VOL. VllI, No. 85.] JANUARY 1835. [New Series, No. 25. 
MR. YOUATT’S V ET E R I N A R Y L E CT U R E S, 
DELIVERED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 
LECTURE XLVI. 
Apoplexy in the Horse. 
MEGRIMS is apoplexy under its mildest forms. It is a de¬ 
termination of blood to the brain,—pressure on the origins of the 
animal nerves, and partial or total, yet temporary, loss of con¬ 
sciousness and voluntary motion : but the determination of blood, 
if not so sudden, may be greater or differently directed, or more 
lastins:, and resolve itself in that species of apoplexy recognized 
in our strange nomenclature under the name of sleepy staggers, in 
distinction from phrenitis, or, as the farrier calls it, mad staggers. 
Early Symptoms. —^There are usually sufficient warnings of its 
approach, if the carter or the groom had wit enough to observe 
them. The horse is a little off his feed ; he is more than usually 
dull; there is a degree of stupidity about him, and generally a 
somewhat staggering gait. This goes off when he has been out 
a little while; but it returns under a more decided character, 
until at length it forces itself on the attention of those about the 
animal. 
]\Iore advanced Symptoms. —The actual illness is first recog¬ 
nized by the horse standing witli his head depressed; it bears 
upon or is forced against the manger or the wall, and a consi¬ 
derable part of the weight of the animal is apparently supported 
by this pressure of the head against some fixed object. As he 
thus stands he is balancing himself from one side to-the other, as 
if he were ready to fall; and it is often dangerous to move him, 
for he falls without warning. If he can get his muzzle into a 
corner, he will sometimes continue there motionless for a full half 
hour, and then drop as if he were shot; but the next moment he 
is up again with his feet almost in the rack, lie sleeps, or seems 
to do so, as he stands; or at least he is more than half uncon¬ 
scious of surrounding objects. When he is roused he looks va- 
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