506 
INFLUENZA IN HORSES. 
however, no rule without an exception, and consequently I do not 
pretend to condemn those who in particular cases have seen good 
reason to follow an opposite practice. 
Quickened breathing in the horse answers to panting in the dog; 
and in that animal, which the will of the public brings so frequently 
under my notice, 1 have always found it to be an indication of de¬ 
bility. Venesection is generally resorted to in order to subdue it, 
and most horse-proprietors are inclined to look complacently on the 
operation. If the horse is bled, the popular notion that every affec¬ 
tion must be inflammation, and being of that character calls for 
immediate depletion, is propitiated. I was lately called to see a 
horse, the prominent symptom exhibited by which was hurried 
breathing, the respirations ranging between seventy and eighty in 
a minute. The animal had been thrice bled for the purpose of re¬ 
lieving the lungs, and the proprietor was anxious the life should be 
further drained, although the repeated experiment had produced no 
good effect. I advised no further abstraction, but frequent doses 
of ether combined with laudanum; and the patient, contrary to my 
expectation, ultimately recovered under that treatment. 
A safe and effectual mode of practice for cases in which shiver¬ 
ing and blowing are the obvious or external symptoms, was with 
me for a long time a desideratum. The recognized practice I had no 
faith in, for it did not satisfy my reason; and by its results it did 
not compensate for its seeming opposition to sound theory. Hav¬ 
ing tried many things which appeared likely to answer, I at length 
made an experiment with ether; and from the day on which I wit¬ 
nessed its efficiency I have never in such cases abandoned it. It 
seems to invigorate the system—to render the surface of the body 
warm—to calm the mental irritability, and to check the tendency 
to inflammation. 
In cases of influenza, however, it will be found to be of the 
highest value. That disease has lately been very rife in London. 
It has assumed various forms, and the old character of the disease 
has undergone an extraordinary change. The practitioner is forced to 
proceed with the utmost caution, for he knows not in what strange 
shape the enemy may appear. Other affections frequently seemed 
to precede it. Thus, a species of rheumatic lameness in one leg 
would, after a day or two, terminate in influenza. Something very 
similar to strangles, only confined to one side of the jaw, was by 
no means an unusual accompaniment of the attack. The nasal mem¬ 
brane was not, as formerly, inflamed, but more generally pallid and 
discoloured, wflth only a few lines of redness here and there. The 
conjunctiva was seldom deep in tint, but generally the reverse, 
though invariably slightly yellow. Sore mouth has not been un¬ 
usual, and ulceration of the fauces has occurred. In one case I was 
