DESCRIPTION OF A CASE OF ACUTE FOUNDER 
IN A HORSE. 
By Mr. J. Horsburgh, V.S., Dalkeith. 
I send you an account of the following case, hoping, if you 
have a few minutes to spare, you will give me your opinion on 
the nature and general treatment of the disease. 
On Saturday, a horse belonging to Mr. Farquarson, inn- 
keeper here, was sent to Cranston, a distance of nearly five 
miles, with a one-horse coach and back ; he was then run in a 
pair to Haddington, fourteen miles and back. When there, the 
driver went into the inn, and the horses into the yard, where, it 
seems, there were several pailfuls of cold water of which they 
took what they pleased. 
On the following day Mr. F. came and told me that one of 
his horses was very badly foundered. I found him in a state of 
what I have always considered acute founder, and of the severest 
kind. He was standing with his feet under him (his hind feet 
particularly forward), breathing laboriously ; the pulse 65, and 
the skin and extremities extremely hot. 
I immediately bled him till the pulse was affected. I think 
that I must have taken away about eight and a half quarts. He 
was a strong horse, in good order. I then gave him a sedative ball 
composed of emetic tartar and super-tartrate and nitrate of pot- 
ash, and repeated it in rather weaker doses every four hours with 
frequent enemata. I ordered cold poultices to the feet, and these 
to be kept constantly wetted vrith cold water. Moderate clothing 
and chilled water were likewise ordered. He drank the water 
greedily, and took a little bran mash occasionally. The action 
was very slightly reduced — the tail was vibrating, and the 
breathing extremely hurried — respiration amounting to 100 a 
minute. 
On the next morning I bled him again to the full amount 
he could lose ; I also bled from the fetlock veins, gave a mild 
dose of physic, and continued the alterative medicine, with the 
cold poultices to the feet repeated every ten or fifteen minutes. 
I now began to be afraid of serious or fatal inflammation from 
the extreme action of the lungs, which had never abated, and, as 
a precautionary measure, I blistered the sides and belly extensively. 
On the next morning the case seemed worse. A spasmodic 
twitching of the back and hind legs had taken place. I then 
gave a ball containing two drachms of opium, which had the 
effect of stopping the spasmodic action. He now lay down ; 
