G66 ON RABIES IN THE HORSE. 
and all that I could learn was, that for about a week previous 
he had appeared very odd ; and this I found, on further ques- 
tioning them, was intended to refer principally to his temper, 
and the appearance of his eye and countenance. 
Two or three days afterwards I was sent for again to look at ano- 
ther horse of Mr. Robinson’s that was shewing the same symptoms 
that had first been noticed in the horse that had been killed. I 
stayed some time, after my arrival there, to observe and exa- 
mine him ; and I must add my testimony to that of the rustic 
beforementioned, that there was something very odd about him. 
The appearance of his eye and countenance were odd , and his 
manners were odd . When feeding out of the manger with other 
horses, he would suddenly leave off to attack them, and feeding 
and deglutition would be suspended. The attack was of a spas- 
modic character ; there was, first a lifting of the head from the 
manger — a momentary pause as if of thought — a wild unearthly 
gleam of the eye coming over it with the rapidity of lightning, 
an attack nearly as rapid, and this sometimes subsided without 
the attempt to bite ; the eye regained nearly its natural calmness, 
and the horse returned again to his feeding. I do not think 
that I can possibly make you understand this as I felt it; but it 
was not the least like a bite which one horse makes at another 
in a common way, when feeding together. This we can well 
understand : it may be one of ill-nature, or an attempt to repel 
an invasion of his neighbour on that part of the food which he 
considers of right to be his own ; but in this horse’s case there 
seemed to be a perfect abstraction of the senses from the occu- 
pation before him. It was as if the remembrance of an injury 
flashed with irresistible force on the mind at the instant, and 
compelled the animal to a retaliation equally rapid ; and yet, 
though all this was but the work of a moment, the bite was not 
always effected : either the paroxysm passed away before the 
completion of it, or compunction suspended it, or it was timely 
discovered that the attempt was made on an object for whom it 
was not intended. 
The men about the horses all said that this was precisely the 
sort of affection, and the only difference they had discovered in 
the other horse till the morning when he became so furious. 
In this second case there was a wound on one of the legs that 
really did appear to have been bitten ; but if so (as I have no 
doubt it was), it was in a progressive state of healing, which it 
did do, after being well cauterized, without any trouble. 
I abstracted a considerable quantity of blood from him, gave 
him strong mercurial physic, followed this up with mercurial 
alteratives, and he soon got quite well. 
