stable. Often such horses are destroyed by the slightest illness : not because of the disease or the importance of the parts affected, but because the powers of life cannot be maintained when stimulants and exercise are upon compulsion withheld, their systems being then unable to endure the smallest constitutional irritation. I feel confident that no purgative is required in such cases, and certainly no medicine of a drastic nature can with safety be exhibited during this disease, because violent and obstinate diarrhoea is frequently one of its symptoms. Again, there is in influenza great susceptibility on the part of the mucous membranes to take on morbid action; yet I would not, as some have done, assert the disease is confined to these structures. No. The cellular tissue of the body is likewise involved, and the general system so much implicated, that it is most difficult to say what particular part is more especially the seat of the malady. Pain in the hind extremities has been always present; frequently the attack is ushered in by shivering; indeed, I think closer observation would prove this to be invariably the primary symptom. There is also one symptom present which I have not observed during any other affection, namely, that after a few days only the hairs of the mane and tail loosen, and may be plucked out with the slightest force, being a proof of the debilitating effect of this disease. I have bled in some few cases; but the result was not such as to warrant me in the continuance of the practice, and I found that the period of convalescence was by depletion considerably protracted. In such cases as by the symptoms evinced there was danger to be apprehended from the lungs becoming affected, I have had recourse to revulsives, employing cantharides for that purpose. But I have frequently found the action of those agents, during influenza, to be greater than I desired, and the consequent blemish has caused me to regret their employment. Mustard, also, is too violent; for effusion and anasarca will sometimes ensue upon its use. I wish to be understood as not advocating any specific mode of treatment. I do not believe that any arbitrary plan that will meet every case can be laid down. Judgment is required in this disorder, which in different breeds of horses assumes different characters, and demands different kinds of treatment. Though there may be some agents that are dangerous, yet experience alone can determine what should be given, and

when it should be administered. On this account it is that the early attendance of the veterinary surgeon is important, and the owner who delays to seek his aid at the first appearance of the attack may with greater reason complain of his own delay than of the practitioner's want of skill should the patient be lost.

Mr. Daws. I have observed that, during the recent prevalence of influenza, there has been fewer cases of pneumonia than usually occur at this period. I am inclined to trace the cause of the disease to some peculiar condition of the atmosphere; and, with regard to the treatment I have pursued, I will suppose a case :-I am sent for to look at a horse which the owner perceives to be ill. When I arrive I find the pulse is 90, the eyes are tumefied, and the tongue is furred. I inquire if any thing has been given to the animal, and am told the horse has had no medicine. I immediately order the patient to be removed to a loose box. I see that the legs are well bandaged and the body clothed, attending most especially to the comforts of the animal. I then administer an enema, and give a little fever medicine. The next day, should the tumefaction of the eyes have increased, I extract blood from the jugular vein, and as the febrile excitement lessens and the animal improves I throw in vegetable tonics.

The

Now another horse in the same stable shall be attacked. pulse in this case may be but 46; and here I give an aperient. The action that may follow its exhibition I do not fear, as I find "the disease is very manageable. I have had some hundreds of cases, and never lost one. Where I require a counter-irritant, I employ an acetous solution of capsicine, which, if not used carefully, will blister the hand that applies it.

Mr. White.-Referring to the origin of influenza, I cannot but reflect on the kind of weather we had during the last summer. In the spring which preceded it, in April last, instead of grass on the land, we saw the meadows barren, or where there was any vegetation, to speak generally it was unhealthy. The oat and barley crop was short. Seeds failed to germinate, and the hay was so deficient as often not to repay the labour expended in collecting it. Any one last summer might have foreseen the prevalence of disease of some kind, since the prospect for the stock during the winter was most gloomy. Poor food, and that deficient in quantity, joined to cold and changeable weather, may, in my opinion, be regarded as

the natural cause of this or any other disease which may, under certain conditional circumstances, break out.

Mr. Hallen.-Such causes could not affect the horses of my regiment, which were always well supplied; yet, notwithstanding, they were attacked with influenza. It is true, my practice has been limited to the horses of my own regiment, and, when the disease appeared amongst them, I looked carefully to the animals that were not affected. Equally with the cure of the diseased, the preservation of the healthy was an object of solicitude with me, and much may be done in that respect by regulating the food, and otherwise attending to the peculiarity of constitution of the animal. Of those which were suffering from the disorder, many required but little treatment. It was in the worst cases only that

I passed setons, especially if the trachea or larynx shewed any signs of irritation-using not one long seton, but several short ones, so as to reach from between the jaw to the chest, and in no one instance have I observed any disposition to slough ensue upon their insertion. When making this assertion, however, I must add, that my practice is confined to the lighter breed of horses, and therefore can in no manner be opposed to Mr. Ernes' experience among the heavier kind of horse. The medicines I administered were of little moment. A mild diuretic conjoined to dieting and nursing were my curative measures. Yet some of the cases I thus treated were of a very severe nature, and a large coach-proprietor who saw them could in many of them perceive no hope of recovery, declaring the animals must die. Nevertheless, continuing the plan I have laid down, not a single horse was lost. The person to whom I have alluded, seeing the success of my practice, said, he would adopt it should influenza visit his stables. It was not long before the disease appeared among his horses; but, alarmed by the symptoms, and beset by entreaties and prophecies, his resolution failed: he permitted what are called "active measures" to be employed, and the death of many of his horses was the con

sequence.

Mr. Hall.-I am of opinion that this disease, when it attacks the lighter description of horse, puts on so different a character to what it does in the heavier kind of animal, that he may almost be said to be suffering under another disorder. My practice has been chiefly among the heavier breed. I have never given a

drachm of aloes, yet out of two hundred cases seven have terminated in death. I have known horses to be attacked by influenza three times, and have had horses die in the same stable in which my own were, yet these were not affected. I have employed mustard as my counter-irritant, taking care to rub it well in the contrary way of the hair. Influenza, in my opinion, has generally a tendency to involve the lungs.

Mr. Shirley. A practitioner in attendance upon the horses of a large brewery in London told me he had employed aloes, and lost but very few cases; but, at the same time, he added, that he varied his treatment in different animals, depending on circum

stances.

Mr. Cartwright.-I have had a few cases of influenza under my care to them I gave aloes, and they all did well.

Mr. Dunsford.-I have been called upon to treat both the light and heavy kind of horse. To one of the lighter description I have given aloes 3ij, and, though the bowels responded quickly, yet by limiting the water I found the violence of the action could be subdued. But when administering the same agent to carthorses, it has certainly been followed by more action than I could have desired; yet, by the timely use of flour-gruel and dry food, any unpleasant consequences have been prevented. I have not ventured to exhibit any medicine of a cathartic nature where the pulse was weak, and where much cellular effusion was present; but in such cases I have given stimulants combined with tonics. I have seen only one post-mortem examination, and in that there was no appearance so marked as to attract my attention or characterize the disease.

JANUARY 21, 1845.

The TREASURER in the Chair.

Mr. Hardman presented to the Library Dr. Franz's work on the Eye.

Messrs. R. Keene and R. Mead, students, were elected Members.

CASE OF INTROSUSCEPTED CECUM IN THE HORSE.

By Mr. W. ROBINSON, M.R.C.V.S.

Tamworth, Jan. 17th, 1845.

My dear Sir, I HAVE sent by the train this evening a basket containing the most extraordinary morbid specimen of the large intestines I have ever met with. It appears to consist of an inverted cœcum, which by some means has become lodged within the colon. Its apex seems to have been lifted up by the power of inverted action, and passed through the common opening at its other extremity into the colon, as you will find it. The horse died this morning, shewing spasms of the bowels.

I only saw him a few hours before death. The post-mortem examination presented sufficient inflammatory mischief in the ileum and colon fully to account for his death: but for a time I could not find the cæcum, and was about to declare its absence, or the want of it, when I felt a substance in the colon, which upon opening proved to be the missing intestine. I will give you (as soon as I obtain it) a full history of this case; but trust this hurried notice will be sufficient to call the attention of the members of the Association to its singular character.

I am, in haste,

Your's very truly.