80 
DIABETES IN HOUSES. 
of the cause might enable us to prevent the disease, but it would 
not enable us to treat it more successfully. 
Treatment. — The horse, whatever be his condition or work, 
is to be bled, to get a very mild laxative, to be put on hay and 
bran mashes, and to obtain absolute rest. He is to be treated 
altogether for bronchitis. The diabetes almost never requires any 
treatment. In a very few cases the urine may continue to flow in 
profusion for several days after the bronchitis and fever have been 
subdued. When it does so, an astringent ball does no harm, but it 
very seldom does any good ; and if there be the least degree of 
fever remaining, this ball always does harm. It may stop the 
diabetes, but, if it does, the fever is sure to be heightened. 
It is of great consequence to keep the horse very quiet, and very 
low. Ten minutes’ walking exercise invariably aggravates the 
symptoms ; and, in severe cases, a cure is almost out of the ques- 
tion if rich food be given. The groom cannot be made to under- 
stand the danger ; and he is certain to be coaxing the horse with 
linseed, barley, roots, or something nourishing. A simple prohi- 
bition of corn is not enough. He must be made to understand 
that any thing besides the bran-mash and hay, is certain to injure 
the horse, who will seldom refuse to eat more than is good for him. 
Exercise, likewise, must be strictly forbidden. Water, a little 
warmed, should be given six times a day ; gruel is to be prohi- 
bited. The stable should be airy. A warm or a crowded stable 
is particularly pernicious. The body should be clothed, and legs 
bandaged. 
The bleeding may require repetition more than once ; and the 
bowels may require a laxative twice a week. In fever medicines 
I have no faith. I never use them, nor need them in this complaint. 
If the patient come under treatment before matter has formed in 
the lungs, bleeding, starvation, quietness, and laxatives do all ; at 
least, I have never seen them fail. 
Terminations. — Under proper treatment, the patients all re- 
cover in a period varying from seven to twenty-five days. 
When the horse is neglected, or ill-treated, he often becomes 
broken-winded, or thick-winded, or glandered, or he dies. On 
dissection, I have never found any disease in the kidneys. The 
lungs are always disorganized, full of abscesses containing solid or 
fluid pus, occasionally mingled with blood. When the patient has 
been glandered some days before death, tubercles and abscesses 
are found in the muscles, and in the bones. The lungs are dis- 
organized, and the membrane lining the air-passages is studded 
with ulcers, and abscesses, and tubercles, in progress to ulceration. 
Patches of the membrane are softened, and yellow, like the thick 
