118 EPIDEMIC OR INFLUENZA AMONG HORSES. 
' month: in synch cases, the tenth day is the time amendment 
commonly shews itself, undisguisedly. 
Out of ten horses attacked with the disease, five were under 
five years old; two had completed their fifth year; two their 
sixth; and one his ninth. 
Eight were attacked standing in the stable; two, both three 
years old, contracted the disorder while running in the straw- 
yard. 
The fatal case — one of the eight attacked in the stable — was 
taken ill in the usual manner, proved dull and spiritless and 
somewhat off' his feed, with quickened pulse, and some slight 
and slow heaving of the flanks, perceptible only to the close 
observer, with reddened membranes, dry and unnaturally hot 
mouth and tongue, warm extremities, scanty excretions, &c. 
The patient was bled early, and that was followed up by the 
usual course of treatment, and was twice repeated on account 
of relief not being obtained. It proved, however, one of those 
cases which from the very onset never once in its course rallied 
or seemed arrested ; but chronically, lethargically almost, ran 
its uninterrupted course to the seventh day, and then ended in 
death : neither rowel nor blister acting. 
The post-mortem examination disclosed congested lungs, in 
places proceeding to hepatization ; pleural inflammation, not in- 
tense, with several quarts of water in both sides of the thorax ; 
but no albuminous effusion. Glottis intensely inflamed. 
The Treatment I have found in all but the above case suc- 
cessful, is blood-letting, whenever the pulse or state of the respi- 
ration, or apparent condition of the horse, calls for it. Giving, as 
soon as called in, an aloetic aperient, to render the feeces pulta- 
ceous ; not to purge. Should the abridged dose of cathartic mass 
not accomplish the object desired, it had better be brought about 
by simple enemata: such ought to be our horror of exciting 
diarrhoea, the most dangerous and troublesome concomitant we 
can have to encounter. On the other hand, should the half ca- 
thartic, contrary to all usual effect, actually produce purging, it 
must and may soon be arrested by confining the horse’s diet to 
hay and his drink to well-made oatmeal gruel. The aperient I 
follow up with febrifuge medicine, antimony and nitre. The 
antimony itself, if it does nothing else, will be found to keep the 
bowels soluble*. Liniments of ammonia and turpentine will be 
found most useful for rubbing the throat and breast: in the latter 
it is good also to early insert a plug or rowel. Should inflamma- 
tion establish itself in the lungs, a blister should be applied. The 
* Perhaps other veterinarians will bear me out in the antim. tartariz. 
taking effect on the bowels. 
