194 
IMMODERATE THIRST IN A HORSE. 
By Thos. Wright, M.R.C.V.S., Brighton. 
The patient was a brown horse, about fifteen hands one inch 
high, and had been in constant use as a saddle-horse for some 
length of time. 
My attention was directed towards him on the 29th of Dec. 
last, in consequence of his having, during the previous week, 
been the subject of an insatiable thirst. I found him looking 
cheerfully, his skin feeling harsh and dry — slight universal febrile 
action — appetite somewhat fastidious, but still pretty good — re- 
peated profuse ejections of urine — bowels costive — faeces passed 
with considerable exertion — mouth hot and dry, and thirst most 
excessive, it not having been quenched for more than a week. 
I determined upon allowing him as much thin gruel as he would 
take — gave an aperient, and took away a small quantity of blood. 
At first the gruel could not be made sufficiently quick for him : 
he would plunge his mouth into each succeeding bucket, and 
drink with such avidity, that one would suppose he had not been 
offered any kind of fluid for some time previous ; and it was not 
until the eighth and part of the ninth stable pailful of this be- 
verage had been taken by him that he cried, “ hold, enough.” 
Now, however, he walked contentedly away ; and that he 
might appease his thirst as soon as it again should make its ap- 
pearance, a pailful was placed in the corner of his box. 
Soon after this he became evidently nauseated, from the quan- 
tity of fluid taken accelerating the action of the medicine ; and in 
less than twelve hours from the time of its administration he began 
to purge, and this he continued to do tolerably briskly through 
the next day and night, and part of the day following. His thirst, 
however, had now entirely disappeared, and a few days, with the 
help of small quantities of tonic and diaphoretic medicine, served 
perfectly to establish his usual good health. 
To whatever cause this disease may have owed its origin I 
am in no way prepared to say. Bad conditioned food is most 
generally ascribed as the cause of similar affections, but I am con- 
fident that was not the cause here. The most likely and plausible 
manner to account for the appearance of disease in this particular 
instance appears to me to be this, that the horse had been neg- 
lected, and had not had sufficient water given to it to admit of 
the various animal functions being healthfully performed : the 
blood, not being sufficiently diluted, became, from the super- 
abundance of salts contained in it, stimulating in its character. 
