542 



On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 



the patient gets, the better. This mistake appears to be prevalent 

 in many parts of the kingdom, but especially in some of the more 

 wealthy manufacturing districts. Such opinions are, however, 

 very erroneous, and the practice to which they lead is often ex- 

 tremely injudicious. The evils of such practice are chiefly 

 observable in some of those catarrhal affections occasionally 

 occurring, as epizootics, in most varieties of that ill-defined dis- 

 ease influenza, and in all the exanthemata or eruptive fevers. 

 Such diseases generally run a certain definite course, and what- 

 ever interferes with that course is productive of more or less 

 injury ; they show a marked tendency to spontaneous recovery, 

 require only the use of measures which second the efforts of 

 nature, and are far more frequently mismanaged by too much 

 than by too little treatment. 



From these remarks it will be apparent that the medical 

 attendant may sometimes betray want of skill in employing 

 remedies in all stages of a disease which are suitable only in one 

 stage; in treating cases of the same disease in exactly the same 

 manner without any regard to modifying circumstances ; in inter- 

 meddling with diseases which are best left almost entirely to 

 nature ; or in attempting to alter the fixed and natural course 

 of disease. 



But want of professional skill, besides being often apparent 

 in the treatment of disease, is perhaps still more so in the 

 diagnosis and prognosis of disease. This is clearly shown in the 

 various contradictory statements made by different practitioners 

 concerning the same case, as may often be seen in the annals of 

 veterinary jurisprudence, and the reports of many of our courts of 

 law. How often, for example, do we find the most conflicting 

 opinions entertained on questions of soundness ! How faulty and 

 absurd are the ideas sometimes propounded concerning the nature 

 of diseases ! How fallacious the opinions often given of the 

 probable duration of particular cases, and of the time required 

 for the production of certain morbid appearances of death ! How 

 common the error of mistaking one pathological condition for 

 another, as congestion for inflammation — a chronic debilitating 

 disease for an acute and inflammatory one — a simple and curable 

 malady for a severe and incurable one ! 



There may occasionally be some difficulty in distinguishing 

 between normal and abnormal appearances ; the gradations 

 between health and disease being often so slight and imper- 

 ceptible that it is difficult to say where the one ends and the 

 other begins ; and hence perfectly healthy conditions are some- 

 times mistaken for morhid conditions, and vice versa. Thus, many 

 horses have been rejected as unsound, in consequence of the 

 opening through which the optic nerve passes being mistaken for 



