EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 65? 
succumb to its influence. Febrile action, ushered in by dejec- 
tion, loss of appetite, and hot and cold states of skin, &c. com- 
mences, and at first dries up the ordinary secretion of these 
organs, though subsequently it causes augmentation, perhaps 
alteration, of them. The mouth is hot, the tongue dry, the 
Schneiderian and conjunctival membranes injected and secre- 
tionless, the latter, perhaps, intolerant of light, the former sus- 
ceptible to a degree to cause sneezing or blowing, with occa- 
sional dry cough. The pulse becomes quickened, and the body 
and extremities now grow hot. This stage is succeeded by one 
of secretion and tumefaction. The serous and mucous tissues 
relax, and exhale or secrete; sometimes the serous first, some- 
times the mucous. Either the horse begins running from the 
nose and eyes, or the eylids and legs and sheath become filled. 
There are differences observable in the affection of these two 
structures which have seemed to us, heretofore, to warrant a 
division of the influenza into two distinct diseases : on mature 
reflection, however, we would rather ascribe these apparent 
divisions in the disease to difference of age and condition of 
subject, season of year, & c. But what is remarkable in all 
subjects, and at all times, is, that, should there be any organ or 
part of the body at the time of attack which from previous or 
existing disease, or other cause, is “ weaker,” or in a state of 
greater susceptibility than the other parts or organs, that one 
will be sure to suffer from influenza, and suffer to a greater 
extent, probably, than any other. This is a fact to which we 
have had occasion already to draw attention ; indeed, among 
practical men it is one too notorious hardly to need mention. 
And knowing this, we should be very careful how, in the course 
of treatment, we irritate or annoy any part in particular, so as 
to run the risk of bringing upon it the infliction of influenza. 
In this way is it, in our opinion, that aloes, drastic purge as it 
is, not infrequently lays the foundation for a fatal termination 
by superinducing upon the influenza an attack of gastro-enteritis. 
We feel ourselves twitched in conscience in our practice on this 
score. In Mr. Gloag’s two fatal cases, likewise, it may, we 
think, fairly become a question, how far the blistering the sides 
led to the attacks of pleuritic and pneumonic disease ; and, in- 
directly, through the horses standing continually, to the sequel 
of laminitis. 
Although the influenza gives some indications of sthenic 
action at the commencement, this proves but transient ; for it 
quickly manifests, most unmistakeably, the opposite character. 
Prostration of power is sometimes a very early, sometimes even 
an incipient, symptom. Adynamia evidently prevails. The 
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