658 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
horse walks with unsteady wavering gait; and with difficulty 
rises after lying down : the pulse, though it may be quick, 
indicates weakness rather than strength ; there is a general 
disposition to (Edema ; the mucous surfaces become exsanguine 
and leaden-hued; the appetite continues bad; and there is apt 
to be an excitable state of bowel present which lacks but an 
irritating cause to run into diarrhoea. The blood when drawn 
exhibits diminution of vis vita. It no longer coagulates as 
usual, but congeals only into a soft clot, of the consistence of 
currant jelly, which readily breaks down under slight pressure 
of the finger. And in this state of body it is that extrava- 
sations, ecchymoses, and petechiae occur. 
To add a few words on the subject of treatment. Many 
unprofessional persons, who are engaged about horses, fancy it 
an easy matter, to use their own language, “to cure influenza;” 
and, no doubt, in various simple and empirical ways, sometimes 
with and sometimes without medicine, or with such medicine 
as is tantamount in efficacy to none at all, this is frequently 
done ; the disease being one which, uninterfered with, will fre- 
quently, through the powers of the constitution, work its own 
cure : so that, instead of there being any credit due to such 
self-instructed doctors, no more is to be said for them than that 
they have the wisdom, either purposely or incidentally, not to 
interfere with the vis medicatrix natures , or, in other words, to 
employ means so inefficient that no harm is done by them. 
Professional men will, while they are giving the natural powers 
every scope and facility, watch the progress of the disease 
stage by stage, so as to be ready to step in at the critical 
moment their services may be called for. The grand point is, 
to avoid doing too much. Let well alone ; and take care not 
to offend “ well ” by interposing an irritation which may prove 
the beginning of evil. 
It will be in the recollection of some of our readers, that Mr. 
J. T. Hodgson presented to the London Veterinary Medical So- 
ciety, in 1836, samples of Thibet sheep and goats’ shawl wools. 
He has contributed similar samples in the Indian Department of 
the Great Exhibition, as well as some samples of experiments 
on wools when removed from the animals. It is stated by an 
author of our own profession, that “ hair or wool is of two kinds: 
one permanent, the other deciduous,” and that “ both kinds of 
wool or hair are characteristic of breed, existing separately in 
animals, or both together on the same animal.” Thus we have 
all coarse gelatinous wool in some sheep, or all fine albuminous 
and gelatinous wool in others, as the merino ; or we have both 
