ON HEPATITIS IN THE HORSE. 
330 
thoroughbred horses and ponies ; but as it is an object of great 
importance that the whole of the draught should be given (parti- 
cularly in spasmodic complaints), I should in all cases employ those 
means likely to prove most effectual, and these have been the aid 
of one assistant to raise the head, and, if the animal was obstinate 
and coarse-headed, another to keep the head steady. If the horse 
is light and well-bred, the head can be readily kept up with the 
hand; but if the contrary, I have found a ready means of doing it 
by throwing the halter attached to the mouth-strap over a beam or 
a roller affixed to the ceiling or rafters, by which means the head 
can be lowered to what degree we please. I would deprecate, with 
Mr. Wardle, the employment of unnecessary violence. Having 
written much more than I intended on the subject, I must now 
leave it ; recommending, however, to the parties chiefly concerned 
a little more courtesy and good temper in their future discussions, 
by which means I have no doubt the good intentions of both will 
be better facilitated, and the cause of science and humanity more 
effectually promoted. 
ON HEPATITIS IN THE HORSE. 
By Samuel Brown, Esq., VS., Melton Mowbray. 
In a former communication which appeared in your valuable 
Journal on Diarrhoea in Cattle, I traced one of the exciting causes of 
that disease to a morbid action of the liver. In the present essay it 
is my intention to detail more fully the symptoms and treatment of 
hepatitis, not only in neat cattle, but also in the horse. One ac- 
knowledged function of the liver is the secretion of a natural pur- 
gative for the bowels from venous blood. From this we may fairly 
conclude, that any deviation from healthy action must necessarily 
cause a corresponding effect in the expulsion of the excrementitious 
part of the food ; — hence diarrhoea and obstinate constipation. 
Although Hepatitis is obscurely marked in the horse, experience 
has convinced me — but not without some professional blunders — 
that it is a disease of more frequent occurrence than was formerly 
supposed : and I imagine that, at the present day, there are but few 
veterinarians who have not recognized it both in the acute and 
chronic forms. Hunters that are kept in the stable during the 
summer months are frequently attacked by this disease, which 
probably may arise from their being too liberally fed, and a want 
of sufficient exercise. Its progress is sometimes insidious, as the 
horse will be a little off his feed for several days without shewing 
any other indisposition. As the disease progresses it becomes 
