ON INSANITY IN THE DOMESTICATED QUADRUPED. 271 
the interaiission between these fits there was nothing extraordi¬ 
nary to be perceived about him, save an almost continual inquie¬ 
tude, and a wandering and stupid expression of countenance. 
We knew that this horse had previously belonged to a brutal 
soldier, who frequently beat him about the head ; and it was said 
that the horse had been quiet and tractable, and had never fallen 
into this state of seeming insanity until he had been thus ill- 
used. 
Having now become not only dangerous but absolutely unfit 
for service, he was cast. Before that 1 had the opportunity of 
observing him during several months in my infirmary ; and neither 
the kindest treatment, nor the utmost care to inspire him with 
confidence, could preserve from these occasional fits of terror, 
nor in the least diminish their violence. 
CASE II. 
About the same time there was in the regiment a mare, six 
years old, who was in the same state, and from the same cause, 
but with this difference, that the fits did not continue so long, and 
that they ceased when she was able to detach herself from her 
halter; for, this being effected, she would throw herself back¬ 
ward on her haunches and be quiet. This she was the more 
easily enabled to accomplish, when, on account of a more than 
usually nervous and irritable state, she was loose in her box. 
At other times it would have been dangerous to have tied her 
with a strong halter, because she would have destroyed herself 
in her attempts to throw herself backwards, she was therefore 
very slightly fastened to the manger. 
A subaltern officer afterwards took her, and endeavoured to cure 
her; and, after a long course of patient attention, caresses, and 
gentle treatment, and the careful avoidance of those things which 
used to annoy her, he had the satisfaction of seeing the com- 
gradually disappear. She was killed in the campaign of 
I have selected these facts from many others, because they ap¬ 
pear to me very nearly to approach to some of the affections 
that would rank under the term insanity in the human subject. 
Finally, if it should hereafter be proved that insanity may 
exist in animals approaching in a greater or less degree to the 
perfect organization of man, may we not, perhaps, when their 
causes and actual character are better known than they hitherto 
have been, class under this affection some obstinate caprices and 
whimsical habits which we can neither conquer nor change, and 
also some inexplicable aversions and instances of depraved ap¬ 
petite ? Are we not often struck with the remarkable analogy 
plaint 
1815. 
