178 
Pink Uye among Sorses in 1890. 
numerous instances has been found to be seriously involved in a 
general inflammation of the lining membrane. This has occasioned 
symptoms of abdominal pain (often referred to the bowels), and fre- 
quent staling and restlessness of the hind extremities. Swelling of 
the legs takes place early, and continues throughout the attack. The 
same condition may appear about the lips, beneath the breast, and 
along the course of the belly. Indeed, all the depending parts of the 
body show a disposition to dropsical effusion into the tissues. The 
duration of the disease varies from five to fifteen days. In favour- 
able cases, symptoms of returning health are seen about the sixth 
day, when the head ceases to droop, the eyes become bright, a desire 
for food returns, and the swellings begin to disperse. The tempera- 
ture of the body falls, and the pulse and respirations show a marked 
change both in number and character. In unfavourable cases, pul- 
monary complications most commonly arise in -which the lungs 
become involved in a gangrenous or suppurative inflammation, end- 
ing in septicjemia (blood-poisoniag) and death. Xot infrequently 
pleurisy is added to pneumonia, or the disease centres itself in the 
large bowels and kills by gangrenous enteritis. 
Tlie proportion of animals attacked has v aried considerably in 
diflerent studs, depending upon special circumstances and manage- 
ment : in some it has not exceeded five to six per cent., while in 
others it has reached as high as seventy to eighty. Similar variations 
are noted in the mortality of the disease : in some studs it has not 
exceeded two or three per cent. ; in others I have known it to reach 
as high as fifteen per cent. This greater death-rate is invariably 
identified with overcrowding and bad sanitation, and especially with 
an absence of means of segregation of the sick. 
With, reference to tlie treatment of influenza, it has to be borne 
in mind that it is essentially a febrile disease and, like all other 
specific fevers, runs a definite course. The symptoms above de- 
scribed are evidences of the struggle which is going on between the 
virus on the one side and the \-ital resistance of the animal on the 
other. Inasmuch as vce cannot efiectively assail the former, measures 
of treatment must be directed to strengthening and upholding the 
latter and guarding against complications which threaten in the 
course of tlie attack. The treatment of influenza, although in some 
individual instances simple enough, is not, from the broad standpoint 
of medicine, a duty to be undertaken by the amateur save at con- 
siderable risk. Numerous examples of .serious and extensive losses 
due to amateur doctoring have recently been noticed. Much, how- 
ever, may be done by the intelligent horse-owner to limit the spread 
of the disease, and by judicious nursing to assist the efforts of the. 
veterinary practitioner. 
Prompt and complete isolation of the sick from the healthy is of 
the first iniporiancc in dealing with this and other contagious dis- 
orders. The sick box or stable should be large and dry, with ample 
ventihition, and wliere practicable the temperature .should be kept 
at between ')^)'^ and 60^ Fahr. Gootl drainage and the frequent 
remo%al of all excrement, with general cleanliness, are important 
