ILLUSTRATIONS OF FEVER IN HORSES. 189 
Q. Do these symptoms apply equally to one or the other form 
of lever ? 
A. Yes; with this reservation:—that, occasionally, in the 
symptomatic, when the fever is the result of an acutely painful 
wound or local malady, the symptoms run to such a height, that, 
unless speedy relief can be afforded, they threaten, and indeed 
sometimes end in, destruction of life itself. 
dd* Probably, the best illustration veterinary practice affords of this is, 
the case of “ a nail in the foot.” Whoever has once seen a horse suffering 
from this accident in its painful form, can no longer remain a sceptic on the 
(jueslion of fever of one kind, unless he chooses to give it another name; 
such as “constitutional irritation ,” hectic. See. And those who admit symp¬ 
tomatic and deny idiopathic fever, are reduced down to the vexatious pre¬ 
sumption, that they never once saw a case w ith such like symptoms in which 
they could not, with next to demonstrative certainty, refer them to their 
local fountain head. 
Q. But, is external injury the only source of symptomatic fever? 
A. Oh, no! In the most comprehensive (and indeed natural) 
view we can take of it, it is to be regarded as either the precursor, 
attendant, or consequent, of all constitutional inflammatory dis¬ 
eases, and also of some of the nervous disorders. 
0^ Professor Thomson tells us (and our daily practice seems to confirm 
it) that, as local inflammation gives rise to constitutional febrile symptoms, 
so idiopathic fevers of all kinds, in their turn, often give rise to, or at least 
are accompanied by, local inflammatory symptoms. It is possible, there¬ 
fore— nay, we know from experience it is common—for fever to turn out to 
be only the prelude to some other disease, and to none more frequently 
than to catarrh or pneumonia. 
Q. But is this the most practically useful view I could take of 
the subject ? 
A. By far. Having made yourself master of the subject of 
fever in all its various stages and relations, you will not only have 
to apply yourself in the study of the constitutional diseases, but 
to the seat, nature, extent, &c. of the local malady; which, in 
most cases, ought to be regarded as the original —in all, as the 
essential one. 
