HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
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night seems the most common time of seizure. The earliest indications of ail- 
ment are dulness, weakness, and loss of appetite. In connection with these, or 
soon after they are noticed, there is frequently a shivering fit ; during its conti- 
nuance the skin may be of unequal temperature in different parts of the body, but 
it mostly becomes cold and dry. The nose looks redder than natural within ; the 
mouth is dry, hot, and clammy, although the lips are cold. The eye-lids (pro- 
bably somewhat swelled) are half closed over the dull, cloudy eyes; the head 
hangs down, and in cart horses the lower lip is sometimes retracted, or hangs 
pendulous, thus exposing the teeth, and giving the patient a peculiar sickly ap- 
pearance. If made to walk, the animal carries his head down ; totters or staggers 
on his fore legs, and reels behind, as though some severe injury had been inflicted 
on the loins. The pulse is quicker than natural, often attaining 55 to 60 beats per 
minute; but it is weak and unresisting to the finger. A short, sore cough is soon 
present, sometimes this is the symptom first noticed ; the breathing is somewhat 
accelerated, and, in severe attacks, is sighing and irregular. Dulness and weak- 
ness are present in many other diseases ; but here they appear so early, and with 
such uniformity, as to denote clearly that the whole system is prostrated in the 
outset as w r ell as by the progress of disease. In a few hours, varying from six to 
twelve, the pulse will probably reach 70 or 80 beats in a minute ; and, although 
the artery may feel of good volume, yet its pulsations can be arrested (com- 
pressed) by the slightest pressure. This iy obvious proof of real weakness, — 
weakness involving the heart, and felt throughout the system. The cough be- 
comes increasingly harsh and painful, for the inspired and expired air has to pass 
over a sore, almost raw, membrane. If the animal will yet eat or drink, fits of 
coughing are excited by the act of swallowing, and we sometimes find that the 
patient refuses food and liquids, apparently in consequence of the soreness of his 
throat. The hair feels harsh and dry, and stands half erect on the back and sides 
of the neck. One ear or leg will feel unusually cold, the other unnaturally hot, 
and the four legs will often present different degrees of temperature. In some 
cases the joints swell; moving gives evident pain; the patient turns round stiffly, 
and with difficulty. Where stiffness is most obvious, there is often most weeping 
of the eyes, swelling of the throat outside and within, with cough in its severest 
form. Many among you, gentlemen, have had influenza ; your backs felt a chill, 
colder than of ice-water running down them ; your throats raw and swelled, felt 
torn by a hoarse, raking cough ; your heads ached intensely inside and out; your 
limbs were racked by an aching soreness in skin, flesh, and bone ; your tempers, 
alas ! were worse than their bodies. Pity the poor horse, then ; for my convic- 
tion is, that (excepting infirmity of temper) he feels much as we feel, and endures 
all far more patiently than we. When twelve or eighteen hours of illness have 
passed, the attendant remarks that the horse has voided little urine ; that the 
bowel evacuations are limited in quantity, and covered with a thick layer of slimy 
mucus. Matters may continue much in this state for a day or two longer, after 
which, sometimes in consequence of treatment, and often without any treatment 
at all, except that included in good nursing, the symptoms will gradually subside, 
and, in great part, disappear in a week or ten days. The third or fourth day will 
generally show whether we may expect an early or favorable recovery, or one 
rendered tedious and perhaps doubtful, by complication and extension of dis- 
ease. The favorable signs are unmistakeably seen, in an early discharge of yel- 
lowish matter from the nose, a slower and rounder pulse, slight relaxation of the 
bowels, more copious urination, respirations fewer, deeper and more free ; softer 
skin, mild warmth in the legs and ears, cooler and more watery mouth, elevation 
of the head, and clearness in the eyes. These favorable signs precede a full return 
of appetite ; for nature does not induce the patient to feed till the system is ready 
for the process of digestion. In cases of a severe character, however, especially 
where influenza has been brought on by very active predisposing causes, we find 
that about the third day, the pulse becomes quicker, smaller, and, in not a few 
instances, irregular. The flanks and belly are drawn in, causing a prominent 
ridge to appear along a line, formed by the lower ends of the false ribs; breathing 
is hasty, short, and laboured. The irregular, or may be, intermittent pulse, and 
drawn up flanks, are unfavorable signs ; they indicate that the membrane lining 
