488 NORTH OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
demands made on his powers. The symptoms of excitability, 
noticed in the first instance, will admit of being described, as 
forming the premonitory indications of disease going on with¬ 
in an important organ, and as essentially differing from those 
which characterise animals of innate nervous temperament. 
The animal, as previously stated, was of the cart breed; 
thick-set, short-coupled, neatly-moulded, and of strong mus¬ 
cular proportion. His head was large; eyes rather small; 
labial apparatus large and pendent; hirsute appendages 
plentifully distributed, especially the mane and forelock; in 
fact, from an animal of his description, one would imagine 
the work expected from him must, under circumstances apart 
from disease, be exacted only by dint of merciless applications 
of the whip, at least, if required to be done expeditiously. On 
the contrary, however, the animal betrays an unusual amount 
of sensibility to surrounding noises, &c., far beyond his ap¬ 
parent nature; passing objects are also observed with more 
than ordinary attention. There is a tendency to carry the head 
a little towards one side, the ear of the same side being 
either drawn in an attitude of listening, or otherwise hang¬ 
ing for a time useless. 
This attitude gives way to the habit of shaking the head a 
little at first; but as the disease advances more in propor¬ 
tion, until the act is so violently performed that the animal 
goes through a paroxysm of convulsive throes, during which 
the equilibrium is with difficulty maintained, rendering him 
absolutely dangerous to those within his reach. 
At other times the head is thrown upwards and back¬ 
wards, the muscles of the neck, back, and loins, with those 
of the legs, being rendered instantly hard and tense by 
forcible contraction, the principal weight of the body being 
supported upon the hind legs, which are brought thoroughly 
underneath. The hair protrudes over the eye, the tail is 
outstretched, and altogether the sufferer presents a pitiable ap¬ 
pearance. 
The drawing of a load up hill, when, perhaps, a tight 
collar interrupts the passage of blood from the brain; or sud¬ 
den fright or blows—particularly over the affected side—bring 
about the aforenamed symptoms in all their hideous severity, 
during which the animal is brought to a stand. Here 
there is not usually a resemblance in the conduct of the 
subject to that which occurs under an attack of megrims, 
for no sooner is the paroxysm over than he looks round, as 
it were, for the cause, and moves on as if nothing had occurred. 
These symptoms are also equally produced by the inflic¬ 
tion of brutal treatment in the stable ; a peculiar sensibility 
to harshness being always manifest. 
