746 
ROSCOE R. BELL. 
circumstance which illustrates this aspect of the subject with 
emphasis. A large grocery firm of New York City, which em¬ 
ploys a large number of horses (some hundreds) were replenish¬ 
ing their stock by the purchase of new horses and the weeding 
out of the old and unsatisfactory ones, which they intended to 
sell on a given date at one of the large auction marts of the 
city, where three or four hundred “ green ” horses are constantly 
stabled, and where this disease, with all its variations, is ever 
present. The stalls in their own barn being fully occupied, 
the “ culls ” were transferred to the auction stable about ten days 
prior to the date of sale ; but by the time the day came to show 
them in the ring more than half of them were affected with this 
disease, and some of them died. 
If very little is to be gained from researches among the ar¬ 
chives of veterinary medicine with reference to the etiology of 
this disease, our inquiries into its curative treatment will be as 
poorly rewarded—even the modern, up-to-date writers differ as 
widely as though they were treating of totally dissimilar affec¬ 
tions ; and if we were to combine the remedial agents recom¬ 
mended by, say, three of them, there would be ve?y few unmen¬ 
tioned drugs in the pharmacopoeia. Not only will one writer 
differ from another, in the indications for treatment, but each 
one will differ with himself, administering medicines of opposite 
actions for the same conditions. After describing a typhoid dis¬ 
ease, with depression of all vital forces, some administer arterial 
sedatives, nerve sedatives, bleeding, blistering, and other means 
of depletion, while antimony, iodine, mercury, saline derivatives, 
and even purgatives are advised. Opposed to these, the stimu¬ 
lation of quinine is recommended, along with such a wonderful 
dose as half a pint of alcohol, while another modern writer 
would advise two ounces of whiskey every twenty-four hours. 
And so on, if time would permit, I could occupy all the time 
that should be given to this paper in pointing out the incongru¬ 
ous irregularities in the therapy of these writers. But enough 
is here given to show that the conception of the etiology and 
morbid processes is very vague in the minds of modern writers, 
•I 
