EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 
119 
water; then let his water be entirely taken away, and a bucket 
of thin gruel suspended in his box. This is an excellent plan 
with regard to every sick horse that we do not wish to reduce 
too much ; and when he finds that the morning and evening pass 
over, and his water is not offered to him, he will readily take to 
tlie gruel, and drink as much of it as is good for him. Green 
meat should be early offered; such as grass, tares (the latter es¬ 
pecially), lucerne, and, above all, carrots. If these cannot be 
procured, a little hay may be damped, and offered morsel after 
morsel by the hand; and should this be refused, it may be 
damped with water slightly salted, when the patient will gene¬ 
rally seize it with avidity. 
Should the horse refuse to eat during the two or three first 
days, do not be in a hurry to drench with gruel; it will make the 
mouth sore, and the throat sore, and teaze and disgust: but if he 
should continue obstinately to refuse to feed, nutriment must 
be forced upon him. • Good thick gruel must be horned down, 
or, what is better, given by means of Read’s pump. 
Counter-irritants .—You will often and anxiously have recourse 
to auscultation. You will listen for the mucous rattle, creeping 
down the windpipe, and entering the bronchial passages. If 
you cannot detect it below the larynx, you will apply a strong 
blister, reaching from ear to ear, and extending to the second or 
third ring of the trachea. If you can trace the rattle in the tra¬ 
chea, you must follow it,—you must blister as far as .the disease 
has spread. This will often have an excellent effect, not only as 
a counter-irritant, but as rousing the languid powers of the 
constitution. A rowel of tolerable size between the fore-legs 
cannot do harm. It may act as a derivative, or it may take 
away a disposition to inflammation in the contiguous portion of 
the chest. 
Fomentations .—The inflammation which characterizes the 
early stage of this disease is at first confined to the membrane 
of the mouth and the fauces. Can we apply fomentations? We 
shall allay irritation, and open the exhalents, and soften the tex¬ 
ture. But how apply them here? Why to the very part by 
means of a hot mash; and that not thrown into the manger, 
over which the horse will not hold—and you cannot, to any ef¬ 
fectual purpose, confine his head, or where he may be sCalded 
or disgusted, or where, at all events, the bran will soon get cool— 
but placed in that too-much-undervalued and discarded article 
of stable-furniture, the nose-bag. The vapour of the water will, 
at every inspiration, pass over the inflamed surface. In the ma¬ 
jority of cases relief will speedily be obtained, and that suppu¬ 
ration from the part so necessary to the permanent removal of 
