544 
CASE OF INFLUENZA. 
some search was enabled to discover the substance by which they 
were represented. On the cerebellum there was an effusion of 
fibrin and four clots of congealed blood, each about as large as 
half a pea. The brain itself was more than usually firm. 
Such were the results of the examination; and now let me 
describe the manner of the death. After I left the horse, it had 
of its own accord risen, and lain down again, several times, which 
it was by no means so weak but it could accomplish with ease : 
it had throughout lain down to rest, and on the day it died was 
not less able to do so than before. A drink had been given, and 
the proprietor was watching the animal, when he observed it, while 
standing at one side of the box, straighten its legs, and, without 
bending them, fall upon its side: the head was drawn backward, 
and the life, without a struggle, was gone. 
Had a human being, even without displaying any other symptom, 
thus departed, the medical man probably would readily have 
named the cause of the sudden decease; but I, as a veterinary 
surgeon, was not by experience told to expect a case of apoplexy 
in the horse. There can be no reason why the animal should be 
exempt, and its master subject to that affection; but hitherto I have 
not met with a case similar to the one I have narrated. I have 
known the horse to die from inflammation, congestion, and abscess 
of the brain ; but in every instance the termination has been slow, 
and the last moments have been marked by struggles more or 
less violent. The life has always departed with convulsions; but 
here not an indication of pain was to be observed, for the limbs 
stiffened previous to the fall, nor were they subsequently flexed. 
In the words of the owner, ‘'the horse droptas if it had been shot, 
and went off like a child.” 
This history may serve to further shew the tricks which influenza 
can play us, and the danger which attends the disease from its 
tendency to involve numerous structures. Originally the bladder 
or kidneys seemed implicated; yet as the fever was not acute, but 
the pulse feeble, I disregarded that indication : then the bowels 
were affected, but, as the pulse retained its character, the treatment 
was not changed. The hind leg subsequently was attacked, after 
which the breathing suggested congestion of the lungs ; and lastly, 
the brain being affected by a determination of blood, apoplexy ter¬ 
minated the disease, when the horse, to every appearance, was past 
all danger. 
A month did not elapse between the two attacks, the first being 
of a nature which we should argue would have tended to purify the 
system; and as to the perfectness of the recovery, the fact of the 
animal having done its work with spirit does not allow the point 
to be disputed. The breed of the horse may offer something like 
