PALSY IN THE HOUSE. 
11 
tar, and wax — and the common pitch is as good as the more 
expensive Burgundy — add a portion of powdered cantharides — 
a quarter of an ounce to a pound of the charge. You will ac- 
complish three purposes, and three good ones. In the stimulus 
of the charge on the integument, you will have the principle of 
counter-irritation, and that more than supplying by the con- 
tinuance of its influence its want of immediate activity. In this 
thick plaister, covered, as you cover it with flocks, you will have 
a defence against the cold, and against the changing temperature 
to which the animal is exposed ; and you will have a material 
and a very useful support for the limbs. Let your charge be hot 
enough of the cantharides — extensive enough — thick enough — 
covered sufficiently with flocks, and then, while you can never do 
harm by it, you will occasionally effect wonders. One thing 
never forget, — that the greater part of the remedies for palsy, 
simply considered as a loss of nervous influence, are worse than 
useless here. The disease is based on inflammation, and it is 
that which you must subdue. 
Diseases resembling or producing Palsy . — Inflammation of 
the kidney is frequently accompanied by a loss of motion in the 
hinder extremities, either closely resembling palsy, or for a while 
partaking of the true character of it. There is the same re- 
luctance or inability to move, and the same knuckling and 
progressing on the fetlocks. Either the lumbar muscles partake 
of the inflammation of the kidneys, and the extreme pain oc- 
casioned by every motion of the limb makes the horse as 
unwilling to move as if he were actually palsied ; or the nerves 
escaping in the immediate neighbourhood, and destined to give 
motion to the hind extremities, actually take on inflammation. 
This shews the necessity of decisive measures in affections of the 
kidney — the lancet, the physic ball, and the mustard poultice 
should be called into active requisition. It likewise shews the 
propriety of carefully inquiring into the supposed causes and all 
the circumstances attending a case of apparent palsy. In many 
instances, I fear, the true nature of the disease has been com- 
pletely mistaken ; and the horse has died in consequence of in- 
flammation of the kidney or the bladder, when the affection had 
been erroneously traced primarily to the spinal chord. There 
should always be an examination per rectum. 
A few months ago, I attended a horse with what I supposed 
to be, and am confident was, a chest affection — it was pleurisy. 
All at once the character of the disease was changed, and I 
had evident nephritis — there was the same almost inability to 
move, the same knuckling of the fetlocks, the actual going upon 
the fetlocks, and the cracking of the fetlock and pastern joints at 
