On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 535 



of temperature, or the conjoined action of wet and cold, and in 

 such circumstances is often very troublesome and apt to become 

 habitual. It is the same disease as catarrh or bronchitis, except 

 in situation. It depends on irritation of the mucous membrane, 

 and of the mucous follicles abundantly distributed on it, and 

 which pour out an excessive quantity of fluid. 



Exposure to wet and cold, by deran^ino: the functions of the 

 skin, sometimes induces laminitis, especially if the horse be over- 

 heated and exhausted from severe or long-continued work. The 

 production of laminitis in such cases has already been noticed 

 under the second head of this essay, and therefore need not be 

 again adverted to here. 



When horses, previously well housed and tended, are exposed 

 to rain and cold, they are occasionally attacked by inflammation of 

 the kidneys, which frequently results from the continued dropping 

 of rain on the loins, or from exposure to drifting snow or sleet. 

 The disease, however, is not of very frequent occurrence in the 

 horse, but most cases of it result either from the above-mentioned 

 causes, from injudicious feeding, or from the excessive action of 

 powerful diuretics ; and not, as is generally stated, from blows or 

 external injuries, which cannot, we think, seriously affect organs 

 so deep-seated and protected as the kidneys. Nephritis, or in- 

 flammation of the kidney, is ushered in with ordinary febrile 

 symptoms : the pulse is accelerated, but soft, from the large 

 amount of mucous membrane involved ; the bowels are out of 

 order ; there is sometimes diarrhoea, but more generally consti- 

 pation ; the animal walks with a straddling gait, and if turned 

 round grunts with pain. When one kidney only is affected, the 

 stiffness and lameness are confined to the corresponding side ; the 

 urine is diminished in quantity, and altered in quality ; it is 

 sometimes mixed with pus, sometimes with blood ; when voided, 

 it may be liquid, or in clots or shreds : the pulse after a time 

 becomes much accelerated, and symptoms of coma appear, de- 

 pending upon arrested action of the kidneys, and accumulation of 

 urea in the blood. 



In exposed situations the fibrous and fibro-serous are very apt 

 to become affected by rheumatic inflammation. This variety of 

 inflammation is principally confined to these fibrous tissues, is 

 attended by fever, manifests a marked disposition to shift from 

 one part to another, and differs from ordinary inflammation in its 

 terminations, for it does not run on either to suppuration or gan- 

 grene. Some animals have a greater disposition to it than others ; 

 but this predisposition may be engendered, even in the healthiest 

 subjects, by exposure to cold and wet. Such agencies appear to 

 induce rheumatism, by causing an abnormal congestion of the 

 internal organs, and arresting the cutaneous excretions. Effete 



