PARALYSIS. 
561 
I have ever seen ; for I do not remember to have lost a 
single horse from this form of staggers, although I have 
found it necessary to sling the patients very often. The other 
cases are only a fac simile of dozens that annually come 
under my notice. 
The disease I believe to be primarily a derangement of the 
digestive functions, somewhat allied to “the stomach or sleepy 
staggers ” of our old writers, but of a milder and much more 
tractable nature. In every case the appetite is ravenous, and 
the animal will eat almost anything that comes in his way. 
In this part of the country these cases always occur in the 
latter part of June, or in July, according to the earliness or 
lateness of the growth of the grass. The malady never 
takes on an epidemic form except when the rye-grass — the 
only grass we grow here — is ripening its seed, and when the 
plants cannot be said to constitute either green succulent 
food, nor dry or well-made hay. It is far more prevalent in 
hot summers, when the animals are turned upon grass 
which is much scorched by the sun’s rays. Besides this, 
the disease is of frequent occurrence among stall-fed horses, 
when the grass is cut and carried to the stables in the same 
state which I have described. 
From these facts I am inclined to believe that the disease 
arises from the existence of some narcotic or paralysis-produc- 
ing principle in the rye-grass when it is changing from the 
green to a dry state. 
Having arrived at the probable cause of the disease, the treat- 
ment is at once plain — change the food either to perfectly green 
and succulent, or to thoroughly dry, and in a few days the 
animal will be better. I prefer, however, to give a purge, and 
here I may remark that in this disease an ordinary dose of 
physic will often act in ten or twelve hours, if green food be 
given afterwards. Occasionally it is necessary to keep the 
animal principally on bran mashes, and to give daily doses of 
sulphate of iron. I prefer this plan to the abstraction of blood, 
as the patients bear up badly against the loss of that fluid. 
Indeed, as a rule, bleeding greatly aggravates the symptoms, 
and often to an alarming extent. The eye may look less 
wild for an hour or two, and the staggering be even dimi- 
nished for a short time ; but assuredly the symptoms will 
return with fourfold more force. The horse that could stand 
before will either now tumble headlong to the ground with 
his neck bent under him, or he will go backwards, rear up, 
and fall heavily on his back or side in a trembling state of 
excitement. Two, three, or even four weeks’ nursing after this 
will scarcely fit him for his work, while two or three days are 
