204 
REVIEW. 
given too liberally after the sparing diet of winter ; the difficulty 
of mastication young horses experience ; the irritation of denti- 
tion; lastly, change of situation, which to him appears most 
influential. 
“ M. Charlier is no believer in the specific nature of distemper. 
He, on the contrary, regards it as a simple inflammation, pre- 
valent at certain seasons of the year during youthhood, on 
account of influences then preponderating, but which may ma- 
nifest their agency in all seasons and at all ages, and are liable 
to return whenever the causes determining them at first should 
come to exert like influence over like subjects. And yet, in 
the face of this opinion, M. Charlier does not hesitate to ac- 
knowledge that distemper of the simple kind, freely discharged 
forth, is a crisis favourable to the health of the horse. But 
distemper, in M. Charlier’s estimation, is not a disease peculiar 
to horses. He has seen it, on one farm, raging at one and the 
same time, among the (adult) horses, the colts, the oxen, and 
the cows, and even assume among the horses and oxen a gan- 
grenous type, placed together, as they were, in a stable badly 
ventilated and dirty; whereas, among cows better provided 
for, the same complication (of disease) did not ensue. 
“ The distemper, according to M. Charlier, is a malady emi- 
nently contagious. And to support this opinion, he invokes 
authorities of the most weighty description on record, viz., 
Solleysel, De Garsault, Bourgelat, Paulet, Brugnone and Gil- 
bert; to which we may add, Gohier and Toggia, who have 
essayed to demonstrate its truth by experiments which to M. 
Charlier have appeared conclusive. 
“ Nevertheless, this is an opinion which is far from having 
the concurrence of modern veterinarians. Many of these latter 
are opposed to it, at the head of which we may place Delafond 
and Hurtrel D’Arboval. According to these two authors, the 
circumstance of distemper breaking out simultaneously among a 
number of horses living together, admits always of explanation 
from general causes. 
“ This opinion is combatted by M. Charlier. Without deny- 
ing the influence of general causes in the production of the 
same disease among a great number of animals, M. Charlier 
contends that there exist circumstances under which distemper 
propagates itself without the presence of any such causes. “ In 
this way, a young horse arriving from the country where he 
has been reared, contracts distemper as the consequence of 
change in all his habitudes. The same horse is put to sojourn 
with the working horses of a farm, and suddenly distemper 
breaks out among the latter, without any modification whatever 
having been introduced into either their work or their regimen. 
