ON FEVER IN THE HOUSE. 
249 
should say, that cold was the most frequent. We may affirm, 
that cold is either relative or absolute—relative when in a state of 
weakness not able to resist, and absolute when cold is applied 
independent of any thing in the body to favour it. Cold pro¬ 
duces fever by causing contraction of the capillary system, and 
putting a stop to the sensible and insensible discharge from the 
skin. 
I have thus far given an outline of what has been considered 
to constitute fever in the human subject. I shall now pass on 
to that which is more to the purport of this paper; namely, 
whether the horse is liable to such a complaint; and, if so, what 
are the symptoms, causes, diagnosis, and treatment. 
It will be allowed, I believe, that the horse is liable to very 
many diseases similar in their nature and consequences to those 
which affect the human subject: allowing this, why should he 
be exempt from that which we denominate fever? Is it not 
natural to infer that he also may be subject to many others which, 
at present, we have passed by unnoticed, from the difficulty of 
ascertaining them, and the want of competent medical knowledge 
of symptoms on the part of the practitioner ? 
From the observations that I have at present been able to 
make, I believe the fever that the horse is subject to is that 
which, in medical nosology, we should pronounce synocha, or in¬ 
flammatory fever, which Dr. Cullen describes to be, heat much 
increased; pulse frequent, strong, and hard; urine red ; the 
animal functions little disturbed. 
It does not appear here necessary to have horror or shivering to 
constitute fever; and though the would-be-sccptical say we must 
have the cold, the hot, and the sweating stage present to desig¬ 
nate the disease, I cannot, for my own part, see its necessity. 
It is very likely to pass unobserved, previous to our at all being 
aware of indisposition, or even to have taken place in so trifling a 
degree as to escape accurate observation? Such an occurrence is 
by no means uncommon in the human patient. 
Fever in the horse assumes hardly ever any other than a mild 
inoffensive form; and is no less insidious in its approach than 
(until it has made some advance, at least) indeterminate in its 
character. Now and then a cold and even a shivering fit is ma- 
nifest: a sweating stage is rare, but not uninstanced. To assume 
that either or both of these paroxysms are requisite to constitute 
it a fever, is not only to show ignorance of the pathological na¬ 
ture of fever, but to argue in opposition to all established practi¬ 
cal evidence. 
The inflammatory fever may be of two kinds; one idiopathic, 
arising without any manifest cause, or at least not dependent on 
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