254 PATHOLOGICAL FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS 
ally attacks yearlings and two-year-olds in the winter season, 
while they are in the field ; and those which have been grazed 
on wet, poor land, are frequently its victims. I have seen cede- 
matous swellings supervene active inflammation of the vital or¬ 
gans in horses of all ages, but such are probably the sequelse of 
a debilitated system; whereas spontaneous anasarca usually at¬ 
tacks colts which are full of flesh, and half-bred ones appear to 
be the most susceptible of this morbed action. My experience 
will not warrant me to give an opinion as to the causes of this 
disease. I will, therefore, merely offer some interrogatory re¬ 
marks upon a practice which the graziers adopt in those districts 
of Lincolnshire where the disease is prevalent, with the hope of 
eliciting from some member of the profession a more satisfactory 
detail of the disease, and a successful mode of treatment. 
Those persons who breed horses and graze them on moory 
land take their young ones up for a fortnight in the month of 
August, and keep them on dry food, in order to prevent a mala¬ 
dy which frequently terminates the existence of those subjects 
which it attacks. From the above fact, are we to infer that the 
herbage in the month of August is deficient in nutriment? or 
that wet land is favourable to the growth of some noxious plant 
which forms a part of the ingesta, causing a morbid action in the 
digestive organs ; or that the grass contains some peculiar princi¬ 
ple which produces in the horse a predisposition to disease; and 
a consequent susceptibility to the “ mysterious agency of the 
atmosphere ” in the winter season ? or shall we simply presume 
that a fortnight’s dry food is sufficient to compensate for the loss 
of nutriment which the herbage sustains during the autumnal 
months; or that it has the salutary effect of invigorating the 
constitution, so as to enable it to resist the predisposing causes of 
disease? 
The disease shews itself, at first, by swellings of the inferior 
parts of the body; and the breath and excretions are also cha¬ 
racterized by a peculiar smell. Tumefactions appear on the lips, 
legs, sheath, and under the belly, which usually extend to the 
fore extremities. These swellings are soft and inelastic; and I 
should say, that they are not very sensitive, as the animal does 
not evince pain when they are pressed upon by the finger, the 
impression of which remains for some time. By degrees, the tu¬ 
mefactions extend; the eyelids become bloated; the animal is 
sluggish; he seldom lies down; and loathes his food; respira¬ 
tion becomes accelerated, with a feeble pulse. These symptoms 
are succeeded by a loss of flesh and prostration of strength; the 
respiration is limited and difficult, with a frequent and indistinct 
pulse; diarrhoea frequently supervenes, which speedily destroys 
