260 
ON HYDROCEPHALUS IN THE HORSE. 
“XVI. iVr. Lessoiia’s method of treatment is scientific and proper; 
but, since hydmceptialns of itself cannot be regarded as a disease, it 
being invariably preceded by a morbid super-excitation of the brain or 
membranes, wc should always consider it in its proper light—as a mor¬ 
bid condition—one of the possible (probable) terminations—one of the 
secondary cifects, cither of arachnoiditis or encephalitis, acute as well 
as chronic. Therefore the treatment of hydrocephalus must be the 
proper treatment of the diseases capable of producing it; consequently 
to give close attention to their incipient symptoms is not only the most 
certain mode of arresting their progress, but also the most effectual 
means of preventing that elfusion in which consists hydrocephalus.’^ 
Before we quit the subject of Staggers we give the fol¬ 
lowing extract from a report made by professors Burdin and 
Dupuy on some cases related by M. Mangin. The quantity 
of aloes given (8 ounces in 12 hours) is most extraordinary. 
The report is curious, and worth preserving:— 
In the course of the year 1817, the abdominal vertigo, com¬ 
monly termed simply vertigo (staggers), made great ravages 
amongst horses in the departments of the Moselle and the 
Meuse.^ Mr. Mangin, having had occasion to treat a great 
number of these animals, was soon led to recognize the insuf¬ 
ficiency of the remedies commonly employed. He was called 
to a horse affected with well characterized vertio^inous indio;es- 
tion; this animal had neither eaten nor drunk for twelve hours. 
He gave him two drachms of tartar emetic, with four ounces of 
sulphate of magnesia, in a pint of wann water. This potion 
was repeated thrice in the space of fifteen hours. He placed a 
seton in each thigh, and had the limbs rubbed with oil of tur¬ 
pentine. The animal died on the ensuing day. He treated a 
second and a third horse in the same way, with similar results. 
A neighbouring veterinaiy surgeon, who employed similar 
means, had no better success, and had four horses die under 
his care, in six-and-thirty hours. Mr. Mangin having re¬ 
marked, on opening several of the animals after death, that the 
stomach was empty, whilst the large intestines were filled with 
a very large quantity of fecal matter, suspected that these in¬ 
testines might be the c:eat of the disease; and, considering that 
tartar emetic acts especially on the stomach, he determined to 
employ purgatives in large doses. Soon after he had made 
this resolution, ahorse of six years old, aftected with the dis¬ 
ease, was brought to him. He administered, in the space of 
twelve hours, four potions, each composed of two ounces of 
aloes, and three ounces of sulphate of magnesia. Fifteen 
hours after the first dose, the horse voided a large quantity of 
faeces. He then gave him decoctions of linseed, with two 
drachms of camphor, from time to time. The animal suflered 
