' CONSEGtUENCE OF STAGGERS. 
375 
period after, that affection of the brain which we denominate 
staggers. Blaine, indeed, says that he never witnessed a suc¬ 
cessful issue of staggers ; and Percivall does not relate any 
successful case. They cannot, therefore, speak of the sequelae 
of a disease uniformly fatal. M. Berger Perriere, however, has 
published, in the Recueil de Medecine Veterinaire for June 1828, 
several successful cases of staggers, and each of which was fol¬ 
lowed by amaurosis. The fortunate treatment of the disease, 
and its connexion with this affection of the eye, render his com¬ 
munication peculiarly interesting, and we shall give an abridged 
account of it. 
In the autumn of 1809 he was at Bourgoin, in the depart¬ 
ment of L^Isere, where sympathetic staggers (le vertige abdo¬ 
minal ) was very prevalent, and might almost be considered as an 
epizootic. He very satisfactorily accounts for this. The in¬ 
habitants of the neighbourhood of Bourgoin are very poor, and 
their horses are ill-fed. The poor animals are worked, without 
food, from an early period of the morning to night-fall, and are 
then turned into the meadow until ten or eleven o’clock. They 
are then led to the stable for a few hours’ rest, and at three or 
four o’clock in the morning are again turned out, to pick up 
sufficient sustenance for the day: and this vicious system is pur¬ 
sued during every change of season, and however severe may be 
the labour exacted. It necessarily follow^s, that staggers will fre¬ 
quently be the result of a sudden and over-distention of a stomach 
for many hours empty, and its powers exhausted. The disease is 
there called the hoar-frost colic, because it is most frequent when 
the grass is covered with hoar-frost. It oftenest appears in the 
horse, ass, and mule, and occasionally in the ox. In the latter 
animal the treatment is most successful. The medicines em¬ 
ployed are the same as for the horse, but the doses are larger. 
On November 18th Mr. B. P. visited two horses that had 
been ill two days. They were dull; the head resting against 
the manger, the respirations low and deep, the pulse small and 
concentrated, the hair staring. He gave to each an ounce of 
soccotrine aloes and ten grains of emetic tartar in a pound of 
honey, and three purgative injections during the day, and a 
pail of white water in which four ounces of Epsom salts were 
dissolved. 
On the 19th one of them purged copiously. The enemas were 
repeated, and the white water with the Epsom salts. 
On the four following days extract of juniper and gentian 
powder were given with the Epsom salts as before. On the 26th 
he was nearly well, but in two months he became blind. 
