ON STAGGERS IN HORSES. 
15 
so exceedingly thin, that it would appear as if the fingers would 
meet between the tendons; in such case recovery cannot follow. 
I have known, in two or three instances, a slight degree of in¬ 
flammation take place in the nose and lips, succeeded by a dry 
slough of the skin, without any pus secreted ; the cicatrix forming 
very slowly, and a perfectly bald surface being left. All those 
horses did well without any assistance. 
As difference of opinion has been entertained of the cause, so 
likewise has it been as to the seat. Farriers, generally, imagine 
the head to be principally affected, by inflammation either of the 
brain or its membranes, and they treat it accordingly, by bleeding, 
blisters, setons, and also dxeuchQ?, famed for the cure of staggers; 
and the application of stimuli to the pituitary membrane. Eva¬ 
cuations from the intestines have always been deemed necessary; 
which, however, are seldom procured, if any degree of delirium 
is present, as the animal is then so unmanageable that medicines 
can very rarely be given with any degree of certainty; or, if 
given at all, at that period the stomach and bowels are become 
so torpid and insensible, that no effect is produced. 
Locked jaw is said to attend the disease, but I never observed 
it; as, though often, great resistance is made to a balling-iron, or 
horn, vet there is no fixed contraction of the muscles. 
4 / 
I have, by chance, given medicine in form of a ball, when the 
animal was in this furious state, and yet lived, perhaps, thirty 
hours after; and, on examination of the stomach, I found the 
paper in which the ball was wrapped a very little way within the 
cardiac orifice, between the stomach and its contents. 
I shall now offer a few remarks on the remedies generally used. 
The good effect arising from bleeding I consider very doubtful: 
if it is practised, it must be in a very early stage, and in small 
quantity, for the blood does not exhibit the least mark of inflam¬ 
mation, but acquires a colour more and more dark as the disease 
proceeds, and sometimes will not coagulate firmly, but appears in 
a broken dissolved state ; and, I am satisfied, the more blood is 
lost, the sooner the subject sinks. The serum is always of a deep 
yellow. Nor will my observation warrant me to speak in better 
terms of blisters, and the insertion of rowels in different parts of 
the body : blisters irritate very iiiuch, without })roducing any de¬ 
gree of inflammation worth notice ; and rowels inflame very little, 
and never suppurate kindly before a crisis has taken place, and 
sometimes, though not commonly, run into gangrene, and kill 
the animal that way. I shall pass over a number of drinks 
famous for curing staggers, which have repeatedly failed with 
me, and which, I believe, have gained repute, either from being 
administered by designing people (in order to obtain a character) 
