PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 567 
symptoms of which may consist of sore throat of an obstinate cha- 
racter, fever, cough, and purulent discharge from the nostrils : 
suddenly the limbs begin to swell, the swelling presenting either 
an even surface, or, what is more common, it appears in lumps, 
which are not only large and numerous, but hard, hot, and painful, 
attended with blotchy elevations of the skin in other parts of the 
body. The Schneiderian membrane becomes covered with large 
scarlet spots, while from the nostrils is discharged bloody serum 
mixed with thick purulent matter : the soreness of the throat be- 
comes excessive, the cough difficult and suffocative, accompanied 
with a corresponding difficulty in swallowing. The pulse increases 
in number, reaching at times 90 or 100 beats per minute, and 
always of a weak or feeble character. The animal, if made to 
move, does so with difficulty ; the limbs are sore and excessively 
tender : if left alone he will obstinately stand in one position. As 
the disease proceeds, or assumes more intensity, large vesicles ap- 
pear upon the extremities, particularly around the joints ; these 
vesicles burst, and copiously discharge a serous, amber-coloured, 
corrosive fluid. The appetite disappears, the bowels are consti- 
pated, and the urine becomes scanty, and is of a thick yellow or of 
a brown colour. In the course of twenty or twenty-four hours, or 
even less, the scarlet spots on the nasal membrane pass into a 
purple colour, from extreme vascular congestion, and these purple 
patches slough, and leave a raw surface, from which is secreted an 
abundance of purulent matter. If the animal goes on favourably, 
the fever will generally abate (in the milder states) about the 
fourth or fifth day from the commencement of the very acute 
stage ; while in the more malignant kinds it is seldom that a 
change for the better occurs before the seventh or eighth day : 
generally, however, purpura supervenes, and the patient dies ex- 
hausted and emaciated. Cases 1 and III of the present Contribu- 
tion are clearly cases of this form of the disease. The reader will 
also find another case of the same character clearly detailed in a 
paper to which I have previously alluded, written by my friend 
Mr. Moore, in The VETERINARIAN for 1845. 
Complications . — Scarlet fever in the human subject, according 
to medical writers, is frequently associated with disease of the 
kidneys and with disease of the brain ; but whether similar asso- 
ciations ever occur in the horse, is a question which, at present, I 
am unable to answer; further observations, however, will un- 
doubtedly throw much light upon this department of the inquiry, 
which is much needed, and I especially note the matter as a hint 
to future observers. 
I have seen scarlatina associated with congestion of the lungs, 
and with asthenic or a typhoid form of pneumonia, and also fre- 
