8 
THE INFLUENZA. 
By Edwin Harrison, M.R.C.V.S., Lincoln. 
It is general enough to the veterinary medical world, that 
“ Influenza” is more frequent at the latter end of the year (and 
more fatal too) than at any other period; and that this season 
it has been prevalent enough in certain districts is proved by 
the acknowledgement of it by veterinary writers. I have wit¬ 
nessed its ravages upon many horses, but particularly in one 
stud of about fifty horses, the stud of the Lord Henry Bentinck, 
&c. &c., the master of the Burton hunt, and will very briefly 
notice its peculiarities upon different animals. At the same' 
time, a word respecting its being infectious and contagious. 
My attention was directed to a bay horse on the 10th of 
October, the first animal attacked, one of the cub-hunting 
horses. Let this be especially borne in mind, as the regular 
hunters were then between thirty and forty miles from the 
place where the first ill horse was. I shall again have to 
revert to this when on infection and contagion. 
The symptoms in the bay horse were, a quick, weak and 
irritable pulse, running from seventy to seventy-five in a minute; 
the conjunctival membranes highly injected, the mucous mem¬ 
branes also, and of a leaden hue; ears and extremities cold, 
deathly cold; respiration very quick; mouth hot and much 
parched ; breath foetid; eyes swollen, closed, and weeping, 
also the head: a thin and yellow discharge from the nostrils, 
of so acrid a nature that it quickly scalded hair and skin off 
where it flowed; staring coat; tucked up belly; great con¬ 
stipation; loss of appetite; oedema of the chest, and sometimes 
the abdomen; painful cough, and a great reluctance to lying 
down. 
Treatment. —R. aloe solut. §ij, ext. bellad. ^j, ant. pot. tart. 
9ij, potassse nitrat. 3ij, aquae distillat. §vj, administered every 
ninth hour until the bowels responded, after which the al. 
solutio was omitted, and fever medicine, consisting of pulv. 
camph. ant. pot. tart, and potassae nitras, administered every 
seven hours; enematae applied; legs well hand-rubbed and band¬ 
aged, the rubbing renewed whenever they grew cold, which 
was frequently the case ; the horse warmly clothed, put in a well- 
aired and roomy box, and the throat stimulated. The little food 
that was required consisted of carrots, linseed-mash, &c., a 
pail of linseed gruel being suspended from the rack, of which 
the animal frequently sipped—I cannot say drank—so small a 
quantity being taken. 
