397 
WATERY FARCY — EXTERNAL DROPSY, &C. 
From the increased action — the febrile commotion — by which 
this form of dropsy is preceded and accompanied ; the plethoric 
as well as excited condition of the system ; and the robust health 
of the animal at the time of the attack, we appear to have every 
reason to argue that the disease is owing to augmented exhalation 
or to actual effusion, and that this is of itself sufficient to account 
for the morbid appearances, without any reference to diminished 
absorption, a phenomenon of which we have no proof, and one, in- 
deed, against which the loss of flesh the animal sustains, notwith- 
standing his appetite often continues good throughout, strongly 
militates. I believe that cases do present themselves in which 
dropsy — in the form of swellings in the legs, &c., in young out-of- 
conditioned or debilitated horses — is the result of an overloaded 
and oppressed condition of the capillaries of the limbs : from the 
venous or lymphatic vessels having their circulation impeded or 
obstructed, the process of absorption does not go on equivalently 
with the deposition, and accumulation is the consequence. This 
latter is a case in which the powers of the vis-a-tergo — of the heart 
and arteries — is diminished, or inadequate to carry on with suffi- 
cient vigour the capillary circulation ; whereas, in the former case, 
these circulatory forces are augmented in energy. 
The disease to which these prefatory observations are intended 
to apply, with the view of casting light on its pathology, com- 
mences often the same as common fever or febrile catarrh or 
bronchitis would do. The horse is found to be unwell — he loathes 
his usual food, becomes feverish and dejected, has an accelerated 
pulse, and manifests quickness and unusual labour in his respi- 
ration. The veterinarian is called to him, and is told by the 
groom, probably, that the horse “ has taken cold and to prove 
that he has, makes particular allusion to some night when he was 
out, or to some hour in the day during which he stood in a draught. 
Should the swelling, however, have commenced — which in some 
cases it will do prior to or along with the febrile disorder — the 
groom at once pronounces the case to be one of “ humour,” the 
nature of which and the treatment for which are in his mind 
equally apparent. I have known, however, the preliminary fever 
to continue for several days before any swelling was detected, 
and for the same number of days the case either to prove myste- 
rious or dubious to the practitioner, or pronounced to be of a 
nature different from what it turned out, thus affording an 
example of the imprudence of venturing too early on names for 
diseases we may be treating. I believe the farrier’s doctrine and 
groom’s creed concerning humour is so far well-grounded, that 
nothing beyond simple plethora in the spring of the year — the 
season in which the disease most prevails — is requisite to produce 
in a constitution already, from some hidden cause or other, sus- 
VOL. XVII. ” 3 F 
