200 
Influenza in Horses. 
been given of the affection generally include some reference to the 
sudden attack, the weakness and general exhaustion, with weeping 
eyes, sore throats, cough, and stiffness of movement, which are the 
well-known signs of the influenza of our own time. 
Climatic influences seem to have little to do with the outbreaks 
of influenza which have been from time to time recorded. The horse- 
plagues of Egypt, the horse-sickness of South Africa, the horse-dis- 
temper of America, are, most probably, very closely related to the 
disease which has always been known in Europe. Their different 
degrees of malignancy may be due to the change of conditions in 
different parts of the world. In this country we are well aware 
that influenza may assume a malignant, or benign form; according to 
the system of treatment to which the sick animals are subjected. 
While it is correct to say that horses suffer more or less from 
influenza periodically — in fact, a year seldom passes without the 
■appearance of the disease in some districts — public attention is not 
attracted unless a severe outbreak occurs. 
Nearly eighteen years ago alarming reports reached this country 
of the ravages of a fatal horse-distem} er in America. The affection 
had spread, it was said, from some Canadian towns to the United 
States, and hundreds of horses died from the disease in the streets 
of New York. Reports from American veterinarians led to the 
balief that the disease was nothing more than the well-known 
influenza, and in a short time the fact was admitted by the Americans 
themselves. The fatality was traced to the maltreatment of the sick 
horses, which, in obedience to the spirit of competition, were kept at 
work in the ears until their powers of endurance were exhausted, 
and they fell to rise no more. 
After a time, during which there was something like a panic 
among horse owners in the affected districts, and an approach to the 
same mental state among horse-owners here, the urgent appeals 
from many veterinary surgeons in the States prevailed. Sick horses 
were properly nursed and tended, and the fatal distemper proved to 
be as easy to manage as it is in this country. 
A few years after the outbreak of the American horse-distemper, 
another American novelty was announced, under the name of Pink 
Eye. Again English veterinarians recognised an old acquaintance — 
a form of influenza in which swelling of the eyelids and redness of 
the lining-membrane are the first, and often the most marked, 
symptoms. This time, however, we paid our cousins across the 
Atlantic the compliment of adopting their name for the disease, and 
since then we have had our outbreaks of Pink Eye, as we had long 
before under the more usual name of influenza. 
During the recent prevalence of influenza among human beings, 
the friendly inquiry, Have you had it 1 was constantly made, and 
the reply was, too frequently, Yes ! Another question, not so easily 
answered, was asked among medical men : What is it? A form of 
malaria, said some. Fever, undoubtedly, replied others. A protean 
disease, certainly, was the response from those who declined arbitrary 
definitions. Catarrh, pneumonia, nephritis, locomotor ataxy (loss of 
