258 
O!^ HYDROCEPHALUS 
CAUSES OF IRRITATION CAPABLE OF PRODUCING 
IIYDROCEPALUS. 
Any thing producing and continuing a state of more or 
intense morbid excitation: viz. external violence, blows, falls 
upon the head, concussion, wounds of the brain, the presence 
of foreign bodies loithin its respiration of a deleterious 
atmosphere, the introduction of irritating or poisonous suIk 
stances into the alimentary passages, high feeding, and parti¬ 
cularly when united with want of exercise, bad provender, 
excessive heat, sudden change from heat to cold, over sexual 
exertion, the suppression of morbid secretions or cutaneous 
eruptions, diseased condition and iriitation of the viscera, espe¬ 
cially those of digestion, morbid external irritations, attended 
with long-continued pain and spasm. The principal exciting 
causes of this affection hi the horse are timidity and fear, the 
ill usage animals often experience in exacting from them actions, 
movements, or efforts not compatible with their temperament, 
character, disposition, or strength; indeed, ill usage of any kind, 
muscular fatigue, and especially in hot weather. 
Though horses of all ages and constitutions may become the 
subjects of this disease, those who are irritable, her}', or-very 
timid ; or such as aix) malfoimed—in fact, all that are not able, 
from either cause, to undergo fatigue, are the most liable ; and 
that in consequence of being compelled to call the nervous 
energy into undue and continued action, which at length gene¬ 
rates in the centre of the nervous system, the brain, a peraianent 
-state of morbid excitetion. 
A 
;treatment of hydrocephalus. 
The treatment must vary according to the intensity of the 
symptoms, the nature of the disease, whether acute or chronic, 
and the occasional complication it may present. 
‘‘XlII. In the present state of science there is no symptom by vvhi(;h 
we can certainly determine when the eftiision constituting hydroce¬ 
phalus has taken* place. As when other serous membranes manifest 
increased action, and this action continues, their secretion becomes aug¬ 
mented, so wc may suspebf serous effusion in the brain when the symp¬ 
toms of arachnoiditis have been protracted, and have manifested a 
degree of intensity. Although, however, the effusion may have taken 
place, there is nothing to reiider its absorption impossible : indeed we 
Lave reason to think that it will probably take place under a rational and 
antiphlogistic plan of treatment.^' 
Acute hydrocephalus, so long as symptoms of excitation or 
irritation are present, demands blood-letting; the constant ap¬ 
plication of ice or ice-water to the head; emollient clysters; 
