612 THE RECENT INFLUENZA AMONG HORSES. 
indeed, horses are very frequently found lying down in the ordi- 
nary cases of the disease, apparently from sheer debility. 
THE Complaint USUALLY lasts, in an aggravated form, about 
five or six days, when re-action takes place, and it is surprising 
how soon the patients rally.. Delicate horses suffer most, and 
are much pulled down by it. Horses that have had old wounds 
or swelled legs from any causes have very generally exhibited 
the disease, when first affected, by a swelling or breaking out 
in these diseased and weakened parts. It is a fact worth 
noticing, that there has scarcely in any case been a discharge 
from the nose ; its occurrence may be looked on as a favourable 
symptom. 
It is evidently a Disease of a Low Typhoid Charac- 
ter, in which, if re-action does not soon take place, every organ 
will quickly run into decay. The vital powers so quickly fail, 
that active treatment seems to be out of the question. 
On this Principle, both Bleeding and Physicking 
seem to be contra-indicated. At the same time, the state of 
the bowels, which are inclined to costiveness, together with the 
swelled state of legs and eyelids, evidently demand a some- 
thing to be done to relieve them, by acting upon the absorbents; 
and the difficulty consists in just doing sufficient, and not too 
much, merely to keep up a drain on the system without pro- 
ducing exhaustion. The simplest forms of the disease require 
but little aid in the way of medicine from the veterinary sur- 
geon, and unnecessary treatment will do harm. My intention 
would evidently be to produce a pultaceous state of dung. 
From the symptoms above described, it will be inferred that 
there is a great susceptibility to the action of purgative me- 
dicine, and so it is. Where the dung does not shew slime, 
or only to a trifling extent, 1 venture upon aloes in small quan- 
tities in the first instance. I give a ball composed of aloes, 
resin, and nitre, of each 5ij. This generally has produced all 
the effect desired; but I must confess sometimes it has acted 
stronger than I wished, though never to a dangerous or alarm- 
ing extent. I have never dared to repeat this ball ; but should 
sufficient action not have been produced, have trusted to the 
frequent use of injections, assisted, in a few cases, by small 
doses of oil. When the dung has been slimy, I have not ven- 
tured on aloes in any shape; but have given half-pint doses of 
linseed oil until the required effect has been produced. After the 
bowels have been opened, with a view of keeping up a gentle 
drain on the sj'stem, I have been sometimes in the habit of 
giving daily, or as discretion may dictate, the following ball, 
which, from its slightly diuretic and alterative qualities, I have 
found very useful: — 
