178 
ON THE MARSH DISEASE IN THE HORSE. 
sensible to the touch, cedematous, and rising to the extent of six or 
eight inches appear. Under the belly is a more extensive enlarge- 
ment, but not so prominent or tender. The patients become more and 
more feeble and unwilling to move. They remain lying down all 
day long. The lips of the vulva in the female, and the scrotum in 
the male, and also round the anus and the raphe, are cedematous. 
The parts which touch the ground are easily excoriated, and the 
hair and the mane come off at the slightest touch. I have treated 
with success two fillies, each of which lost for awhile the whole 
of their coat. The hair may often be plucked off by handfulls, as 
from a skin that had been macerated in lime water. This is not, 
however, uniformly the case, for I have had fillies die of this dis- 
ease without having lost a single hair. 
Considerable abscesses often form under the skin, and soften 
and separate it to a considerable extent. They must, in general, be 
opened, or they will suppurate of themselves, and the integument 
will come off in large patches. These abscesses will be oftenest 
found in the neighbourhood of the articulations, or on the bony 
eminences which occasionally come in contact with the ground. 
1 have seen exceedingly large ones beneath the skin of the abdo- 
men. The pus which escapes from these cavities is thick, curdled, 
and of an offensive smell. This destruction of parts soon reduces 
the patient to a state of marasmus. 
The urine is thick and oily, and the dung soft rather than hard, 
and with a most infectious odour. At last they are unable to rise 
from the ground, but still eat and drink in small quantities — the 
eyes are deeply buried in the head — the pulse is feeble and fre- 
quent — the heart still forcibly beats, and, at length, the animal 
dies, almost without a struggle. 
Sometimes, however, there is a metastasis of disease to the 
chest, the abdomen, or, less frequently, the brain. The exterior 
engorgements are then more or less diminished, and much clear 
and yellow serosity is found in the chest or ventricles. The blood 
which these vessels contain is black, thick, and small in quantity. 
The tissues are pale and easily lacerated. The subcutaneous tissue, 
which has increased in thickness, is somewhat indurated in the 
portions which ordinarily contain the adipose matter. With 
these exceptions there are rarely any serious lesions to indicate the 
cause of death. 
If it were possible to discover the cause of this disease, its ra- 
vages would doubtless be much diminished, and would cease alto- 
gether on having recourse to the proper treatment. The reciprocal 
action, the sympathies which exist between the intestinal canal and 
the exterior integuments, the functions of which are much dimin- 
ished, would, perhaps, lead us to recognize a primitive intestinal 
