610 STRANGLES. 
occur in all horses ? I should answer, No ! many, in my opinion, 
escape it. 
Contagiousness. —I would omit this paragraph altogether, 
were it not that I feel desirous to express, as my opinion, all dis¬ 
belief in the contagiousness of strangles. All the observation and 
experience I dare boast of, have confirmed me in this opinion. 
Of inoculation for the disease I know nothing. There are those 
who assert that it is in that way communicable. It may be. It 
certainly is not ‘‘ catching,’' in my firm belief. 
Age and Season. —The age, and, indeed, the time at which 
the animal breeds this disease, will very much depend on his 
removal from the field to the stable : though now and then colts 
contract it at grass. Generally speaking, the third and fourth 
years—they being commonly the period of domestication—are the 
ages in which we meet with strangles; and at the fall and spring 
of the year in particular : these seasons being the most vari¬ 
able ,* as well as the times at which more horses are housed than 
in summer and wunter. A colt, bred by ray father, had the dis¬ 
ease at six months old ; and the late Mr. Coward informed me, 
that he had observed the disease at three months after birth. 
Causes. —Along with other inflammatory affections, we find 
strangles among the consequences of domestication. The seeds 
of the disease, which we imagine to be by nature sown within 
the animal's body, appear by such a change to be set germinat¬ 
ing ; and the product thereof is strangles: How all this is 
brought about, or what is the nature or design of the disease, 
we are, and probably ever shall remain, in ignorance. 
Symptoms. —Strangles being set in action by the same causes 
that excite catarrh and other inflammatory disorders, it very often 
happens, that the disease is ushered in or accompanied by ca¬ 
tarrhal symptoms ; though, in other cases, we are forewarned of 
its approach only by the feverish and unhealthy state the animal 
is evidently labouring under. The horse is dull and mopish ; 
squeamish in his appetite ; coughs now and then, perhaps ; his 
coat looks dead and rough ; his skin feels tight; he is evidently 
unthrifty; his pulse is somewhat accelerated ; his mouth has a dry¬ 
ness and warmth about it not altogether consistent with health. 
