70 
WEAKNESS OF THE LOINS. 
junctiva, the hard and frequent pulse; however, as far as my 
experience, delirium does not ensue, or what is commonly 
called mad staggers ; and when a horse recovers from mad 
staggers, the effect is not, as I have ever heard, weakness of 
the loins, as it is frequently the result of this fever, which is 
endemial. Horses in particular localities are most subject to it, 
as to the eastward and lower provinces, adjoining the forests 
under the Himala mountains ; thus it was prevalent at Poosah 
stud, in Tirhoot, also at Palamcotta. In the north-western 
provinces, as the studs at Haupper, Meerut, and Hipar 
Ferozch, Province of Delhi, it was not so. I was only three 
years in Calcutta, I shall therefore give in his own words 
Mr, MoncrofPs treatment of this fever, as he had more expe- 
rience of it than myself. 
“ 1st. In suddenly withdrawing as much fluid from the 
vessels as the system can possibly bear, by bloodletting to, 
fainting, immediately after the attack, and repeated, as fre- 
quently and largely as can be done, within the first four or 
five days; following it up by gentle purging, kept up for six 
or eight days ; and by determining the circulating fluids as much 
as possible to the surface of the body, through preventing the 
escape of the natural warmth, by covering the horse with 
blankets. The principal objects of procedure are to arrest the 
progress of inflammation and deposition , and to increase that 
of absorption. In aid of these means the horse should have 
no more food than may be sufficient to prevent the animal 
dying from exhaustion.” 
Now any student reading this will understand that, when he 
meets with this fever, he must act with promptitude. He can, 
at his leisure, reflect on the predisposing and exciting causes. 
In this I will endeavour to help him. He will most likely be 
told, as I was, of a whole troop of horses having a stroke of 
the wind at Palamcotta, in one night ; and this might have 
been true. I have not been resident in such places. You 
have only to consider the extreme heat of the climate, the 
indolence of Europeans at such times, the less use of horses, 
w r hile at the same time they are frequently still as high* fed 
as in the colder season, when in more work ; the alternations 
of cold and heat during the periodical rains, to which horses 
are wholly or partly exposed ; regular cavalry in some parts 
of India not having stables, irregular cavalry (excepting 
officers, some of whom have many horses and several men) do 
* When I went to India, cavalry horses had full rations all the year 
round, it was afterwards diminished by Government order, in the hot and 
rainy season, with a saving of many lacks of rupees per annum. At studs, 
the cblts are highly fed. 
