248 OBSERVATIONS ON AN ACUTE AFFECTION 
sufficient attention were paid to the manner in which the erup¬ 
tion takes place, the relation of its breaking forth to the time of 
taking food, the kind of food, and the state of the animal at the 
time food or drink has been given, a clue would be obtained to 
the mode of treatment most likely to be successful, and a cha¬ 
racter for eruptions more definitely fixed. 
It appears with veterinary authors too much the practice to 
huddle all eruptions, except mange, under the head “ surfeit,’' 
and to give as exciting causes of surfeit whatever variations in 
diet, temperature, or stable management, the animal may be ex¬ 
posed to ; and, as is usual, having once obtained a name for a 
disease, the remedy is easily applied, as one remedy generally is 
esteemed sufficient to effect a cure. 
This bears absurdity on the very face of it; for eruptive diseases, 
apparently of the same kind, may be acute or chronic, and may 
be rendered so from exciting causes entirely different. We ought 
not, therefore, to use the same remedial means in an acute case 
that we would in a chronic one, if from the exciting cause an 
indication completely different should occur, and vice versa. 
There is a cutaneous disease in the horse, that I have ob¬ 
served to take place, which very much resembles an acute attack 
of nettle-rash in the human subject, and seems equally fleeting. 
The animal, after having eaten a particular kind of food, either 
of itself acrid or rendered so by preparation, or having eaten of its 
ordinary food with an accidental admixture of an irritating sub¬ 
stance ; or, after being out on duty, having been fed immediate¬ 
ly on its return, will soon appear dull, and give signs of itching. 
The skin, when the hand is drawn over it, feels studded with small 
raised or swelled circular patches, varying in size from the dia¬ 
meter of a split pea to that of a shilling : the lips and eyelids 
are swelled, the mouth feels hot, and the animal appears to suf¬ 
fer severely from itching over those parts of the body where the 
eruption is most prominent. 
From what I have witnessed of this disease, I am much dis¬ 
posed to regard it as wholly arising from gastric irritation. For 
example, an animal may be taken out apparently in perfect 
health, its coat sleek and soft ; it may be ridden into the country a 
few miles, and there get a feed of beans, or a mixture of beans 
and corn, and then a drink of water immediately before its 
return, or on its way home: soon after it -has been put into the 
stable it will probably exhibit symptoms of uneasiness ; appear 
dull and itchy; and have all the symptoms above described. 
The above case required a previous excitement before the food 
was given ; the horse had w'ater while hot, and was ridden imme¬ 
diately afterwards : all these causes co-operating. In some horses. 
