68 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
larity. Many who have written upon this disease attribute the 
cause, some to one thing, and some to another. Mr. Youatt says 
that it results from “an unusual determination or flow of blood to 
the brain;” but, as usual with him, he offers no kind of proof 
beyond the mere statement. This I know to be a prevailing notion, 
and one which I conceive to be very erroneous. I have sought in 
vain for facts in support of it. I do not believe that such can be 
proved to be a cause of the disease in any way; neither can it be 
shewn that any power or force resident within the organization of 
the animal could propel more blood to the brain at one time than 
it receives naturally; but even admitting such to be the fact, we, 
after all, are only at the surface of the matter; we want the cause 
of this “unusual determination,” and about this Mr. Youatt never 
alludes—most probably he never conceived of such a thing. It is at 
times amusing to read the opinions of some individuals respecting 
the seat and causation of disease, particular^ the opinions of those 
who are narrow and restricted in their views upon the matter. 
In the Veterinarian for December 1848 is a short paper upon 
megrims by Mr. Samuel Baker, V.S. of Chelmsford, wherein he 
says “ I feel quite satisfied, from the symptoms I have observed of 
megrims, that the brain cannot be the seat of the diseaseand in 
the next line he again observes “ that the eye is the part affected, 
and that the rays of the sun is the cause.” Now, to say that the 
brain cannot be the seat of the disease, is to talk nonsense; that it 
may not be affected in all cases is perhaps barely probable. I 
quite agree, however, with Mr. Baker, that when animals are 
attacked at times with fits of this nature, when they are in harness 
and upon the road during hot weather, or by moonlight, when 
snow is upon the ground, that the light of either, reflected from the 
winkers into the eye, might cause such an attack. Under such 
circumstances I regard the fit as precisely analagous to the mes¬ 
meric state ; but the brain in such a case will most unquestion¬ 
ably be the organ most affected; the peculiar action of the eyelids 
during the fit which he speaks about are dependant upon other 
and far different influences, which to fully explain upon the 
present occasion would not only be tedious, but out of place. 
Megrims, then, like almost every other disease, may depend upon 
a number of causes, and these causes, for aught we know as yet to 
the contrary, may be of an entirely opposite nature, yet alike in 
producing a similar result. All that we have got to do, then, is to 
silently observe, and faithfully register what we do observe. We 
do not want essays upon disease; we require cases honestly 
observed; for as yet no complete history of any disease has been 
furnished; and until such shall be done, it is sheer waste of time 
and waste of material to write treatises, essays, and prize papers. 
