THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. \ J, No. 63.] MARCH, 1833. [New Series, No. 3. 
MR. YOUATT’S VETERINARY LECTURES, 
DELIVERED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 
LECTURE XXVI. 
Epidemic Catarrh i?i Horses—The Malignant Epidemic. 
ALTHOLTGH, gentlemen, too many veterinary practitioners 
have been accustomed to include nearly every affection of the 
chest under the convenient title of inflammation of the lungs, 
and to adopt one unvarying mode of treatment for all, so summary 
and unscientific a mode of proceeding will not satisfy you or me. 
I will not inquire into the cause, although I lament the prevalence, 
of that unfounded and injurious opinion, that the diseases of domes¬ 
ticated animals are few, easily understood, and easily treated; but 
will proceed to describe, so far as I am able, some of these mor¬ 
bid affections of the respiratory organs, unacknowledged in our 
schools—unacknowledged in some of our standard books,—ac¬ 
knowledged and understood, however, by our best practitioners ; 
and which are clearly referrible to different portions of the respi¬ 
ratory apparatus, characterized by different symptoms, attended 
by different results, and demanding different treatment. 
Epidemic Catarrh. 
I will begin with that disease recognized under the names 
of influenza, distemper, catarrhal fever, and epidemic catarrh. 
The Subjects of the Disease. —In the spring of the year—a 
cold wet spring,—and that succeeding a mild winter, and especially 
among young horses, and those in high condition, or made up 
for sale, or that have been kept in hot stables, or exposed to the 
usual causes of inflammation, this disease principally, and some¬ 
times almost exclusively, prevails. Those that are in moderate 
■work, and that are correspondingly fed, generally escape ; or even 
when it appears in most of the stables in a narrower or wider 
district, horses in barracks, regularly worked and moderately fed, 
although not entirely exempt, are, comparatively, seldom diseased. 
Symptoms. —If it has been observed from the beginning, the 
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