H I PPO-PATHOLOGY. 
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horses three, four, and five years old, passing from the dealer’s or 
breeder’s hands into warm stables ; and particularly during wet 
and cold springs and autumns. In some years catarrhal affections 
become so generally prevalent, and in their attack manifest so much 
more than ordinary severity, spreading so rapidly among young 
horses, that the disorder not only assumes much of the character of 
an epidemic or influenza, but has the appearance of being conta- 
gious ; though it differs from influenza, properly so called, in not 
being attended with that sudden supervention of debility which is 
so characteristic of the latter disorder. In old veterinary works we 
find catarrh ascribed, above all other causes, to “ obstructed per- 
spiration.” In old horses, and such as are at their work, no doubt 
it is an occasional cause; b.ut the ordinary subjects are young 
horses — horses that have not yet commenced work, and that are not 
consequently often sweated. Horses whose skins have become 
wet, either from having been sweated or washed, and are after- 
wards suffered to grow dry without being rubbed, will, particularly 
in cold weather, be likely to take a cold or shivering fit. The 
same observation may be made in regard to a horse allowed to 
stand in any situation where he is exposed to a current of air. 
But in all these cases I believe heat must supervene before an in- 
flammatory disorder will manifest itself. 
Symptoms. — A catarrh may be slight or severe. It may exist 
with fever or without fever. A slight catarrh is characterized by 
a watery distillation mingled with a flaky mucous discharge from 
the nose ; flushed Schneiderian membrane ; oozing of water from 
the corners of the eyes, with drops of mucus standing in them ; 
small, loose, diffuse swellings under the jaw ; occasional snorting, 
and, perhaps, coughing ; with dulness and diminished appetite : 
though the appetite may continue unaffected, and the spirits re- 
main undepressed. 
In catarrh in WHICH FEVER is present — “ catarrhal fever,” 
as it is called — the horse from the first appears dull and unwell, and 
loses his appetite ; feeling cold, and, perhaps, shivering ; which is 
succeeded by a sensation of unusual warmth in the skin and extre- 
mities. The Schneiderian membrane appears turgid and reddened, 
but its surface is dry. The earliest defluxion from the nose is a 
thin, limpid, colourless fluid like water, which, in the course of 
two or three or four days, depending upon the abatement of the 
fever, becomes gradually converted into one of a ropy or viscid, 
pure mucous character : at this time, also, the animal in a measure 
recovers his spirits and appetite. 
In SEVERE FORMS OF CATARRH the fever will run high; and the 
nasal discharge, at first sparing, become yellow, gelatinous, and 
lymphy ; turning afterwards into a thick muco-purulent defluxion, 
