184 
OBSERVATIONS ON INFLUENZA IN HORSES. 
soft prolonged cough the instant their throttles were in the slightest 
degree compressed. 
RlGOR is not present in all cases. Commonly, when it is, it 
occurs early — ushers in the febrile stage : I have, however, in 
several instances seen fits of shivering attack the patients, some- 
times daily, through the entire febrile period of their illness. The 
best prophylactic against rigor, as well as the best treatment for it, 
is abundance of warm woollen clothing upon the body, and ample 
lolds of flannel bandages upon the legs. 
The Fever of influenza is of the low or adynamic character : it 
seems to correspond to what is called nervous fever in the human 
being, which by some is thought to be the same as the typhus 
mitior of Cullen, though by more to be a distinct species. The 
pulse, though frequent, possesses no strength — nothing in its beat 
to indicate blood-letting ; and experience has on most occasions 
shewn that those practitioners who have refrained from the use of 
the lancet have been the most successful. What the animal’s feel- 
ings are, labouring under a severe attack of this fever, we of course 
can but conjecture ; it is impossible, however, not to see that, in 
some cases, the pain in the head is extreme ; and vertigo , fits 
even, have been on some occasions the consequence of the disorder 
in the head*. Moreover, the nervousness — or morbid irritability 
— is perceptible everywhere, and in no parts more than in the 
mucous and serous membranes : hence the fitful respiration re- 
marked on by me in my last communication ; also by Mr. Carlisle 
in his account of the influenza for 1841 : he found “ the respira- 
tion laborious at intervals.” We are also informed by the same 
gentleman, that the influenza of that year possessed a “ tetanic 
character,” further shewing the nervous nature of the malady. 
Pathology of Influenza : — The best of us have been de- 
ceived in our views on this subject. Inflammation, and intense 
inflammation, has seized on important structures, to subdue which 
we have naturally had recourse to the phleam ; the result, however, 
has too commonly shewn we have been in error ; the inflamma- 
tion was not of the ordinary (sthenic) character, but of an asthenic 
nature. Post-mortem examinations have disclosed marks of in- 
tense inflammation, the reddening being unusually dark, of a 
Modena hue, as though mortification had been approaching ; and the 
parts thus affected have been the pharynx and larynx, the tracheal 
and bronchial membranes, the pleura costalis and pulmonalis, the 
pericardium and its reflection over the heart, the mucous lining 
of the caecum and colon ; that of the nose and frontal and maxillary 
sinuses; and the membranes of the brain; — 1 have seen the capillary 
* This case was alluded to in my last paper. 
