CASES OF THE EPIDEMIC. 
15 
going case. Liver gorged with blood, and greatly softened in 
structure ; all other organs healthy. 
Remarks. — The greater number of horses that died were of 
this description. Bleeding seemed to have a very injurious and 
often an immediately fatal effect ; as an instance of which I will 
here mention, that I had three horses taken ill on the same day 
with the same symptoms; that I bled each of them at 7 p.m. 
the same evening, taking as much blood as the pulse would ad- 
mit of: from one I succeeded in taking five quarts, from another 
three, and the other would not bear to lose more than two quarts. 
The blood was nearly black, and flowed in a wiry stream from a 
large orifice. On the following morning, when the men came 
to stables, all three horses were dead, and had evidently been so 
for hours. There was so perfect an absence in the evening of 
all immediately dangerous symptoms, that I did not consider it 
necessary to keep a person with them all night; and they must 
have died almost without a struggle, as the men who slept over 
head, and the sentry in front of the stable, heard no noise. 
CASE III. 
Jan. 10 th . — Admitted a young bay horse, off his feed, with 
great heaviness and depression ; pulse between 50 and 60, and 
weak. No faeces have been seen voided. The diet was changed to 
bran. Three parts of a dose of physic were given in solution, and 
one drachm of calomel in a ball, with a little ginger and gentian 
— warm clothing to the body, and bandages and hand-rubbing 
to the legs. Towards evening he looked more lively, and was 
feeding. 
11 th. — This morning the pulse is upwards of 60, but weaker — 
great langour. The medicine has not acted, nor have any faeces 
passed — the appetite gone. I blistered the region of the liver 
most extensively — ordered injections every two hours, and gave 
four drachms of aloes in solution. The coat is looking healthy, 
and the extremities and legs comfortable, &c. — he drinks very 
freely or water or gruel ; but the debility is fast increasing. At 
night the weakness being extreme, I gave two drachms of cam- 
phor, and two drachms of carb. ammonia in a ball. 
12 th, 9 a.m. — The animal excessively weak — still drinks very 
freely — bowels perfectly torpid. The blister, although of the 
strongest kind, has had no effect. The pulse 65 to 70, and 
nearly indistinct. I gave one pint of common oil. At 12 a.m. 
he began to shew those symptoms which several horses had done 
previous to a fatal crisis : viz. throwing the head up and down, 
the eyes becoming bright and staring, and a reeling movement 
