710 
VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
but it is not absolute inflammation. It is a diseased state which 
he hardly knows how to describe ; but it is not proper inflamma- 
tion. He has examined some horses in whom no apparent 
cause of death could be found. 
Mr. Sewell . — Hid you examine the spinal cord ? 
Mr. E. Braby . — No ; but I did examine the brain. 
Mr. Field . — The question of Mr. Braby had particular refer- 
ence to a stage and period of the disease. It affects the surface 
of the body, and a large portion of membrane. You say the 
serous, the mucous, and the cellular membranes. With regard 
to the mucous and cellular membranes, I agree with you; but 
not to any considerable extent as to the serous membranes. It 
is inflammation of the envelope of the body — the skin — the 
whole of its texture — and that by means of which it is con- 
nected with the subjacent parts. It affects also the mucous 
membranes ; and there, too, it penetrates to the subjacent tissue. 
Looking at it in this view, it is essentially erysipelas, and allied 
more strictly to this than to any other disease of the same kind. 
With regard to the symptoms, they are of two kinds, or the 
disease is two sorts ; — spontaneous or primary, or secondary. 
Take the secondary, as shewing its nature best. A horse meets 
with an accident, or the skin is excited by firing, blistering, &c. 
— there is a certain degree of inflammation excited. That in- 
flammation, under certain states of the animal, spreads and ex- 
tends itself over the skin — it spreads deeply — it extends rapidly 
over the whole limb, and over different and very distant parts, 
and a general irritation is excited. It is inflammation of the 
skin, commencing at the situation of the original wound or in- 
jury, but spreading from this, and extending to other parts, 
from sympathy and other causes. 
The primary disease does not take place in this manner, be- 
cause it begins locally. Its first symptoms indicate a febrile 
state : they are, loss of appetite, quickened circulation, depres- 
sion, local pain, the pain shifting its seat as indicated by a shift- 
ing of posture and other circumstances. From all this I infer, 
that the disease is a species of erysipelas. This also shews the 
strict sympathy which exists between the skin and the mucous 
membranes. We excite the disease to a certainty if we excite 
inflammation of the skin. Thus, it follow s purging, and hence 
the danger of purgatives in this disease. Immediately on the 
cessation of the working of the physic, the erysipelas appears, 
or, if previously existing, is strangely aggravated. 
If I am right in my view of this disease, there can be no dif- 
ficulty in understanding the train of symptoms. The skin is 
highly sensitive; the skin of the horse is peculiarly so. If there 
