THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XVI, No. 187. JULY 1843. New Series, No. 19. 
THE PRESENT INFLUENZA AMONG HORSES. 
By Mr. W. Percivall. 
THE return of spring, or, rather, the change from cold to mild 
weather, has brought with it the looked-for influenza among 
our horses. As diseases in general, from a variety of causes, some 
of which are cognizable by us, some not, as years roll on, alter 
their character,, intensity, and prevalence, so epidemics or influ- 
enzas differ a great deal in different years. In some seasons 
they prevail so generally that old as well as young horses 
become affected : ordinarily, the young — the three, four, and 
raw five-year-olds — are, with few exceptions, the subjects of 
them. In some years the severity or fatality of the disease or 
diseases constituting the influenza is such, that numbers of 
horses die of it, in spite of every kind of treatment that can be 
brought against it ; in other seasons so mild is it in its character, 
that under almost any mode of management, and often without 
treatment at all, the patients recover. On some occasions the 
disease is of a nature that “hangs about” the patient for a long 
while without, at any period, placing his life in jeopardy, though 
in the end leaving him extremely out of condition and debilitated : 
on other occasions the disease manifests itself at once, and 
admits of being “ cut short” by timely and proper treatment. 
To the phrases influenza, epidemic , epizootic , endemic , enzootic , 
&c., no medical man of the present day attaches any definite 
meaning. Any disease may be epidemic, influenzial, &c., that 
happens to prevail to any inordinate extent at any particular 
season or time. One year an influenza will be purely catarrhal 
in its nature ; another, it will assume the form of fever ; another, 
it will consist in pulmonary affection ; sometimes it will manifest 
itself, in an especial manner, in disordered bowels. This year 
the leading and prevalent symptom of the influenza is sore 
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