56 
DARVILL ON THE CARE, TREATMENT, 
“The horse being taken with a shivering; being ofT bis feed; having a 
slight cough; the glands of his throat enlarged, his mouth hot, and his legs 
swollen/' 
All which indicates nothing more than simple catarrh in con¬ 
junction with simple fever; or, in the nosology of Mr. Blaine, 
“catarrhal fever.” Our author, however, appears to view it in a 
different light; for, he says, in the preceding page, 
“I am of opinion that horses sometimes become affected with this dis¬ 
temper, or something very like it , as coughs and colds, attended with fever, 
when they are in high condition/' 
In the next sentence but one, he adds, 
“At this season of the year it is that horses are most liable to be amiss 
from such complaints (i. e. from ‘ coughs and colds’), and if not immedi¬ 
ately attended to, such complaints become ivorse , and terminate in the distem - 
per, or, w hat is more difficult of cure, inflammation of the lungs.” 
Here, Mr. D. appears to make the distemper a disorder inter¬ 
mediate between catarrh and inflammation of the lungs. In fine, 
o y 
he has, himself, left the malady, pathologically, undefined: he 
has left us to draw our own conclusions, and that we have already 
done; viz. that “distemper” is nothing more than catarrh com¬ 
bined with fever. 
“ The circumstance of many horses contracting the disorder at the same 
time, who have been in the habit of standing together, may have led 
grooms ‘to suppose the disease contagious.’ This perhaps is doubtful. 
That a peculiar state of atmosphere often produces the disease, I believe 
is not to be questioned.” 
To veterinary surgeons whose practice lies much among young 
horses; to those especially who are situated in populous towns, 
and in the army, it is well known that a disorder of the kind we 
have been discussing does often prevail during the spring and 
autumnal seasons, and every now and then does so in some un¬ 
usual form or degree : it is no uncommon occurrence for the dis- 
ease to “ run through” an entire stable, or through a large es¬ 
tablishment of horses, not even passing over the “old ones,” 
who, however, are, under all circumstances, less predisposed to it. 
Mr. Darvill has had, “ within the space of a fortnight, a hun¬ 
dred horses affected, while the remainder of the regiment has con¬ 
tinued in a healthy state.” 
It would be leading us too much astray, as well as taking up 
too much of the space allotted to us, to agitate, here, the very 
interesting question of the specific or malignant characters occa¬ 
sionally assumed by the disease: we find we must confine our¬ 
selves to the questions before us, and say only a few words on its 
contagious and epidemic properties. As far as our own observations 
