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THE VETERINARIAN, AUGUST 1, 1845. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
To persons out of the veterinary profession it may seem strange 
that we are — or rather have been of late — continually writing and 
talking about influenza. They may well ask, What can it mean ] 
What can this bugbear, influenza, be] All that we have to say in 
reply is, We only wish it were in our power to satisfactorily answer 
inquiries so reasonable. We can inform our querists so far as that 
“ influenza” is the name now-a-days given to any disease prevail- 
ing epidemically — attacking great numbers of horses about the 
same time, in various localities and situations, without any regard, 
so long as the disease in all or most of them be the same, to what 
happens to be its nature or even to what organs or parts of the body 
are attacked by it. During the winter months of last year, running 
into the spring of the present year, an influenza prevailed among 
horses in and about the metropolis and various parts of the country, 
assuming the characters of pharyngo-laryngitis, bronchitis, and 
pleuro-pneumonia. As the summer approached, we beheld this epi- 
demic growing milder in its form, attacking fewer horses, gradually 
indeed taking its leave of us. Hardly, however, has it passed 
away, than a fresh visitor — in the shape of an influenza — has made 
its appearance, and is, at the time we are writing (the last week but 
one in July), rapidly spreading among the horses in some parts of 
London, exhibiting characters altogether different from the previous 
one. It is worthy of observation, however, that while the former 
influenza attacked young horses, the present one shews a predilection 
for aged subjects. Two structures especially are attacked by it, 
viz. the eye and the cellular tissue. In some cases they experience 
the onset of the disease, and of themselves appear to constitute it ; 
in others, they shew no signs of being implicated until symptoms 
of constitutional derangement have been manifest for one or two or 
more days. The horse appears before us with one or both of his 
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