THE EPIDEMICS OF 1836. 
135 
I could expect, a ball, twice a-day, composed of two drachms 
of steel, two drachms of gentian, and five grains of finely pow- 
dered cantharides, made up with common turpentine ; I have 
also exhibited carbonate of ammonia in conjunction with gentian. 
Relapse . — Rare but marked instances have presented them- 
selves of relapse : about half a dozen horses experienced a 
second attack, differing only from the first in being milder. In 
one or two subjects a third attack seemed demonstrable. 
Pathology . — The parts principally affected appear to be, as 
far as we are enabled by the symptoms to point them out, the 
brain and nerves, the spinal marrow, and the serous or exhalent 
structures. The dispiritedness and indications of head-ach, 
together with the augmented sensibility of many parts, are suffi- 
cient to warrant us in inferring cerebral and nervous derange- 
ment or excitation ; while the infiltration of the legs, the sheath, 
the submaxillary space, and the eyelids — all parts redundant 
in cellular structure, and more or less dependent in their position 
— make it manifest that the exhalent system altogether is in 
an inordinate state of activity. This seems to be the result of 
the cerebral excitation ; or, in other words, a fever is set up in the 
constitution in consequence of some alarm or irritation the cere- 
bral or nervous system has experienced from some external 
influence, supposed to be atmospheric, which we neither know, 
nor profess to know, any thing about. And indeed of the nature 
of the fever we understand as little as we do about the cause : we 
see it first in an inflammatory form ; next, in a state of decline, 
as though it were about to take its departure altogether, and in 
some cases actually doing so; but in others, instead of’leaving, 
changing into a low debilitative character, and in that form 
hanging about the animal for quite an indefinite length of time, 
giving rise, on occasions, to fresh grievances, such as local in- 
flammations or swellings, abscesses, diseased lungs, &c. 
That the fever is specific or uncommon is shewn by various 
peculiar local disorders attending it, by its course and tendency, 
and by the little power we have over it by medicine. That it is 
not either infectious or contagious is made evident from the 
manner in which it affects horses standing congregated together 
in large bodies. That it is neither destructive nor malignant in 
its influence is proved by its evanescent character, and by the 
speedy return of health. That its production is connected with 
atmospheric causes seems most probable from the circumstance 
of its being found to prevail so extensively and generally at the 
same season, and, in all localities, in the centre of London and 
upon the Surrey hills — to present one uniform, aspect. That 
we are without any specific remedy for it, may be safely argued 
