegia is frequently the result of a tumor in the lateral ventricles of 

 the brain, softening of one hemisphere of the cerebrum, pressure from 

 extravasated blood, fracture of the cranium, or it may be due to poi- 

 sons in the blood or to reflex origin. When hemiplegia is due to or 

 the result of a prior disease of the brain, especially of an inflamma- 

 tory character, it is seldom complete ; it may affect only one limb and 

 one side of the head, neck, or muscles along the back, and may pass off 

 in a few days after the disappearance of all the other evidences of the 



