G ASTRO- ENTERITIS AND INFLUENZA. 
79 
(fever) must be more general, and are therefore called epidemic 
in the spring and fall of the year, when the animal is coating ; at 
which period I have already proved there is fever in the system, 
and this agrees with the following passage in Mr. Percivall’s 
Hippopathology : — “ I believe many of the cases presented to us 
about the spring and fall of the year will be found to possess the 
gastro-enteritic character.” 
He might add, that every case of influenza possesses it in a 
more or less degree, for we cannot have fever to any extent with- 
out the functions of the digestive organs becoming more or less 
impaired ; and laying hold of this effect, instead of looking for its 
cause, the celebrated Broussais asserted that four-fifths of diseases 
consist in irritation of the mucous membrane, and that therein re- 
sides the essence of fever. I however feel confident that any 
person who takes nature as his guide will not agree with Brous- 
sais, or with the following passage in D’Arboval’s exposition of 
the disease : — “The principal and most constant lesion, however, 
that which constitutes the disease, and from which all others 
were derived, was inflammation of the mucous membrane of the 
stomach and intestines.” 
Now, gentlemen, the civil veterinary surgeon may not have the 
same opportunity of seeing this disease in its first stage as the 
cavalry ; for the latter inspects almost every horse in his regiment 
twice a-day, and consequently must detect the first symptoms of 
disease. But those who have been called in will agree with me 
at once, that all the symptoms of fever, as chilliness and heats, in- 
crease and alteration in the character of the pulse, and also in 
the respiration, together with loss of appetite and dulness, always 
precede any indications of gastero-enteritic irritation. Therefore 
it is from this fever, and not from “ inflammation of the mucous 
membrane,” that all the various phenomena and complications 
attending gastro-enteritis (and so minutely detailed by the French) 
are derived; the gastro-enteritic affection itself being one of the 
many effects produced by the same cause which in one animal 
gives rise to the assemblage of symptoms, termed influenza, and 
in another (according to the constitutional predisposition, & c.) to 
those which constitute gastro-enteritis. Any person that will 
take the trouble of placing Professor Dick’s description of influenza 
by the side of D’Arboval’s gastro-enteritis, will perceive the 
similarity that exists between the two, and this is precisely what 
we should expect, as there is nothing specific in either ; for the 
symptoms in both, as I before stated, are mere products in the 
same membrane of one parent, and that parent is fever. 
I do not mean to say that this fever is always produced by one 
