THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. 
79 
Digitalis ^ drachm, 
Nitre ... 1 drachm, 
Emetic tartar . . drachm ; 
to be made up in the form of a ball, with tar. If this fails 
to lessen the irritation, a blister should be applied to the 
throat, extending from one ear to the other, and reaching 
six or eight inches down the windpipe, which will have the 
effect of lessening the irritation of the fauces or the larynx, 
if the inflammation exists in that situation. Sometimes 
a blister extending to the lower part of the windpipe, as 
far as the chest, has had a good effect. 
The food should be of an opening nature, as dry feeding, 
such as straw and chaff, is always found to increase the 
complaint: grass and other green food will have a salutary 
effect in this and other similar diseases. 
Horses may have chronic cough without their general 
health being affected by it; and should the above remedies 
prove ineffectual in removing it in a few weeks, there will 
be no use in persisting in attempts at a cure ; and it is only 
when the complaint assumes a more than ordinary degree 
of coughing, that medical treatment should be resorted to. 
A great object is to avoid exposing the animal to sudden 
transitions from heat to cold; as a horse afflicted with 
chronic cough is more liable than others to be affected by 
changes of temperature. 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. 
Symptoms. —This complaint is marked by a complication 
of disagreeable symptoms; there is a fetid discharge from 
the nostrils, with an extremely stinking breath, and the 
whole evacuations become disgustingly offensive, accom¬ 
panied by a quick, small, and weak pulse, which is hardly 
sensible to the touch; the animal refuses to eat, and a 
