494 HORSE SICKNESS OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
employment of their own common sense, instead of allowing 
themselves to be gulled by quacks and quack remedies, 
which only tend to arrest the march of intelligence in the 
science of treating cattle and their diseases. 
It has been my endeavour to show' that “horse sickness, 
so called, is only one of the forms of lung disease, or perhaps 
of the air-passages more particularly, arising from the com¬ 
bined or separate influences of drought, exposure to cold and 
wet nights, or from an empoisoned condition of the blood of 
life, arising from atmospheric influence, over which I am 
bound to say the pow'er of man is as limited as his knowledge 
of the phenomena,—the results are all we see, and we must 
be guided by our own reason in protecting our animals from 
exposure, in providing a sufficient supply of proper food, at 
the same time guarding against excess, which is even more 
fatal than scarcity. Where these diseases follow the action 
of debilitating influences, so the treatment, founded upon 
and to combat w^eakness, must necessarily be of an invigo¬ 
rating and restorative character, depletion by bleeding or 
otherwise being inadmissible, active stimulants also are to be 
avoided. Nursing, counter irritation, steaming the nostrils, 
enemata, mashes, gruel, clothing the body, and perfect quiet, 
.are all measures essential to the comfort and safety of the 
patient. On the other hand, if the affection can be assailed 
in its early stage, then active depletion by bleeding will be 
tolerated largely, which wdll be knowm by the horse standing 
the abstraction w^ell, if the bleeding is judicious in point of 
time; if not, the animal will soon give intimation by taking a 
deep inspiration, or sighing, an evidence that is unmistak¬ 
able either that the bleeding has been pushed far enough, or 
that the time for it has gone past. Further treatment has 
been detailed in the body of this letter. Apologising for the 
unexpected length of my communication, which I can only 
attribute to a desire to make myself understood, 
I am, Sir, yours, &c. 
Endosmosis operates in its results on the human body by 
a combined electrical and vital agency, and a healthy elec¬ 
trical condition of the skin is amongst its most important 
properties. 
