314 
INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 
disease, when it would be most efficacious. It cannot, also, be 
administered in a liquid form, for the vehicle in which it is given 
would necessarily impair or destroy the action of it: its employ¬ 
ment is consequently conditional. 
Rec. de Med, Vet, 
If we now translate the instructions of Professor Vatel on the 
three divisions into which these affections of the head naturally 
range themselves, our readers will be sufficiently in possession 
of the opinions of the French veterinarians on the subject of 
staggers. 
Inflammation of the Brain. 
Inflammation of the brain is ordinarily accompanied by inflam¬ 
mation of the arachnoid membrane. It is difficult to distinguish 
these affections from each other, even when they exist separately, 
on account of the similarity between their symptoms and the 
symptoms of the collapse which follows : the first resemble 
those of cerebral apoplexy. Apoplexy appears to be generally 
characterized by sudden loss of power over the voluntary muscles, 
without spasmodic action ; inflammation of the brain is known by 
spasmodic action, that may be followed by slow and progressive 
paralysis, the march of which is perhaps irregular and inter¬ 
mittent; and arachnitis by spasmodic action without loss of 
voluntary power. 
Among the predisposing causes of inflammation of the brain 
may be reckoned the use of stimulating food and liquors : 
the occasional and more ordinary ones are, blows on the head, 
fracture of the cranium, the presence of foreign bodies in the 
cranial cavity (the hydatid in sheep), exposure to the sun, in¬ 
tense irritation of the stomach, and inflammation of the arach¬ 
noid membrane, of which this is often the consequence. 
Simple cerebritis is seldom found, at least, without easily 
recognized physical causes. It is marked by continued or inter¬ 
mittent contraction of the muscles, somnolence, deafness, im¬ 
pairment of sight, slowness of pulse: to these succeed paralysis 
of the muscles, at first with contraction more or less violent, 
and with the preservation of sensibility: to these succeed flacci- 
dity of the muscles, insensibility of the skin, palsy of the 
bladder, constipation, &c. &c. 
It is a serious complaint, and rarely cured after being perfectly 
developed. If it does not occasion the death of the animal, it 
generally terminates in suppuration, softening {ramoUissement), 
or induration. 
In the treatment of this disease the first object is to get rid of 
