The illustrated horse doctor : $b being an accurate and detailed account of the various diseases to which the equine race are subjectedMayhew, Edward
Science
The illustrated horse doctor : $b being an accurate and detailed account of the various diseases to which the equine race are subjected
Mayhew, Edward
Horses -- Diseases
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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