120 THE INFLUENZA OF 1836. 
important organ, and you have all the constituents of thoracic 
influenza. 
The cause I do not know. Contagion is a fertile source, and 
I cannot say that I have been able to trace the disease to any 
other. Sometimes I have blamed exposure, bad stables, general 
bad management, and other agents; but I have seen horses again 
and again under the influence of suspected agents without suffer- 
ing as I expected they would suffer. Wherever the disease has 
appeared, it has, with a few exceptions, gone over the whole 
stud. In many large studs, quite contiguous, but not connected 
with diseased stables, there has been no influenza. In one con- 
taining twelve horses, ten took the disease ; it was double-headed, 
and the disease went over one side before it invaded the other; 
at least, only one on the first side remained well when the others 
began to be affected. In another stable fourteen out of sixteen 
horses took it ; and in the majority of smaller stables, none have 
escaped. There is often, however, a considerable interval be- 
tween the first and the last. In one stable of eleven horses only 
two took it ; but that was before the disease became so preva- 
lent. In a stud of about one hundred and twenty horses, one 
came off a journey with the disease. He was kept out of the 
yard, and he was the only sufferer. 
The Treatment of Thoracic Influenza is soon de- 
scribed. In the prefebrile stage I bleed, and give a laxative, 
and stimulate the throat, putting the horse by himself, if pos- 
sible, in a loose box, and on fever diet. I am not sure that it is 
the best practice to bleed in this stage. The fever, when it 
comes, rarely runs high ; but it is never prevented by bleeding ; 
I should rather say I have never seen it prevented. I have tried 
stimulants, the ammoniacal carbonate with ginger, but their effect 
has been doubtful. The truth is, few patients come under treat- 
ment in this stage, and I have not been able to make many ex- 
periments. So far as I have yet seen, depletion is better than 
stimulation. 
After bleeding and so forth, I wait till the fever appears. If 
the pulse continues to rise, after it has reached 65 or 70, and 
particularly if the eye is very red, I bleed again. In several 
cases the first bleeding has appeared to subdue or arrest the 
disease, while yet in the prefebrile stage. The horse has be- 
come more lively, he has eaten up his mashes, and recovered a 
portion of his strength ; on some fine day he has gone to exercise 
or gentle work, and got corn as usual; then, on the next day, 
he has been in a high fever. There have been bad cases. In two 
there was hydrothorax, and death. Relapse is always dangerous ; 
but I dread it most when the fever has never been developed. 
