PHTHISIS PULMONALIS IN THE HORSE AND CATTLE. 34B 
Phthisis is exceedingly difficult to detect at its commencement ; 
it may be confounded with almost every chronic affection of the 
chest: but in its later stage it is plain enough ; and when its 
symptoms become too manifest to be mistaken, it bids defiance 
to all medical treatment. 
Causes .—Is it hereditary ? I have not sufficient experience to 
decide this point, which has not yet been mooted among us. 
One thing only I know, that in the few cases in which I have 
seen it, the horse has a great deal of daylight under him, and 
the side has been flat, and the belly tucked up, and the animal 
has had a great deal more ardour and willingness than physical 
strength. These conformations, and this disposition, I know to 
be hereditary, and thus far phthisis may be said to be so too. 
Of the influence of climate I cannot speak. 1 have no experience 
on the point. I can satisfactorily trace phthisis to inflammation 
of the lungs, chronic or acute, and I know that this conformation 
of which 1 have been speaking, disposes the horse to inflamma¬ 
tion of the chest of the intensest character. I can believe that 
low and damp situations, or a variable and ungenial climate, may 
render horses peculiarly susceptible of chest affections ; and I 
do know that all the absurd, or cruel, or accidental causes of 
pneumonia may lay the foundation for phthisis; and particularly 
I know that these causes, which tend to debilitate the frame ge¬ 
nerally, render the horse more liable to chest affections, and less 
able to ward off their fatal consequences. The most numerous 
instances of phthisis occur in those poor persecuted animals that 
are worn out before their time, and they are frequent enough 
among cavalry horses after the deprivations and fatigues of a 
long campaign. 
Treatment .—I quit this unsatisfactory division of my subject 
for one yet more so,—the medical treatment of confirmed phthisis. 
I have no case of successful treatment of confirmed phthisis in 
my own experience, and I cannot find one on record. You must 
be guided by circumstances. If the horse is not very bad, and 
it is the spring of the year, a run at grass will always be useful. 
Sometimes it will seem to renovate the animal; but the apparent 
amelioration is too often treacherous. It should always be tried, 
and the disease may be so far subdued, as more readily to yield 
to after-treatment. The summer having set in, the medicinal 
effect of the orass ceases, and the flies tease and irritate the 
horse, and increase the too general irritability of the system. If 
the patient is taken partially or entirely from work, and submitted 
to your care, the course you have to pursue is plain enough. 
Consult the pulse and the membrane of the nose. Is the first 
quick and hard, and the second too much streaked with red ?— 
