AS YET BUT LITTLE KNOWN. 
101 
than usual. The tongue is hot, and around its borders and point 
exhibits red spots. The hind quarters drag in their motion. In 
fact, the horse is heavy and disinclined to work. Inspection of 
the blood , however, it is by which we become best informed 
about the case. In issuing from an opened vein it is of a very 
deep or black red. When collected, in thirteen or fourteen 
minutes (two or three less than in health), it coagulates, and 
exhibits its usual buff; but the latter has a yellow tinge, and 
continues for four or five hours in the state of tremorous jelly. 
No serum exudes from it, its contraction not having been forcible 
enough to squeeze any out. Nevertheless, if, after forty-eight 
hours, the buffy clot be excised with knife or scissors from the 
black part underneath it, and pressed lightly between the fimgers, 
as much serum may be obtained from it as from healthy blood. 
Microscopical examination has added nothing to our knowledge 
of the nature of these alterations. The first stage lasts about 
two or three days, though it may seven or eight; but in a 
rapid case it endures no longer than twenty-four hours. Indeed, 
so transitory and light may be this preliminary stage, that the 
groom or the owner may perceive no more than some unusual 
dulness about the horse, and attribute it to laziness at work, or 
over fatigue, so that the 
Second stage generally arrives before the horse is thought 
to be ill, or the veterinary surgeon is called in. The horse falls 
off his feed ; stands in the stable with his head hanging down, 
with his halter-rope on the stretch ; he is thirsty; his eyes have 
the yellow-red cast, and are, besides, infiltrated, and perhaps 
watery; the mouth is dry and hot, and contains a thick and 
often foetid saliva; aphthae may sometimes be seen upon the 
gums and lips; the tongue shews redness around its point and 
borders, is sedimentous, and withdraws itself tremorously from 
between the fingers. Sometimes the appetite is still preserved, 
though the digestion is faulty and gives rise to abdominal uneasi¬ 
ness ; the pulse is small, quick, and soft; the beatings of the heart 
are strong and vibrating, and exhibit the metallic tinkle; the skin 
is hot and dry; the reins stiff often ; the sheath sometimes 
infiltrated, as well as the hind legs; the urine thickened and 
highly coloured, but not bloody ; the respiration frequent, full 
and deep, though neither auscultation nor percussion betrays 
pectoral anormality of any kind. Grumblings ( gargouillements ) 
are frequently heard among the intestines, sometimes accom¬ 
panied by fits of cholic; the dung mostly very slimy; the walk, 
weak and unsteady, sometimes proves too great exertion for the 
animal by occasioning acceleration in his breathing, &c. Never 
do we see those paroxysms of shortness of breath, intermittent 
