Chapter VIII (1)

THE ABDOMEN--ITS ACCIDENTS AND ITS DISEASES.

ENTERITIS.

The nose turned forcibly upward in horses is only expressive of general abdominal disease. The author has witnessed this symptom during the earliest stage of =enteritis=. It is frequently exhibited when no disturbance calling for treatment is known to be present, or can be subsequently observed. Still, because it is sometimes the earliest warning of intestinal disorder, all horses displaying such a peculiarity should receive pointed attention.

THE NOSE STRAINED VIOLENTLY UPWARD IS A GENERAL SYMPTOM OF ABDOMINAL
IRRITATION.
]

=Enteritis= is a fearful disease, treating the greatest possible agony. Aged horses are specially exposed to this scourge, which can rage with ungovernable fury from the commencement, and consume the life in eight hours. Its causes, unfortunately, are in a great measure purely conjectural; such as drinking cold water, etc. etc.

These incentives are formally recounted in books; but surely something is wanted to complete the catalogue. If all the animals exposed to the operation of such provocatives were to have enteritis, two-thirds of the horses inhabiting Great Britain would be dead by to-morrow morning. The principal thing, therefore, is the predisposition; incline toward a particular malady, and any triviality may start up the disease; yet this predisposition we at present are too ignorant to recognize.

A severe fit of colic, long continued, may end in enteritis. This is well known; yet it was not the colic which induced enteritis; but the real cause was that which originated the first affection. The predisposition must be present before the bowels would exhibit that inflammation into which the colic merged; the injudicious and cruel treatment most horses receive from those to whose service the life is devoted, may probably be accused as the root of all these evils; disease is the loudest proof that the life is stinted in some essential particular. The same food is placed before all horses; one animal will, however, purge upon exertion; labor, on the other hand, may constipate the fellow occupant of the same stable. When the same effect has produced such opposite causes, all the bodies cannot be alike; an old proverb asserts "that which is one man's food is another man's poison." The diet which supports one animal in health may loosen or constringe its companion; yet we are too ignorant to practically use such distinctions.

Again, there is no practice more general than to load the rack and pile the manger after any uncommon toil has been endured. The practice may originate in the best intentions; but no intention can convert that which is evil into a positive good. The wretched animal is tempted to cram the stomach when excessive labor has weakened the vital functions. Horses which are brought home late at night do not usually receive much notice; the grooms are sleepy and eager for their beds. The dressing of the animal, however much such attention might conduce to health, is consequently left to the following morning. Rapid motion quickens the circulation; the blood is sent to the skin, and copious perspiration is the result. However warm the stable may be, warmth only promotes evaporation; cold of the lowest degree results from evaporation; the consequence is, the body of the quadruped speedily shivers; the blood is repelled to the internal organs, the bowels are prepared for inflammation, and thus enteritis often follows upon the midnight return from a long journey.

Moreover, when the frame is exhausted, rest is far more essential than food; the nourishment then should be very light, and such as can be quickly swallowed. A quart of thick flour or of oatmeal gruel should be first offered after the return. When the cleansing of the animal's body is finished, another quart should be given; these will occupy little time in being put out of sight, and the administration need not interfere with the repose which is desired. The gruel being swallowed, a feed of crushed and scalded oats may be placed in the manger; no hay should be allowed; the wish is to sustain a debilitated body, not to blow out an idle stomach. Then the creature should, after being fully clothed, be left to itself, and no more nourishment be provided for that night. The danger of introducing substances into a stomach dead to its functions would thus be avoided; nothing likely to irritate or to operate as foreign bodies upon the bowels would be set before the debilitated horse. Besides, the groom would be obliged to remain up for some space, and, as a good servant always finds time hang heavy when without occupation, the animal is more likely to be dressed before the man retires. Moreover, the clothes would prevent the cold which ensues upon unchecked evaporation.

=Constipation=, if permitted to exist for any period, is always dangerous; hardened feces are one of the surest causes of enteritis. Disregarding this fact, the endeavor of the immediate age seems to be to keep horses cheap. Strange mixtures are now substituted for wholesome corn, in which the grain and husk are mingled, the one supporting the strength, the other stimulating the bowels. It is folly to seek for profit from a life, and to stint the nourishment which feeds the strength, or to view cheapness as desirable where the service is unlimited. It is wicked to imprison a living being and then to regard it only in connection with our conveniences; "much care and no spare" is a good stable proverb. The food makes the work; omnibus masters know this fact; their horses perform hard work and eat of the best, however abominably the generality of these slaves were once lodged. The home of a London horse is mostly a miserable hole: heated only by fermentation; too often undrained; nearly always without sufficient ventilation. The stall of such a building is large enough for the animal to stand in and not wide enough for the recumbent frame to rest in; the roof is low, and the refuse of the body is piled near the entrance. When will man learn that his interest is best consulted by the proper observances due to vitality in every form? A horse cannot be treated as though it were a jug; it cannot be placed upon a shelf and taken down when required. The functions which nature has placed within a beautiful and exquisitely framed body will, if thus regarded, soon become deranged. Sickness will soon cost more money than health would have required for its sustainment; and, in the end, he who strives to blend the animate and the inanimate will speedily find himself possessed only of the latter description of property.

The predisposing cause may, in most instances, be difficult to discover; but the premonitory symptoms of enteritis are well marked. The animal is dull and heavy. It may not notice aught about it, or it picks at its food; repeated and violent shivering fits usher in the attack. When the above characteristic signs are observed, at once take away all hay and corn. Bandage the legs, which will be cold; clothe the body, and, if already dressed, loosen the surcingle. Litter well the stall or remove the horse to a loose box; give two or three drinks, one every quarter of an hour, containing sulphuric ether and laudanum, of each one ounce; water, half a pint; and observe the animal without disturbing it. These symptoms are, however, generally unseen, because the groom is between the bedclothes while his charge is suffering.

The primary symptoms of decided enteritis are termed "=colic=" or "=fret=." Such words simply represent bellyache; but harm is done and valuable time lost, if the terms of the stable are accepted in any absolute signification. Grooms always have some invaluable nostrum hoarded up; such people are proud of and confident in their secret knowledge; they will lie rather than communicate the contents of their charm. With the best hopes the foolish servant will waste precious moments in useless expectation, and watch for results from an injurious or worthless potion till the time when curative measures could have been effective has passed. Never permit the men who clean the horses also to administer to their diseases; the poor fellows may mean well, but they can have no knowledge which, in the presence of danger, can be beneficial.

The primary symptom, to an uninformed observer, may simply announce a mild fit of gripes. When the shivering has subsided, the horse rolls, plunges, kicks, etc. etc., as he does in spasmodic colic. The struggles, however, are less abandoned and far more mannered in inflammation of the bowels, than in genuine spasm. The pain, moreover, which in enteritis accompanies all movements of the diaphragm, throws the labor of respiration upon the walls of the thorax. The ribs can only partially dilate the lungs; nature endeavors by quickening the motion to supply the deficiency. In colic, the breathing is at first only excited by the exertion; it is deep and full. At the commencement of spasm, the mouth is moist and in temperature natural; during enteritis, the breathing is very short and the mouth is always hot and dry.

The pulse is disturbed only as colic progresses; in enteritis it is quick, hard, and wiry, before the disorder is fully established. The term "wiry" well represents the kind of pulse which accompanies enteritis. If a thin metallic cord were to strike the finger ends somewhat gently, and about seventy times in a minute, it would impart the same sensation as is communicated by the beat of the artery during inflammation of the bowels. Besides, pressure in colic seems to ease the anguish; in enteritis, the horse often cannot bear to have the abdomen touched. The last symptom, however, is not always present, neither is there one, save those characteristic of general inflammation, which is invariably to be observed. In abdominal disease, so many organs are influenced that everything becomes, in a vast degree, mystery and confusion. Notwithstanding this, pressure, in enteritis, never affords relief; sometimes, however, the hand placed upon the belly will elicit the most energetic response. The horse will kick with the hind leg, turn round the head, and violently snap the jaws together. Then he who applied so rude a test must stand out of the reach of the hind foot, at the same time watching the head. Thus all danger is readily avoided; because the ears, the eyes, and nostrils of the horse express its intentions before these are carried into effect.

All the tests will, however, not warrant certainty. The heat and dryness of the mouth may proceed from bodily exhaustion; the pulse, though highly suspicious, may merely denote general disturbance rather than declare the particular locality of a disorder. The peculiarity of the breathing may only express temporary faintness; the resistance to pressure is common to many horses while in health, and the restrained method of the plunges may be consequent upon the absence of any incitive to greater energy; still, when all are put together, they imply a great deal. Faintness and exhaustion are not to be reconciled with a hard pulse; the heat of the mouth and the resistance to pressure, especially when united to the voluntary restraint imposed upon the motion, certainly warrant a strong inference, and sanction no belief that colic is the sufferer's complaint. Happily, however, there remains a mode of assuring the most hesitating individual. The coat must be pulled off, the shirt-sleeves rolled up, and the arm be well greased or thoroughly soaped. About this there must be no false delicacy: in human surgery and in veterinary practice many things have to be surmounted which do not read well when described in cold print. In this instance, the intention is to relieve a suffering life; the motive will elevate the act. The fingers of the right hand are to be compressed, while the left hand raises the tail; the position is on the left side, as near to the feet as may be possible. Being there, the points of the compressed fingers are brought to bear upon the center of the anus; gentle and equable pressure is maintained until the resistance of the sphincter muscle is tired out; even then, no haste is warranted. Upon the hand penetrating the body, a cavity is entered; here there is generally some dung, the removal of which constitutes what is called "back-raking." In enteritis, the excrement is hard, dry, offensive, in small and dark lumps, upon the surface of which lie streaks of white mucus. This being done, the arm must be regreased or again moistened with water, and the hand gradually advanced to ascertain the temperature of the intestines. If the health be undisturbed, the operator will be conscious only of a genial glow; should inflammation exist, the augmentation of the natural heat will be most decided.

All is then certainty; no further doubt is justifiable, and no additional symptom need be looked for. The nature of the case is determined, and should it be enteritis, every moment is indeed precious. Firstly, neither bleed nor purge. A particular kind of venesection, however, is allowed. Extract one quart of blood, and inject into the vein one pint of blood-warm water; a profuse purgation and perspiration almost immediately follows the disappearance of the fluid. Much uncertainty is thus spared; and two conditions, both favorable to recovery, are induced.

For this operation a quart syringe should be employed; a fine curved nozzle should be affixed to it for the convenience of insertion down the vein; the tube connected with the handle should be marked to show when a pint has been forced out of the instrument.

The reason for using a larger and a less handy machine than seems absolutely necessary to perform a delicate operation is, because nearly all syringes suck up a portion of air, which, when the instrument is almost empty, comes forth. Now breath or atmosphere, or gas of any kind injected into a living vessel, speedily destroys life. To prevent so fearful an accident the enlarged capacity of the syringe is recommended.

The water being injected, should the pulse regain its inflammatory character, mingle half a drachm of aconite root, in powder, with every subsequent antispasmodic draught. The ethereal drenches must be continued, because pain of the intestines is always obstinate, and we cannot be certain how far spasm may cause the agony, seeing that a form of colic always attends on enteritis.

Aconite root, in powder Half a drachm.
Sulphuric ether Three ounces.
Laudanum Three ounces.
Extract of belladonna One drachm.
(Rubbed down in water) One pint and a half.

These drinks should be administered as the pain, pulse, and the general appearance seem to demand them; they may be employed every quarter of an hour if requisite. When the pulse is quiet, withdraw the aconite; should the pain subside, remove the belladonna. The ether and laudanum may be diminished as the horse appears to be more comfortable.

Should the symptoms denote a dead, lingering pain in the abdomen, after the administration of the eighth drink, procure some strong liquor ammonia. Dilute this with six times its bulk of cold water. Saturate a stout cloth with the dilution; lay the cloth upon several folds of rug; obtain four resolute men with not very sensitive eyes or noses, and let them hold the cloth close to the animal's abdomen.

The action of the ammonia must be from time to time observed. It is a most powerful agent; in certain states it can blister in ten minutes; in other conditions, it requires half an hour to take that effect. It is very uncertain; but, if held too long, it may dissolve the skin and leave behind a fearful sore, which will establish a lasting blemish. He who employs it will understand he is using that which must not be abused. The removal of the cloth allows the ammonia to evaporate, and, consequently, at any moment effectually checks all further action.

When all is accomplished, should the progress of the disease be effectually stayed, but the cure not be complete, sprinkle on the tongue the following powder every second hour:--

Calomel Half a drachm.
Opium One drachm.

But stop all the other medicine as soon as the subsidence of the symptoms will permit. The food is now of all importance: bran, in enteritis, is positive poison; mashes are not to be thought of; linseed is too feeding for an inflammatory subject. The same objection may be taken to gruel; hay tea, or pails of boiling water poured upon a pound of flour, must sustain the body for the first day after recovery; on the next day, a feed of boiled roots may be introduced, but not the whole quantity at once; that must be divided into three meals. Then the amount may be doubled, and thus the full bulk of provender be by degrees attained; afterward a few crushed and scalded oats may be mixed with the rest at each meal; but it should be some time before hay is permitted to irritate and distend the lately inflamed surfaces.

Enteritis is a fearful disorder; he who has witnessed one death by that terrible malady should have received an awful rebuke. The _post-mortem_ examination best describes the violence of the affection. The intestines, generally the large intestines, are black and swollen; often in color they approach to a green. Their structure is destroyed; they tear upon a touch, and are so loaded with inflamed blood that one division of the bowels may form no inconsiderable burden for a strong man.

The above directions, the intelligent reader will fully comprehend, are not pronounced in any absolute sense. No two cases of any violent disorder are precisely similar; the forms, therefore, prescribed in these pages admit of variations. They are given only as suited to the generality of attacks; they may be lessened or augmented, as circumstances demand or as discretion dictates. It would be as easy to make a shoe which should fit all feet, as to name medicines or point out the quantities which should be adapted to all maladies.

ACUTE DYSENTERY.

Diarrhœa may be banished from the list of diseases to which horse-flesh is liable. Certain animals will purge during work; others will scour upon the smallest change of diet; such peculiarities, however, mostly check themselves; they demand very slight or no remedial treatment. Unlike diarrhœa in the human subject, they never terminate in death; but dysentery is as violent as diarrhœa is mild. The length and size of the intestines render any disease within them a very serious affair. There are two kinds of dysentery, the acute and the chronic; the acute form of disease will constitute the subject of the present article.

The cause of =acute dysentery= is always some acrid substance taken into the stomach--generally aloes, combined with some preparation of croton; other substances will, however, induce an inflammatory purgation. Such a result may ensue upon the injudicious use of arsenic, corrosive sublimate, tartar emetic, blue-stone, etc. etc. Many of these substances will be eaten if mixed with the corn--the instinct which protects the lives of other animals being destroyed in the horse by ages of domestication. Others may be ignorantly administered with the very best of intention.

The symptoms often are obscure at the commencement; there is abdominal pain; so there is in most intestinal disorders. The agony may readily be mistaken for the pangs attendant on spasmodic colic. On other occasions, the suffering may be slight, not even sufficient at first to destroy the appetite. No poison acts upon two bodies in precisely the same manner; violent purgation is generally the first marked sign which makes known the nature of the disorder. The feces soon become mere discolored water; the thirst is then excessive; the stench is most offensive; the pulse, from being hard, shortly becomes thick and feeble, and ultimately it is intermittent; the countenance is haggard; the position of the body expresses abdominal pain. Perspirations break forth in patches; tympanitis starts up, and death speedily ensues.

It is of little use to inquire, while the animal is suffering, what has provoked the superpurgation; it is then most desirable, if possible, to remove the effect. The best chance of accomplishing this is by destroying the pain that exhausts the strength, thereby affording nature the better chance of vanquishing the irritation. Ether, opium, belladonna, chalk, and catechu present the best means of doing this. These agents, when combined, support the body, allay the anguish, and check the purgation; blended with thick linseed tea, which will in some measure supply the mucus lost to the bowels, they therefore form a good drink for most occasions.

Sulphuric ether One ounce.
Laudanum Three ounces.
Liquor potassæ Half an ounce.
Powdered chalk One ounce.
Tincture of catechu One ounce.
Cold linseed tea One pint.
Give, throughout the acute stage, every quarter of an hour.

At the same time cleanse the quarters, plait up the tail, and throw up copious injections of cold linseed tea. Expect the horse to become greatly prostrated when amendment commences. The entire of the irritating agent must be expelled from the body before improvement can be witnessed. The subsequent recovery is announced by a pause in the symptoms; the disease appears to be stationary, whereas previously everything denoted a hastening termination.

That pause is one of suspense, for no one can say what will follow; sometimes the cessation of agony precedes immediate dissolution; sometimes recovery dates from that event. The animal, upon the slightest change being exhibited, must still be assiduously attended. Care must never cease; and, after recovery is confirmed, the food for a week must consist of linseed tea, hay tea, and gruel. On the expiration of the week, a few boiled roots may be added, three of the drinks previously ordered being administered every day. Do not bother about the bowels; no matter, should the animal be constipated for a fortnight subsequent to the thorough emptying of acute dysentery. Upon the termination of a fortnight, stop all medicine, and allow some crushed, scalded oats and beans; withdraw some of the slops as the solids advance; but let a full month expire before a drop of cold water or a mouthful of hay are permitted to be swallowed.

To escape the loss of so large a piece of property as a living horse, it is imperative the notion should be abandoned which asserts that because the horse can swallow most opening medicines with impunity, a strong purgative cannot otherwise than benefit the animal; the deduction is not fairly drawn. But not to follow up too closely so lame a prey: aloes is the general purgative in the stable; it is a drug which should never be intrusted to the hands of the groom. The difference between the necessary and the poisonous dose is too close for the uneducated to comprehend it; more horses have been slaughtered with aloes than have perished from all the other poisons conjoined. Yet grooms are particularly fond of this medicine; the dangerous drug enters into every ball which is popular in the stable; no matter how opposite the end desired may be, in the groom's opinion aloes must produce it. Like the majority of the uneducated, the stable-man rejoices in a strong purge. Tenesmus is his delight; he loves to see sixteen or eighteen full motions, and then he cannot comprehend why the horse is weak, since the physic passed beautifully through him!

Of all persons living, grooms generally are the most prejudiced and the worst informed. All advice is disregarded; should the master speak, the groom shakes his head, and, after the lecture is ended, inquires of himself, "what the old buffer can know about it?" Here is the curse of horses! Gentlemen transfer them to the custody of the uneducated. The groom is accepted as an authority; the master asks for and is mostly governed by the opinion of an inferior. No other servant possesses such a power; no domestic more abuses his position; the carriage and the harness maker, the corn merchant, and the veterinary surgeon all pay this person five per cent. upon the employer's bills; nothing comes on to the premises but the man claims a profit from it; nothing leaves the stable but is regarded as his perquisite. He thus, while occupying a situation of trust, has an absolute interest in the extravagance of the expenditure. Wear and tear of the articles over which he watches brings to him actual emolument; his interest and his duty are at war, and when a weak person has to decide the battle, it is easy to understand on which part the victory will be declared.

CHRONIC DYSENTERY.

This affliction is not so common among horses as it is with cattle; neither is it so frequent at the present day as it appears to have formerly been. Once it was termed "molten grease," from an unfounded notion that liquid fat was discharged with the feces. Now it is known that what our ancestors took for grease is no more than the mucus, which is expelled during every form of severe intestinal irritation.

The cause of =chronic dysentery= among horses is not well understood. It is said to follow diarrhœa; but such an explanation seems to confound the commencement of one disorder with the establishment of another disease. Horses having chronic dysentery are, generally, old animals, which are subject to the will of a very poor or a very penurious man. They are badly kept, and may have to grub a scanty living from lanes and hedgerows; also, they are goaded to hard work upon watery food and sour grass. In such cases, disturbance of the bowels should be early attended to. The food should be immediately changed. Good sound oats and beans should be freely given, while the following drink is administered thrice daily:--

Crude opium Half an ounce.
Liquor potassæ One ounce.
Chalk One ounce.
Tincture of all-spice One ounce.
Alum Half an ounce.
Mix with a quart of good ale, stir briskly, and give.

Should the primary symptom not be attended to, profuse purgation may ensue without excitement; but always will happen upon any exertion or the drinking of cold water. Violent straining often follows; the belly enlarges; the flesh wastes; the bones protrude; the skin is hide-bound; the visible mucous membranes become pallid; weakness increases; perspiration often bursts forth without occasion; the horse will stand still for hours, not grazing, nor seemingly being conscious that grass was within its reach.

At length a living skeleton alone remains of that which was a horse. The eyes have a sleepy, sad, and pathetic expression; the head is often turned slowly toward the flanks; the sight remains fixed for some moments upon the seat of pain; the horse stands on one spot, or only changes it when the bowels are about to act; colic at length sets in, though frequently it is present earlier; and the wretched quadruped then fades speedily away.

It is a general practice to turn animals suffering from chronic dysentery upon some village common. The horse is put there with scanty food and no shelter, under a plea of humanity, or "to give the old 'oss a last chance." There can be no feeling in placing a diseased animal far away from sight or help, where it must pine, shiver, and starve, in a dreary solitude.

Supposing the affected life to be claimed by a generous master, either of the following drinks may be given, thrice daily:--

Sulphuric ether One ounce.
Laudanum Three ounces.
Liquor potassæ Half an ounce.
Powdered chalk One ounce.
Tincture of catechu One ounce.
Cold linseed tea One pint.

Chloroform Half an ounce.
Extract of belladonna Half a drachm.
Carbonate of ammonia One drachm.
Powdered camphor Half a drachm.
Tincture of oak bark One ounce.
Cold linseed tea One pint.

The above drinks may be changed, as either appears to have ceased to operate. The food should be of the best and lightest description. Boiled roots, boiled linseed, boiled rice, crushed and boiled malt, etc. etc.; no hay. The body should be frequently dressed, and always clothed. A good bed ought to be allowed. The lodging must be well drained and roomy.

Yet, after all this trouble, a speedy cure is not to be expected; and rarely does an old horse, should it recover, prove highly useful. How sad, however, is that condition where the continuance of the life is made conditional upon the service of the body--where interest is the only motive which permits existence! No sympathy to be anticipated in suffering; no pity in disease! The only feeling that actuates the custodian is a cold regard for the gain which the jaded being can yet bring him. A life of usefulness, years of toil, injuries sustained and accidents surmounted,--all cannot win a day's respite from the doom which attends the creature whose exertions in man's service have led to the disablement of its powers. Such, however, is the fate of the horse in England, which land specially boasts it is a "Christian country."

Chronic dysentery is the inheritance which the horse earns from being subjected to the dominion of man. Excessive labor, filthy lodging, and innutritious diet are the causes. Each of these causes increases as the age advances.

Prior to its domestication, the horse might not have found on every spot an abundance of excellent fodder; but then it was at liberty to seek a better fare in another place. Man has taken away all power of choice; he forces the creature to toil, and obliges it to eat only that which parsimony may afford to place before it. When so vast and so absolute a power is claimed, it becomes a positive duty to see the mere animal necessities are satisfied: it is cruel folly to tax the powers and to stint the body. It is a crime to undertake a trust and then confide the fulfillment of its responsibility to an ignorant inferior. It is a sin to seize on life and to neglect the prisoner you hold in captivity. Where existence is claimed as a property, and animation is forced to wear out being in labor for the master's profit, surely the least obligation the superior could own should be the provision of ample lodging and fitting sustenance! Both are withheld from the aged horse.

ACITES, OR DROPSY OF THE ABDOMEN.

In the horse, =acute peritonitis= is unknown, save as the result of operation; then its fury takes possession of the cavity and generally refuses to yield to medicine. It is different, however, with chronic peritonitis, which, though not a common disorder, is too often encountered to be esteemed a rare disease. It is, when early noticed, tractable; but the earlier symptoms are generally not understood. The first sign is a ragged coat and a tender state of the abdomen; the horse, which was passive previously, now shrinks from the curry-comb; snaps and kicks at him who dresses it. Such actions are viewed as denoting a return of spirit. Intending to encourage the favorite quality of the stable, the flank is violently struck or slapped by the servant; and the indication forced from a dumb animal by agony, is by grooms regarded as the proof of reviving animation.

Masters should, in justice to themselves if from no higher motive, visit the stable more frequently than is their custom. The horse is all gentleness and simplicity; a groom only knows less about the animal than a child, for he has acquired notions which induce him to misinterpret plain actions. Every owner of a stable should learn to feel and count the horse's pulse; he should be acquainted with the normal standard and its healthy character; chronic peritonitis might then early be discovered. The pulse under this disease is hard and small, it vibrates about sixty times in a minute. The head is pendulous; the food is oftener spoiled, rather scattered about than eaten; the membranes are pale and the mouth is dry; pressure upon the abdomen elicits a groan, and turning in the stall always calls forth a grunt.

When such symptoms are observed, the food should be small in bulk, but nutritious in quality; no work should be imposed; the medicine should be tonic and alterative.

Strychnia A quarter of a grain, worked gradually up to one
grain.
Iodide of iron Half a drachm, worked gradually up to one
drachm and a half.
Extract of belladonna One scruple.
Extract of gentian A sufficiency.
Powdered quassia A sufficiency.
Make into a ball; give one at night and at morning.

Small blisters should succeed each other upon the abdomen; but as these cases are always tedious and very much depends upon the constitution of the animal, charity alone should propose such a disease for treatment, as the general termination of the malady is incurable dropsy of the abdomen.

=Acites= offers a good illustration of the loss inhumanity brings down upon man, and of the gain which would attend a loftier conduct. Chronic peritonitis attacks aged animals; such horses are used only for harness purposes. Few masters inquire what propels the carriage, so the vehicle gets over the ground. The affected quadruped cannot drag its own body; thus more than double duty is cast upon the sound steed. The single horse has not only to draw the entire carriage and its load, but it also has to pull along its disabled companion. Servants frequently hide defects, hoping that time will remedy them, or dreading the reception proverbially given to the bearer of bad tidings; thus the sound horse ultimately fails, while the sick animal is rendered worse by violent exercise.

However, with the honesty which seems to prevail in and around the stable, the diseased horse is often sent to the nearest market. The proprietor, under some strange quibble of conscience, sells to another that which he is convinced is worthless. A rich master vends and a poor man buys; the cheatery of such a bargain is obvious, but to such results always tend a violated contract. The natural contract between man and horse is outraged; a conditional gift is construed to imply an unconditional bestowal. The terms are warped according to the convenience of the receiver; the possibility of any obligation being implied is never suspected. A few, and very few good people, from feeling only fulfill the conditions of the bond; but kindness, when bestowed upon the horse, is regarded as a weakness and a gratuity. From the highest to the lowest, none think that all of animated creatures are born with rights; no one behaves as though domesticated animals were only intrusted to the care of man. Violation of moral conditions begins the evil, which ends in cheatery and robbery of one another.

The symptoms which announce that the serous membrane has effused water into the abdomen are a want of spirit; constant lying down and remaining in one position for a long period; perpetual restlessness; thirst; loss of appetite; thinness; weakness; enlarged abdomen; constipation and hide-bound.

The enlargement of the belly has something peculiar in it; the swelling lies toward the inferior portion of the abdomen. Near the loins there is apparently an empty space; if the hand be placed on the enlargement, and another person strikes the belly on the opposite side, a sense of fluctuation can be distinctly felt. If the horse be thrown upon its back, the swelling will, with the change of position, gravitate toward the loins. At length small bags containing fluid depend from the chest and the inferior surface of the belly. Should the disease be suffered to progress, the sheath and one leg generally enlarge; the hair of the mane breaks off and is easily pulled out. Where once hung the tail now remains little more than the dock with a few scattered hairs. Ultimately purgation starts up, which terminates the suffering.

Of course, after effusion, all treatment is powerless--creatures in the last stage of dropsy presenting sights which the mind shudders to contemplate; objects of this kind are sometimes to be seen on commons in the neighborhood of London. They are turned out to die miserably under the plea of humanity; the utmost limit of cruelty is justified or made pleasant by a pretense to sympathy. The poor horse literally starves; were there food to eat, the remaining strength would not serve to collect it. Still the proprietor is so very humane he cannot endure to destroy the property he has paid for; the poor animal is therefore thrust forth to cheaply live, or to die without trouble to its owner.

INFLUENZA.

This affection may rage throughout the kingdom, or it may be located upon a very circumscribed spot. In a disorder so eccentric, it is very difficult to decide the question whether or not it is contagious; it commonly runs through the stable in which it appears; but it does not invariably attack every animal within the building. It may, in a large edifice, first seize the horse nearest the door, then travel to the stall farthest from the entrance; thus it skips about without regularity, and often spares many individuals.

Occasionally =influenza= fixes upon an animal when in the field; but it is a more probable visitant of the stable: this is a seeming proof that the contagion does not reside in the air, since the atmosphere is as much as possible excluded from every mews. We may conjecture it is not dependent upon any vapor exuding from the earth, since the creatures whose noses are nearly always in contact with the herbage are, of all others, least liable to the affection.

It is terrible to contemplate the suffering and loss of life which have been consequent upon the errors of mankind. Influenza is regarded as a new disease; a new name deceives the world, though it is more than probable that a disorder of a low, febrile, and typhoid character has prevailed among animals for many ages. Nature has, for thousands of years, been striving to enforce the self-evident truth that man is by moral obligation bound to provide for the welfare of the animal he enslaves. His gain or the inclination of his will can be no argument against the fulfillment of so plain a duty; the implied contract, the common parent of all living things, has been emphasizing with sickness and with death; all has been to no purpose. Cunning men have been employed, and nostrums have been invented to maintain misrule; wealth has been sacrificed and ruin endured, to uphold an unrighteous cause; but the voice of nature pleading for her children has not been understood.

Even at this day the old fault is to be met with on every hand; it is exhibited by the rich as well as by the poor, by the highly educated and by the very ignorant. In every place exist horses of fabulous excellence in the master's opinion, imprisoned within walls which exclude the vital air. The roof may not permit the animal's head to be raised, the sides may not allow the body to be turned; the fumes within the walls shall oppress the lungs and sting the eyes of the man who enters the building; yet within a circumscribed space, so foul and pestilential, the horse is doomed to exist. Then the animal's disease is heard of with surprise, and its death is lamented as a misfortune!

What cause is there for grief or for wonder, if impurity does generate disease and death? What need has man to ape the martyr, because influenza starts from the contamination which by human will has been created? The pest once originated sweeps onward, nor can mortal exclamation nor mortal sorrow check the course of the destroyer; all fall alike before the scourge. The filthy and the cleanly alike are stricken; yet neither masters nor legislators can draw wisdom from the visitation.

In influenza there is no difficulty in pointing to the structure affected; it would, however, be hard to allude to the part which was not involved. The weakness and stupidity which accompany the affection declare the brain and nervous system to be diseased. Local swellings show the cellular tissue to be deranged; heat and pain in the limbs and joints announce the serous, the ligamentous, and osseous structures implicated. The muscular and digestive functions are acutely disordered; the rapid wasting of the flesh demonstrate the absorbents are excited. There is no portion of the body which can escape the ravage of influenza.

Youth, or rather the approach of adultism, is the favorite season of the attack, which is most prevalent during the spring time of the year. There is, however, no period or any age which are altogether exempt from its influence.

All kinds of treatment have been experimented with. Bleeding, purging, blistering, setoning have all been tried, and each has destroyed more lives than the whole can boast of having saved; experience has by slow degrees shown the inutility of active treatment. _Bold_ measures, as those plans are termed which add to another's suffering, commonly end in hydrothorax or water on the chest.

It is difficult to determine when the first symptom of influenza is present. The author is indebted to the acuteness of Mr. T. W. Gowing, V. S., of Camden Town, for a knowledge of a marked indication declarative of the presence of influenza. A yellowness of the mucous membranes, best shown on the conjunctiva or white of the eye, is very characteristic. Whenever the sign is seen and sudden weakness remarked, caution should be practiced, for it is ten to one that the pestilence is approaching. Influenza is a very simulative disorder; it has appeared as laminitis; disease of the lungs is, perhaps, its favorite type. Bowel complaints are apt to imitate each other; blowing generally commences such disorders. But when influenza is prevalent, let the body's strength and the yellowness or redness of the membranes be always looked to before any more prominent indication is particularly observed.

The other symptoms--which, however, are very uncertain, as regards any of them being present or absent--are pendulous head, short breath, inflamed membranes, swollen lips, dry mouth, enlarged eyelids, copious tears, sore throat, tucked up flanks, compressed tail, filled legs, big joints, lameness and hot feet. Auscultation may detect a grating sound at the chest, or a noise like brickbats falling down stairs at the windpipe; whenever this last peculiarity is audible there is a copious nasal discharge. Sometimes one foot is acutely painful, and, notwithstanding the weakness, the leg is held in the air. Purgation has been witnessed, although constipation usually prevails, and the animal generally stands during the continuance of the disorder.

Move the horse slowly to a well-littered, loose box; mind the door does not open to the north or to the east. No food will be eaten; but suspend a pail of well-made gruel within easy reach of the animal's head. Let the gruel be changed or the receptacle replenished at stated periods, thrice daily; sprinkle one scruple of calomel upon the tongue and wash it down with a drink composed of sulphuric either, one ounce; laudanum, one ounce; water, half a pint; do this night and morning. Should the weakness be excessive, double the quantity of ether and of laudanum contained in the draughts. Watch the pulse--it always is feeble, but at first has a wiry feeling. So soon as the character of the pulse changes or the wiry sensation departs, which generally happens when the nasal discharge becomes copious and cough appears, one pot of stout may be allowed, and some nourishing food, as bread, on which a very little salt has been sprinkled, may be offered by hand. The horse feels man to be its master and appreciates any attention bestowed upon it in the hour of sickness. It will stand still to be caressed, and advance its hanging ears to catch the accents of sympathy.

Beware of what is termed active treatment; a purgative is death during influenza. It generally will induce the prostration from which the animal never recovers. Formerly it was common to see four strong men propping up a horse during its endeavor to walk. But the lower class are fond of joking one with another. Such was the usual result of their employment on these occasions. In the fun the horse got but partial support, while the noise distressed the diseased sensibilities. Horses have large sympathies, and readily comprehend the attentions dictated by kindness. The disregard which people too often display toward sickness in an animal acutely pains the creature: its effects may be told by the altered character of the pulse. Whereas the voice, when softened by pity, often causes the heavy head to be turned toward the speaker; and the muzzle of a diseased inmate of the stable has frequently reposed long upon the chest of the writer.

ABDOMINAL INJURIES.

These are of various kinds. They differ materially, but they all provoke inflammation of the vast serous membranes lining the abdominal cavity; and their symptoms are therefore too nearly alike to be distinguished from each other. A mere list of such perils must astonish the reader; and his pity will be excited when he learns that such accidents, numerous as they are, generate the most violent agony. These injuries consist of ruptured diaphragm, ruptured stomach, ruptured spleen, ruptured intestines, strangulation, intro-susception, impactment, and calculus.

=Ruptured diaphragm= is attended with a soft cough, and symptoms of broken wind--occasioned by the almost sole employment of the abdominal muscles--with sitting on the haunches. Still, Professor Spooner, of the Royal Veterinary College, mentioned in his lectures that an animal belonging to the Zoological Society lived two years with a ruptured diaphragm, through which the bowel protruded into the thorax. In the horse such a lesion is speedily fatal.

A position so unnatural as that of sitting on the haunches may denote something very wrong to be present; but it gives no definite direction to our ideas. Animals are known to have assumed it, and subsequently to have recovered. The diaphragm when it yields generally gives way upon the tendinous portion. Through the opening the peristaltic action soon causes the bowels to obtrude; and death is produced by displacement and strangulation of the intestine. The posture previously delineated is common to all injuries of the abdomen; so is the opposite peculiarity--or the horse remaining upon its chest. The last attitude may not, to most persons, appear so strange, seeing that the creature assumes it whenever it rises or lies down. Then, however, it is only momentary. When it denotes abdominal injury, it is comparatively of long continuance. At the same time the breathing and the countenance bespeak the greatest internal anguish.

=Ruptured spleen= is the gentlest death of all those which spring from abdominal injury. The spleen is at present a mystery to veterinary science. It has been discovered after death of enormous size; but the symptoms during life had not led to the expectation of any very serious disorder. Ruptured spleen and ruptured liver are both productive of similar symptoms; both answer to the same tests, and the termination of each is alike.

=Ruptured stomach= mostly happens with old and enfeebled horses. Night cab-horses are very liable to it; so also are animals of heavy draught. The drivers often neglect to take out the nose-bags. The horse's most urgent necessities always yield to man's passing convenience; so the creature has to journey far or to remain out till the empty stomach grows debilitated. It is then taken home and placed before abundance. Elsewhere this folly has been commented upon. It was shown that light food and perfect rest were the best restoratives for an exhausted frame. The drivers, however, refuse to be taught. The horse eats and eats. No contraction of the exhausted stomach warns the animal when to stop. The viscus is crammed. Then digestion endeavors to commence. With rest the organ recovers some tone. The muscular coat of the sac starts into action, and, encountering opposition, the vital powers exert themselves with the greater energy. The stomach is thus burst by its own inherent force; the largest division of its various structures always being exhibited by the elastic peritoneal covering--the lesser rent being left upon the inelastic mucous lining membrane. Excessive colic, followed by tympanitis, are the only general symptoms which attend ruptured stomach. The history of the case, if it can be obtained, is, however, a better guide; but there are too often interested motives for distorting the facts. Vomition through the nostrils has been thought to particularize ruptured stomach; but experience has ascertained that vomition may be induced by any lesion which is sufficiently great to cause revulsion of the system.

THE INTESTINE DIVIDED SO AS TO CLEARLY SHOW THE NATURE OF
INTRO-SUSCEPTION.
]

=Intro-susception= is always preceded by colic. The last-named affection causes portions of the bowels to contract. Such contracted intestines become small, firm, and stiff. They are, while in that condition, by the peristaltic action readily pushed up other portions of the canal, which are of the natural size. The entrance of the contracted bowel acts upon the healthy tube as if it were a foreign substance. Contractibility is excited. The displaced and intruding bowel is grasped as by a vice, and the accident is of that kind which provokes its own continuance. Cure is hopeless, while consciousness remains; the only hope is the administration of chloroform in full and long-continued doses; thereby to arrest vitality and chance the release of the imprisoned gut. While intro-susception lasts, all passage is effectually stopped. Inflammation soon commences, and the symptoms of outrageous colic are exhibited. However, such is not always the case. Mr. Woodger, veterinary surgeon of Bishop's Mews, Paddington, attended a case of this description, in which the symptoms present seemed to denote congestion of the lungs.

=Invagination= is here used to express the entrance of one entire division of the bowels within another. In this sense it is chiefly witnessed upon the large intestines; whereas intro-susception is mostly present upon the smaller bowels. The mesentery must be ruptured before such an accident can take place; but then the agony attendant upon the previous derangement is so powerful that it is impossible for the hugeness of this lesion to increase the violence of the torture; nor is there any sign by which so sad a catastrophe can be predicated.

Before =strangulation= can possibly occur, the mesentery must be sundered. It almost always happens to a portion of the small intestines. The bowel, freed from its support, soon involves itself with numerous complications; or the rent membrane may twine round a knuckle of the gut.

The above illustration, however, shows one of the simplest forms in which the accident can possibly take place; but no person, however acute, could distinguish between strangulation from rupture of the intestines. The last generally occurs upon the smaller bowels, and happens to the interspaces upon the superior portion of the tube, between the vessels which nourish the digestive canal. The ingesta, is consequently forced between the layers of the mesentery. The most intense anguish, inflammation, and death are the consequences.

THE SAC FORMED IN THE BOWEL; THIS THE CALCULUS HAS QUITTED, WHILE
ANOTHER PORTION OF THE INTESTINE HAS SO FIRMLY GRASPED IT AS TO
RUPTURE ITSELF.
]

=Calculus= or stone may be present, either in the stomach or in the canal. Those in the stomach are of small size; those within the intestines may attain the weight of more than twenty pounds. Those of the stomach are always smooth, as also may be those of the bowels. To the intestines, however, there are common three kinds of, or differently composed calculi: the triple phosphate or the earthy; one formed of the minute hairs which originally surrounded the kernel of the oat; and another composed of dung, held together by the mucous secretion of the bowel. Any of these calculi may, as the size increases, gradually stretch the intestine; thus forming a living sac within which the stone abides. While it remains there, the food passes over it and no injury is occasioned. But by any movement it is likely to be dislodged and thrown into the healthy channel: There it is firmly grasped with such force as to produce rupture of the intestine, and the hold is only relaxed after inflammation has ended in mortification and in death. The bowels, in truth, are impacted by calculus. The passage is stopped. However different the causes of abdominal injury may appear, they are each generally characterized by the severest possible abdominal pain. This symptom is often so violent that the agony conceals all other indications; or if any others can be exhibited, they are so partially shown and displayed for so very brief a space as not to permit of their being rightly interpreted.