216 
ON FEVER IN THE HORSE. 
the more experienced of the Society, which I fear I shall myself 
be unable to impart. 
Though I shall speak of fever in a general sense, it is fever 
in its idiopathic form I wish particularly to draw the attention 
of the Society to; diverting their minds from that particular 
febrile state which is the consequence of or attendant on topical 
inflammation. 
Fever, in its idiopathic form, has been denied by many vete¬ 
rinarians to hold a place in the nomenclature of the diseases of 
the horse: it is this, chiefly, that has induced me to bring this 
paper before the Society. I build my faith upon the ipse dixit 
of no man, but endeavour, by circumstances, to judge for my¬ 
self ; and I think I can have no hesitation in stating, from the 
practical observation I have made, that the horse is as liable to 
disease under this form as any other; and that it is only from 
want of circumspection we are so liable to confound it with 
other diseases of more consequence. 
The diagnosis of disease at all times requires no little atten¬ 
tion, even in the human subject; then how much more difficult 
is it in the horse, where we have no tongue to guide us, and 
we can only judge by concurrent circumstances, which, to say 
the least of them, are frequently very dubious ? I have little 
doubt but that in the course of time, as our veterinary medical 
knowledge increases, we shall find him labour under diseases, 
in various forms, that bear the strongest relation to, if they are not 
actually the same, as our own, and that we at present believe the 
animal is not subject to, and differing distinctly, both in nature 
and eff ect, from these we now believe of every day occurrence. It 
is on this account I contend, that a man possessing medical know¬ 
ledge must ever outvie the mere farrier, who acts upon practice 
only, and will, in the long run, place the profession amongst those 
which are intellectual, and where the opinion is formed upon prin¬ 
ciple and observation, discarding empiricism and ignorant garrulity. 
It is not my intention to take up the time of the Society by 
entering into the varieties of feverwhich affect the human subject, 
but confine myself to that only which, as far as my observation 
has gone, the horse is the subject of, viz. inflammatory fever: 
but before doing so, it may be relative to my present paper to 
say a few words upon the causes and nature of fever, in a 
general sense. 
The causes and nature of fever have been, from the earliest 
ages, involved in obscurity; and our ablest medical men, even 
at the present day, do not appear to throw that satisfactory light 
upon it, that we may positively say, sic est . 
Febris is derived from the Latin word ferveo , to be hot. Dr. 
