DISEASE CONCURRENT WITH THE PRESENT YEAR. 533 
animal rapidly losing flesh, I resorted to the probang, first using 
a sheep-tube, which I succeeded in passing down some way into 
the gullet ; but very considerable resistance was offered, and con- 
veyed to me the feeling as if I was expanding some part. The tube 
was regularly introduced for a few days, and in about a week 
food of a bland nature could be swallowed : the animal did well 
after a little time. In this case no doubt some effusion of lymph 
had taken place about the pharynx or the commencement of the 
gullet, and thus caused the obstruction in swallowing. 
Treatment . — The abstraction of blood is clearly pointed out by 
the pulse in nearly every case on the onset. Warm bland fluids 
the animal should be allowed to drink ; no balling or drenching ; 
all medicines to be taken by the animal voluntarily. Nothing seems 
so agreeable to the palate of the sick animal as acidulous ones, and 
the best counter-irritant for the first stage is cantharides and olive 
oil : it does not occasion half so much irritation as turpentine and 
ammonia. The turpentine liniment I have witnessed this season to 
have raised the pulse from 50 to 80 in the space of half an hour : 
l have observed no such occurrence from the cantharides. Next 
come setons : one on each side of the throat is requisite for the 
subacute stage : nothing can exceed their value. In numerous cases, 
after vesication had failed, they speedily performed the cure. 
Some cases have degenerated into strangles, and others into ab- 
scesses of the parotid gland. As soon as this epizootic had left us, 
the influenza appeared very similar in type to that of 1840- 
1841, chiefly affecting old horses. The first observable symptom to 
which our notice is brought, is either a swelling of the eyelids, 
with great internal conjunctival vascularity, or oedema of legs or 
belly, with a general stiffness. Cases that first occurred were more 
violent than those subsequently. Bleeding to a considerable extent 
some required, and others none; spontaneous diarrhoea in some 
occurred. Strong purgatives ought to be avoided; mild laxatives, 
with a suitable regimen, are the best adapted for the present dis- 
temper of 1845. Before concluding this paper, I beg to draw the 
notice of the profession to the similarity of symptoms that fre- 
quently happens to horses that have eaten wheat or barley. Horses 
that have eaten liberally of either, or have been kept some time on 
it as a diet, often present every symptom of the influenza ; first, a 
general soreness and stiffness, suffusion of the membranes of the eye, 
and swelling of the legs, followed occasionally by diarrhoea. We 
well know that wheat and barley act as a poison to horses and 
cattle, to the serious loss of many a farmer ; but it is the analogy 
of the symptoms between it and the influenza, to which I beg to 
draw the attention of my professional observers. 
