CHAPTER XI.
SPECIFIC DISEASES--THEIR VARIETIES AND THEIR TREATMENT.
BROKEN WIND.
=Broken wind= in the horse approaches very nearly to dry asthma in the human being. Man, however, can suit his work to his capabilities; but all horses have only one employment, which, to be sure, may differ in its intensity; still, the most afflicted animal always has to perform the severest kind of draught. Let any person propose that individuals having dry asthma should pull loaded trucks, to earn their bread or to purchase a right to live; the cruelty of such a proposition would be apparent to the dullest sense. Yet is it the horse's doom that, no matter with what disease it may be afflicted, the animal must work or die. Old or sick, weak or disabled, still the body's toil must earn the creature's food and the master's profit. Spasm or agony can excuse no pause; let the sufferer even slacken the space sufficiently to mitigate in some degree the pangs it endures, and the long whip, aided by the harsh voice of the driver, will urge the flagging cripple onward. The horse has no words to plead with; the signs of its distress are not understood; the law which assumes to protect it is a delusion; the animal is given up, helpless, friendless, and unpitied, to the almost unrestrained barbarity of its master. It is born doomed to live in solitude, to wear its life out under the goad, and to yield up existence in a knacker's yard.
"Broken wind" is a sad affliction; it is the more sad because no men but the very careless or the very poor will keep an animal thus diseased. The author has known it to be a frequent reason given by the better class of horse proprietors for having the life destroyed; which decision may have been quickened by the fact that the horse is generally old before this disease appears. In the knowledge of the writer there is no recorded instance of a colt having "broken wind." The malady is usually witnessed after the adult age has been attained, or during the latter period of life, whether the affection has been naturally induced or aggravated by the cruelty of man.
It is said to have been produced suddenly; thus a man has been reported to have ridden an untrained horse after the hounds, and so have provoked the disorder. Another is asserted to have galloped a nag with a stomach loaded either with food or water, and thus to have broken the wind. Doubtless the seeds of the disorder may by either process have been sown; but that the disease was fully developed after either incident, is more than doubtful.
The seat of this affliction is not confined to any one organ; its ravage is universal. No part escapes; that the entire animal economy can change all at once, like a trick in a Christmas pantomime, is a circumstance which has yet to be established. The malady is most general among the agricultural districts; the farmer's poor team, in many parts of England, seldom tastes much of that which can be taken to market. Cut grass constitutes its chief summer food; the coat is rarely groomed; the stable often left open, and only cleaned when manure is wanted. During the winter months the animals have to luxuriate in the strawyard; the body's abuse, in such horses, may readily lead to the body's degeneration. Green-meat will not support the strength, though upon it the life may be sustained. The occupiers of the soil would find it to their account, could the class be brought to bestow a little more attention upon their living property. The years of labor would be prolonged, and the activity of the laborer be quickened; fewer horses need then be kept, and the anxieties of the farmer would be lightened. Agricultural teams would not then be encountered slowly creeping along the highway, and sleeping as they journeyed. Care naturally begets pride, and worth generally resides where pride is exhibited. Increased value would reward the farmer, whose animals would not then so often present the spectacle of horses doing slow work, being touched in the wind.
Broken wind is evidently a disorder of slow and of long growth; any abuse may lay the foundation of such an affliction. Where abuse of life is possible, there folly is too often habitual; thus repetition may hasten the development of broken wind, but no one act could provoke so lamentable a consequence.
There is some dispute whether broken wind originates in the stomach or in the lungs. The mass of evidence would favor the opinion that originally it was a disease of the digestive organs; but, as the disorder proceeds, all parts of the body appear to be involved.
The symptoms of broken wind are a short, dry cough, which is described as "_hacking_," and which may be readily imitated by any person making a coughing noise while he withholds from enlarging the mouth, moving the lips, or employing the tongue, but at the same time endeavoring to pronounce the word "hack."
The cough arises from irritability of the larynx, the mucous membrane of which is directly continuous with that proper to the lungs, and is joined to that of the stomach, any disease of which organ is frequently accompanied by cough.
The appetite is ravenously and unscrupulously morbid; the thirst is insatiable; the flatus is most abundant; the dung is but half digested; the abdomen is pendulous; the coat is ragged, and the general aspect is dejected.
The leading symptom, or that which is looked for as indicative of broken wind, is found in the breathing. Respiration is accomplished by a triple effort: inhalation is quick and single, expiration is slow and double. The air is drawn upon the lungs as by a gasp. This being quickly accomplished, the ribs commence to expel the vapor, and move laboriously to their utmost extent without being able to effect the purpose. The movement of the chest and the inhalation are counted as two efforts. Then ensues the third. The abdomen begins to rise, with an evident desire to aid in emptying the lungs by driving forward the diaphragm, and thereby diminishing the capacity of the thorax. These two last efforts are comparatively laborious; but the double effort is only partially completed before a sense of suffocation forces the animal to gasp once more for breath.
There certainly are several circumstances which favor the opinion that broken wind is a disease of the digestive organs. In the first place, the great majority of broken-winded horses are to be found in those stables where the animals are badly fed; moreover, it is no unusual thing for a gentleman to turn his nag out to grass, or into the straw-yard, and to take it up broken winded. Then, again, low dealers, who frequent fairs and public houses, have a method of what they term "setting broken wind;" this consists in pouring into the stomach various substances which cause the indicative symptom of the disease to be for a time concealed. Grease, tar, shot, and many filths are used for this purpose--anything which seems to induce nausea appears capable of producing such an effect. These things may conceal, but they cannot destroy, the characteristic cough; a copious draught of cold water, by refreshing the stomach, will induce the restoration of all those signs natural to the disorder.
Formerly there was very generally accepted a supposed cure for broken wind. The flatus is one of the most marked and troublesome symptoms of the disease; that, when coaches had possession of the roads, rendered a broken-winded animal unsuited to run in such vehicles. To master the objection, and also, by relieving the intestines, to enable the broken-winded horse to live through the pace, a hole was bored into the rectum from without by means of a heated iron; into this hole a leaden tube was inserted, and by that the flatus found egress without the outside passenger being unpleasantly aware of its perpetual escape.
For broken wind, prevention is far more easy than cure; in fact, the utmost which science can at present accomplish is to relieve the distress. To effect this, water should be given only at stated times, and never immediately before work. Four half pails may be allowed each four and twenty hours; one the first thing in the morning, another the last thing at night, and the other two at convenient times during the day. Into every drink of water it is likewise well to mingle half an ounce of dilute phosphoric acid, or half a drachm of dilute sulphuric acid.
Besides this allow oats and beans, five feeds each day, with only five pounds of hay; two pounds in the morning, when being dressed, and the remainder in the rack at night. Crush the oats and beans; thoroughly damp all the food before it is presented to the horse, and also scald the corn.
Remove all bed by day, and muzzle when littered down for the night. Place a lump of rock-salt at one end of the manger, and at the other put a block of chalk.
Such is the little science can propose for the alleviation of an incapacitating disorder. All other recommendations rather concern the owner than the stable. A horse thus afflicted should never be pushed hard or called upon for any extraordinary exertion. Fatigue, when severe, is apt to provoke alarming spasm; a spectacle which the author once witnessed, of an animal which had journeyed far, pulling a heavy load, is represented at the head of this article. The horse had only paused while the carter took his beer, and had received nothing but hay upon the road. It had traveled all night, and it was still in the chains when the writer beheld it on the afternoon of the succeeding day.
After death, the body which has suffered from the disease declares the ravage of the malady. The lungs are larger than usual, and always pallid; small bladders containing gas are upon their surface, and when taken from their cavity the organs do not collapse as do the healthy lungs, nor can the air by compression be entirely driven forth. The hand being forced upon the surface elicits crepitation, or provokes a crackling sound, induced by the vapor passing out of one cell into another; for broken wind causes the terminations of the bronchial tubes to give way or to freely communicate one with another. Now, it is within these air-cells that the blood absorbs the oxygen from the inhaled atmosphere, and purifies itself by yielding up carbonic acid. How much must the destruction of their integrity, therefore, affect the entire body! Impure blood cannot nourish a healthy life; and the reader, after the above explanation, will easily account for the ragged and dejected aspect of the horse with broken wind.
The diaphragm is also disintegrated; the fibers of its tendinous portion are separated. The stomach is distended and thin; the bowels are enlarged and blown out with gas; the muscle of the anus is flaccid; the visible mucous membranes are of an unhealthy tint; the lining of the windpipe and the bronchial tubes is greatly thickened; the muscles are soft and deficient in color; and, where fat should have been, is only found a gelatinous fluid.
Having related the living and the morbid changes which characterize the malady, it remains now to inform the reader how so terrible a scourge may be avoided. The horse is so valuable a helpmate that it merits, for its own sake, man's greatest care. Never, for any reason, therefore, drive the animal from the shelter of the stable to the exposure of the field; never turn the steed which has thriven upon prepared food to the starvation of a "run at grass," or rankness of the "straw-yard." Never, for cheapness, buy damaged provender; never load a famishing stomach; be generous in all provision for those creatures which devote their lives to your service. Never, where such a thing is possible, permit the groom to ride or exercise the nag out of your sight. Be very attentive that the times of watering are rigidly observed. Never suffer an animal to quit the stable soon after it has drank or eaten. Be very attentive to all coughs; accustom yourself to the sound of the healthy horse's windpipe, that when the slightest change of noise indicates the smallest change of structure, you may be prepared to recognize and to meet the enemy before disease has had time to fix upon the membrane.
Having laid down the above rules, it may, to the ignorant, appear that every possible movement of the proprietor has been interfered with; that, in fact, the horse owner has been left no freedom of action. To the informed, however, it will seem that nothing more than every gentleman should observe has been proposed; and the horseman will smile when he learns that by such trivial matters can so heavy an affliction as broken wind be avoided.
MELANOSIS.
A quantity of black deposit, accumulated in large quantities upon certain parts of the frame, and contained within an increased amount of cellular tissue, constitutes this disease. At an early period swellings may be detected externally; they may be as small as a millet-seed, or as large round as a plate. These may remain dormant for years, or, if cut into before they start into activity, are almost white, and very glistening in parts, much resembling cartilage.
As time progresses, however, all the white disappears, and its place is filled by a material not unlike lamp-black when thoroughly incorporated with water. These growths increase both in number and in size. Should one be cut into after it is fully matured, an inky fluid follows the knife. The disease is not confined simply to external tumors; the coverings to nerves, the coats of arteries, and the recesses of the closest bones, are each found to bear minute evidences of a melanotic tendency. The deposit, however, seems principally to attack the internal organs. The interior of the sheath is not unfrequently clogged to that degree which forbids the passage of the natural emission; while the preceding engraving of a loaded spleen by no means represents an extreme case.
A tumor should be admirably placed for operation, and its removal should be almost imperative, before the surgeon presumes to meddle with it. As a general rule, the best treatment for =melanosis= is to let it alone. Our present knowledge points to no medicine which can prevent or disperse such deposits, and the tumors appear to resent the slightest interference. The integrity of one swelling being violated seems to start off the disease with enraged intensity. If let alone, melanosis may exist for years, and cause little inconvenience to the body in which it resides. The horse is, by its daily service, exposed to various accidents. The large majority of the tribe perish before their youth has passed. The animal may, therefore, cease to live by other causes than disease, or die before disease has become formidable. But irritate the system by employment of the knife, and a lamentable malady may speedily render the knacker's office an act of charity.
Above all, let the master not permit any man to blister, seton, rowel, fire, stimulate, or slough out the tumor; such deeds are cruel folly. Bleeding is worse than useless. Purging weakens the body which disease is sapping. All medicines used in ignorance are probable hazards. Let such things, therefore, be discarded; but if something must be done, let the animal have daily an eight-ounce dose of any bland vegetable oil. Some linseed may likewise be mingled with the corn, or a decoction of the whole linseed may be presented as drink before the seeds themselves are given with the oats.
It is but natural to connect melanosis with the changed aspect of the skin. A young gray horse seems to be exempt; but as the dark hairs disappear from the coat, and the animal with age turns white, a black deposit accumulates upon various parts of the body. Creatures of other colors are not liable to so terrible a scourge; and seeing that the disease is in some manner connected with a change in the skin, probably some attention to the integumental covering might be of service.
All use of the curry-comb should be forbidden. The dressing should be long continued, only with the brush; but it cannot, at the same time, be too gentle. Twice a week the body should be anointed with the following:--
Animal glycerin One part. Rose-water Two parts. Mix.
A brush should be moistened with the liquid, and the hair of the body should be rendered thoroughly damp, not wet, with the fluid. The after-dressing should consist in the long employment of the brush, so as to carry the glycerin from the hair and to lodge it upon the cuticle.
Glycerin has the peculiar property of destroying scurf; therefore, if glycerin be used, the curry-comb may be dispensed with. It likewise renders soft and moist the cuticle, which invariably becomes harsh and dry with age. Acting thus, it will, in the human subject, so far restore the color to the hair as to conceal the presence of the gray or white ones common to advancing years. The effect on one animal argues favorably for its action in another direction.
A dappled gray is perhaps the most beautiful covering in which bounteous nature could invest a graceful body. Creatures so clothed are usually the favorites of their owners, as well as generally the pets of the stable. Therefore the author may assert there are more than a few horse proprietors who would not bestow a thought upon any expense which could secure to them the services of their much-prized steeds.
When melanosis threatens, a tumor no larger than an egg generally appears upon some part of the body. It may show on any locality. It has no fixed abode. It is hard to the touch, and apparently devoid of sensibility. In this state the disease may remain for one, or it may continue stationary for six, years. When the next and the more active stage commences, the tumor suddenly enlarges. It becomes soft in places, and will fluctuate under the pressure of the fingers. The horse, at the same time, grows slothful. The tumor, which previously seemed in no way to affect the animal, by its enlargement marks the departure of all spirit. This sluggishness rapidly increases till the poorest owner becomes dissatisfied with the perpetual use of the goad.
The body, when opened, generally displays a condition which, from the outward signs, was far from expected. The internal organs are covered with tumors. Numberless morbid growths, of various dimensions and in every stage of development, crowd upon every part. These readily account for that disinclination to move which characterized the latter days of existence.
There is one test for melanosis which does not invariably meet with a response, but which, when successful, seldom deceives. This is a pimple near to the root of the dock; it is very rarely of magnitude; there may only be one or there may be several, and the largest may not exceed the dimensions of half a pea. When, however, such an indication can be detected upon a gray horse which is turning white, the evidence is almost conclusive. The author does not know an instance, where it has suggested the presence of melanosis, that the post-mortem examination has contradicted the indication.
With regard to the ultimate termination of this disorder, the author has no experience. Horses thus affected are always slaughtered when the second stage interferes with their utility; but, judging from the similarity of the disease in man and in the animal, it is conjectured the last stage in each would be alike.
WATER FARCY.
=Water farcy=, like so many equine disorders, is the offspring of weakness. Man, having a servant willing to work and incapable of complaining, too often proportions the toil only to the master's desire or the master's convenience. Many horses--which perform slow labor--are in harness eighteen hours out of the four and twenty; their rest is while the carter drinks, eats, and sleeps. No, not even can they enjoy such brief respite as is afforded by avarice to the laboring fellow-being; often is one of the drivers seen soundly sleeping on the top of the load which the stiff and jaded animals are compelled to draw. Thus the horse's toil is almost constant; wagoners are well aware that many horses sleep while in the shafts or in the chains. Overcome by fatigue, the animals doze, but continue to walk and to pull the burden onward. Who, knowing such a fact, can wonder that a living frame thus abused should often bow beneath its yoke, and, through death, set torture at defiance?
Water farcy is a warning which nature gives to human selfishness; it is, when rightly viewed, an intimation that, if the owner does not use the life intrusted to him more gently, the common parent will speedily take the sufferer to its rest. The complaint proceeds from debility; should the cause of exhaustion be continued, the affection soon changes its character. Water farcy is dropsy of one hind leg; very rarely does the malady involve two members. Such is the form of the admonition; but the labor undiminished, or the dropsy removed by means of coarse and drastic medicines, the local affection speedily becomes a constitutional disorder; and true farcy releases an ill-used slave from custody of the tyrant who has abused his power.
Horses that are liable to water farcy are mostly of the heavy breed, or are animals which perform slow work. It is usual, on a Saturday night, for the driver to throw much provender before such creatures, and then to lock the stable door, satisfied he has discharged his duty.
Often he does not visit them on the Sunday; the creatures pass "the best of all the seven" confined in a close atmosphere, and eating food which they have contaminated by breathing upon. The man observes the day of rest himself, and takes his ease; for the "brutes" he has heaped up rack and manger--so they have to eat; what more can dumb animals require? Upon opening the door on Monday morning, he may see one horse with a swollen leg. The drudge generally, not invariably, is lame, and holds the enlarged member in the air; the coat stares; the aspect is dull; and much of the abundance which was placed before the animal remains untouched. The poor creature was too tired and in too much pain to eat; but agony has created a consuming thirst, and it will drink the foulest water.
The horse doctor is sent for. In the opinions of veterinary surgeons there are two kinds of water farcy--one springs from debility, the other is accompanied with irritable symptoms. It, however, requires no vast knowledge of physiology to recognize debility and irritability as the children of one parent; indeed, most veterinarians admit the sameness in practice, however much they may dispute it in theory. They bleed, purge, and send in half a dozen diuretic balls, when, the swelling having been removed by such coarse measures, the horse, still further weakened, is once more put to its work.
Let every man who keeps cart-horses view a case of water farcy as a caution, proceeding direct from nature, that the management of his stable requires immediate change. The work is too heavy; pecuniary loss will soon follow, if the system be not amended; true is it, the writer has known men rated "good" in the world's report, and who were very "professing Christians" in their own esteem; he has known these men never to give more than ten pounds for a horse, and, at the time of purchase, the premeditated sin was to work out the life over which money had established authority. It is the most offensive feature of what is termed modern civilization that, rarely as individuals, never as a society, do mankind entertain the slightest sympathy for the animals by which they are surrounded. Most men are only eager for the services of the horse; they do not regard its ailments with the smallest feeling; they seek a veterinary surgeon merely to restore their animal to labor, and care only for a fellow-creature's sufferings as these disable it from toiling for their profit.
Water farcy is, however, an admonition which all men should understand; the horse, when thus attacked, announces that farcy hovers over the stable. Let the work of the team be made less prolonged and less exhausting; let the provender be improved. Green food is no sufficient sustenance for a working horse; it may fill the stomach, but it brings down the belly, and it impoverishes the blood. The team may not travel fast, but they are out for many hours; generally they cover more ground than horses of a quicker pace; they also pull weights before which none but a cart-house would be harnessed. On the appearance of water farcy, therefore, let the distances be shortened and the loads lightened.
Then, for remedial measures, let the diet be nourishing, the bed cleanly, the house drained and airy. As for exercise, let the horse, so soon as it can bear the motion, be gently led out morning, noon, and night, for one hour each time. Do not turn the creature from the stable to the field. Grass may be the cheapest food; but it never yet did a domesticated animal good "to blow itself out" upon such a diet.
As for medicine, when the limb can bear friction, let it be well and often hand-rubbed; the oftener and the longer the better. Every morning saturate it with pails of cold water; wipe it dry immediately, and then set to work hand-rubbing the leg. This is all that is absolutely necessary, save that if the lameness continues longer than the first day, a few punctures may be made through the skin. These should be equally distributed, each being about three-eighths of an inch deep, and one inch long, so as to divide the skin but not to wound the muscles beneath. Through these incisions the fluid, by which the limb is distended, will escape. As for physic, the following ball should be given every morning, if the proprietor can think a sick servant merits such trouble and expense:--
Iodide of iron One drachm. Powdered cantharides Two grains. Powdered arsenic One grain. Cayenne pepper One scruple. Sulphate of iron One drachm. Treacle and linseed meal A sufficiency. Make into a ball, and give.
This should be made as it is wanted, for, by keeping, the ingredients become hard, and are apt, when given in that state, to cause injury to the animal.
By such slight and simple means, water farcy has generally been removed; but no delay should occur in having recourse to them, as some cases will set all endeavors at defiance, and delay is always dangerous where health is concerned. A few days of neglect will often permit the limb to become organized. It ceases to pit on pressure. Fibrin has been effused under the skin. The swollen leg is even harder than is the healthy member. Then the horse, should it escape true farcy, will carry about an enlarged member for the duration of its remaining life.
PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA.
This disease formerly was unknown, though at present it appears to be rather common. What is there can shut up the sight of man like ignorance? It is but fair to conclude that =purpura= was as frequent in past times as it now is; yet men, having professional zeal to quicken their recognitions, could not read what was before their eyes, because they had not been tutored to know and to understand it. It was so with our forefathers, and, we may not deny, it is so with the existing generation. Science begets an infatuation. Men, because they have learned much, imagine nature has no more lessons to enforce. At all events, they act as though such were their convictions; else why is it that genius every now and then startles pedantry, by widening the sphere of human perceptions?
The cause of this terrible affliction is a mystery. The horse has worked, fed, and looked well, when locked up for the night. The next day the animal is discovered breathing with difficulty, and having several parts of the body greatly enlarged. The creature appears, by the disorder, to be rendered stupid rather than insensible. It stands erect, but seems not to be acutely conscious of its condition. Not only are several portions of the horse's frame swollen beyond all recognition, but through the skin there issues streams of serum fearfully variegated by the admixture of blood. The openings to the nostrils and the lips soon enlarge; then the tongue likewise increases in size, a portion of it hanging out of the mouth. The appetite is never entirely lost, though the affliction prevents deglutition. In this lamentable state the wretched horse may continue for several days, or the disorder may reach its termination in a few hours.
As the horse begins to recover, extensive sloughs occur, generally in those parts which have been much enlarged.
Recovery appears to restore the consciousness in some degree, and the life is prolonged at the expense of much suffering. The appetite remains. The power to eat is, nevertheless, slowly attained. The desire for fluids, however, appears to exist throughout the attack, and should be taken advantage of to nourish the patient, by presenting thin gruel in the place of water.
=Purpura hemorrhagica= is universal congestion. If the body of an animal which has succumbed to this disease be examined, the cellular tissue will be found distended with serum and with blood of a dark venous character. In this case, therefore, a blood-letting judiciously managed may be beneficial. No pulse can be felt, nor is any needed to guide the surgeon. So soon as the heaviness is ameliorated, the can is to be withdrawn, and the orifice is to be pinned up. The smaller the quantity taken the better, as the patient has no strength to spare. Should the congestion return, a second venesection may be imperative to relieve the vessels; such a resort, however, should be practiced only upon the conviction of its absolute necessity.
Mr. Gowing, of Camden Town, in two cases reported in "Blain's Veterinary Art," gave turpentine with success. Turpentine is, however, a potent diuretic to the horse, and therefore, the writer thinks, not the best diffusible stimulant in these cases. Preference would, by him, be given to sulphuric ether or to chloroform. Half an ounce of the last, blended with a pint of linseed oil, should be given in the earliest stage. Half an hour having elapsed, the dose may be repeated. No amendment being witnessed, discard the chloroform and administer two ounces of sulphuric ether in one pint of cold water. After a little space, as in the previous instance, more diluted ether may be administered, though it will seldom be required.
It is imperative to be speedy in adopting the measures intended to relieve purpura; for the disease rapidly attains its termination. For that reason, if the breathing is distressed, as is pretty certain to be the case, at once perform tracheotomy. Impure oxygenation of the blood is one of the most active causes of congestion; indeed, that state appears only possible during impeded respiration.
The tongue often becomes infiltrated, and, hanging out of the mouth, renders the appearance of the head most unsightly. It is, when thus enlarged, a fixture, and is in danger of being injured by the teeth. So soon, therefore, as the member is protruded, several free incisions should be made through its integument. The organ should then be manipulated, so as to cause the fluid to exude. These processes should again and again be had recourse to so often as they are required to return the tongue to the mouth.
The sloughing of the skin is a serious matter. It is treated by the solution of the chloride of zinc--one grain to the ounce of water--applied by being squeezed from a sponge on to the denuded part. This lotion will not only promote healing, but it will also destroy the fetor which results from decomposition.
After all, however, these cases are mostly very unsatisfactory. They would prove less so were tracheotomy more generally resorted to; but, in some instances, the horse seems to be rendered stupid by the disease. Instead of courting man's assistance and yielding up itself to his will, it appears to resent every effort made for its relief, as though all it desired was permission to die in peace. The beautiful resignation and the pleading solicitude for human sympathy appear to be lost. The brain evidently is affected; and when it is known the purpura hemorrhagica consists in universal congestion, no wonder will be expressed that an organ so sympathetic as the brain is affected during this disease.
The condition of the animal suffering from this terrible disorder is indeed dreadful. If the brain be oppressed, the body is deformed out of all recognition. The beauty of the animal is lost, and the carcass becomes so misshapen as to be commonly compared to a hippopotamus. The legs share with the trunk the general disorder; and from these, as from other parts, blood and serum will exude.
STRANGLES.
=Strangles=, in its effects upon the body of the horse, is similar to measles in the human being. Both are diseases peculiar to the young; both sometimes occur after the attainment of maturity; and both are dangerous in proportion as their advent is delayed. Both, also, are attended with evil consequence if driven inward, or if any irregularity warps the even tenor of their course.
Here, however, the similarity ends. Strangles is developed as an abscess under the jaw; measles appears as a rash all over the body. Both, however, are eruptive, and both are cast outward at some expense to the system.
Strangles is peculiarly the property of the rich man's horse. It is spoken of as relieving the body of some matter prejudicial to the after-health. The author has known several poor men's horses which never exhibited strangles. Those animals certainly seemed none the worse for escaping the disorder. Nevertheless, it may relieve the body of the high-bred and tenderly-nurtured animal of something which might prove injurious if retained, although every quadruped does not appear to need such a cleansing. And the man must have some extraordinary faculty who would enter a certain stable, and point out the creatures which had suffered and which had escaped the strangles. Still, it may be, and probably is, an effort of nature to adapt the body to a sudden change of circumstances, though whether these circumstances are natural or induced remains to be proved.
Highly-bred horses are cared for from the moment of their birth. Up to a certain period--varying in different parts of the country and in different animals--the colt is allowed to roam the field. All at once, however, it is taken up, and its education commences. From the dew, and from the grass under its feet and within its mouth, the colt is suddenly removed to dry food, and is imprisoned inside a hot and fetid stable. Nature rebels against such treatment. The strangles is the consequence, after which the poor captive becomes better adapted to its unnatural situation.
Strangles is ushered in by slight general indisposition, which, however, does not pass away. Sickness rather hovers over the colt than plumps directly upon it. The animal is then, in stable phraseology, "breeding strangles." After a few days, a stiffness of the neck is conspicuous; subsequently an enlargement can be perceived. It is, at first, very hard, hot, and tender. A discharge from the nose appears. The symptoms of general disease become aggravated. The throat is sore; the breathing is oppressed; the discharge is copious; the coat stares; the appetite is lost; the creature stands, with eyes half closed, the picture of mute distress.
At length the tumor softens. It becomes prominent at a particular spot. Upon this place the surgeon makes an incision. A pint or more of pus escapes, and the animal quickly recovers.
Such is the history of a case of strangles, as the disorder generally develops itself. Of course it will vary in degree, though in every instance a sufficient similarity will be apparent to guide the student.
With regard to treatment: never purge or bleed a colt when it exhibits a dubious sickness. It may be "breeding strangles," and the strength then will be needed to cast off the disease. Give all the nourishment the animal can imbibe. If food should be rejected, whitened water, or _boiling_ water into which some flour has been stirred, or thin gruel, is useful for that purpose. A little green-meat is generally relished. But, if the colt is not frightened at the approach of a stranger, the food should be offered, little at a time, by the hand--not forked into the rack or cast upon the ground, for the animal to breathe upon and then turn from with disgust. Corn, crushed and scalded, may be allowed, if it can be eaten. No grooming must annoy the feverish body; the clothing must be light; the bed should be ample, and scrupulously clean; the loose box ought to be large, perfectly well drained, with every door and window open during the day, and only partly closed at night.
Some persons blister the abscess, and then apply a poultice over the blistered part: to this practice the author objects. In the first place, sufficient friction cannot be employed to insure the effects of a blister. In the second place, a blister is said to be endowed with the properties of bringing forward or of dispersing a tumor. In strangles, one of these processes alone is desirable, the dispersion being much to be dreaded. In the third place, though oil and water are in their natures antagonistic, yet water will creep through a coating of oil, and warm water, especially, thickens the cuticle. This action may possibly prevent the vesicatory from reaching the cutis, should the emollient be applied immediately after the blister. In the last place, the weight of the poultice is likely to stretch the cloth in which it is applied; when, being removed from the skin, the cold air of course finds its way between the poultice and the tumor. Cold is not desirable where we seek to promote suppuration; but cold is increased by damping a surface, and allowing it to be swept by a current of air. Evaporation then takes place, and the warmth is decreased by many degrees.
The writer prefers gently stimulating with the following mixture:--
Spirits of turpentine Two parts. Laudanum One part. Spirits of camphor One part.
This may be applied, by means of what cooks term a "paste brush," morning, noon, and night, until soreness is produced. It will, at first, seem cool, and be grateful to the part. After every application, have ready three pieces of flannel--no house-cloth, no open and thin stuff, which some economical housewives presume to think is good enough for the stable, but soft, thick, and warm, new flannel, such as any feeling person would bind around a sore and inflamed part. Put these over the embrocation, and bind all on with a flannel eight-tailed bandage. An eight-tailed bandage is simply a long piece of flannel having three slits at either end. Its use, and the manner of applying it, is shown in the above illustration.
When the tumor points, the surgeon takes with him two assistants into the box where the horse is confined. One proceeds to apply the twitch; this twitch is an instrument of torture--it is a strong stick, having a short loop of cord at one end. The sensitive upper lip of the horse is grasped by the assistant's left hand, which has previously been thrust through the loop of the twitch. The loop is next slid over the left hand, and with the right hand placed upon the lip, while the fellow-assistant, by twisting the stick round and round, tightens, and thus pinches into a ball this most sensitive lump of imprisoned flesh; for in the upper lip of the horse resides the sense of touch--anatomy shows us it is more largely supplied with nerves than any other part in the body.
The attendant, who had first put on the twitch, gives the stick to his companion, and lifts up one of the animal's legs. The horse, with its attention engrossed by the agony of its lip, is rendered disinclined to motion, and is comparatively powerless while standing on three legs. The surgeon then takes an abscess knife, not a lancet, which is a coarse and clumsy instrument--the lancet simply punctures, whereas in an abscess more is desirable. A free opening is always wished for; and where living flesh is to be operated upon, it is, for very many reasons, preferable to do all the cutting at once. The knife is held lightly in the hand, with the thumb resting on the back of the blade. The horse, when it feels the incision, is apt, spite of the twitch, to drag suddenly backward. Thus it pulls against the back of the knife, and no injury can occur; whereas, with a double-edged lancet, an ugly and a dangerous wound has, by the motion of the animal, been inflicted. The thumb, in this situation, also serves another purpose. It allows only so much of the blade to enter the abscess as is above the nail of the member--this is usually about three-quarters of an inch. The thickness of the skin, increased by disease, requires so much; and if not, the pus, accumulated beneath the skin, will save the more important parts from being injured.
The leg being raised and the head guided upward by the elevation of the twitch, the operator approaches the horse. He looks well at the part he has to open, and mentally determines where to make his incision. He also ascertains the extent of the tumor. This is necessary; for if the swelling be to one side, a single incision will be sufficient; but if this extend (as is usually the case) from right to left, two incisions are requisite. In either case the surgeon seizes the left rein with the left hand, and, placing his right hand in a proper position, by a short and simple motion of the wrist the knife is driven through the skin.
The horse, during every operation, is usually blinded. Darkness invariably increases terror, and is unnecessary, since the horse cannot see what is being done under its jaw; nevertheless, the creature is obviously amused by watching the people about it. From the behavior, we have no reason to imagine the animal draws any conclusions. To blind the horse is, therefore, to increase to fears of excessive timidity. It is easily accomplished. Double a handkerchief into close longitudinal folds; then tie either end to the sides of the bridle, so that the handkerchief may rest upon the eyes, and the object is attained.
Every case of strangles will not be settled so readily. Occasionally the soreness of the internal throat will cause much annoyance. The animal is continually gulping its saliva. When it attempts to drink, the fluid flows back through the nostrils. The animal will not eat, and the strangles or tumor may threaten to be absorbed. In such cases the food must be carefully prepared. No mashes, made by merely pouring hot water into a pailful of bran, stirring it round once or twice and splashing the mess into the manger, will now do. Even malt mashes will not answer the purpose. Good gruel must be carefully prepared and frequently changed. The drink must also be varied, so as to tempt the sick stomach,--as a general rule, equal parts of grits, (not oatmeal,) linseed meal, bean or pea flour, may constitute the ingredients. Let the drink be always just warm when placed before the animal. Sometimes clover-hay, or simple hay tea, may form the basis of the drink; sometimes one or other of the constituents may be withdrawn. Too much care cannot be taken of the horse at this period. Good nursing is now the most effectual, as well as the cheapest medicine; and all warranted expense at this time is a saving in the end. The breathing also is frequently most acutely distressed. In severe cases the symptoms are so alarming as to demand the immediate performance of tracheotomy. This the surgeon is forced to have recourse to, although at the time he knows it will only be temporarily required. When, though distressing, the disease is not of so fearful a character, relief may be sometimes obtained by mingling steam with the air which the animal inhales, and casting upon the source of vapor ten or fifteen drops of the etherial tincture of phosphorus. This last artifice may be renewed every quarter of an hour should it appear to afford even the slightest relief.
Avoid physic as much as possible. In strangles, purge and kill is the rule. Open the bowels, if it be imperative, by green-meat; if that should not answer, let them alone, however confined they may be. Let the fever rage, but do not potter with one drug and another "_to cool_" the body.
Some horses suffer terribly when they have strangles. The reasons for such a difference have not hitherto been ascertained; but doubtless science will one day discover them. In bad cases the tumor appears under the throat, but it is larger than usual, and longer in maturating than is customary. Tears, frequently mingled with pus, flow from the eyes; a copious discharge runs from the nose; the pendulous lips are disfigured by long bands of thick saliva; the coat is dull, erect, and rusty; the heavy lids close the sight; often the nostrils become dropsical; the breathing is fearful; the tumor presses against the larynx, and a roaring sound is audible at each inspiration.
For this case no more must be done than was directed for the milder form of the disease. The animal may be gently cleansed, but this office must be tenderly performed; for the filth will do far less harm to the horse than the provocation of irritability. Gruel, repeatedly changed, should always be within easy reach of the mouth; the pail should be hung upon a hook, so that the head may not be necessarily raised to reach the nourishment. A little of the sediment, strained from the gruel, should be placed in the manger, as some quadrupeds will only eat; others will only drink; a third class will be content with such nourishment as they can suck up from the more solid form of slops; a fourth may all but starve, yet no coaxing will induce the sufferers to look at aught but the dry, hard food, which they dare not swallow. Most, however, will feed on green-meat, and this should always be at hand. Should the animal become worse, tracheotomy may be necessitated. Then stout and treacle should be liberally horned down--half a pound of treacle being mingled with the quart of stout, and the whole mixed with a quart of good thick gruel. However, give at one time only so much as can be taken without distress being occasioned.
Such cases, bad as they may appear, are not to be despaired of; nor are the tumors, on any account, to be opened before they have thoroughly maturated. Hasty incisions may throw the abscesses back upon the system. When that is the case, real danger is provoked; the horse seldom thrives afterward.
In some instances the tumor will burst internally. It may find egress through the nostrils; but if it burst into the large guttural pouches of the animal, the pus may be there imprisoned until it becomes inspissated, and, by the motion of the jaws, kneaded into numerous distinct masses, resembling small sea-side pebbles. Such has been witnessed, but should hardly now occur; since Professor Varnell, of the Royal Veterinary College, has invented an instrument by means of which these cavities can be effectually injected, and even washed out.
Besides those varieties already mentioned, there is yet another form of strangles: that is, where no tumor appears beneath the jaws, but several form on other parts of the body. The greatest number of abscesses the author has heard of, being developed on one body, is seven. They generally contained about a pint of pus; and, if the direction given for the treatment of strangles be observed, the animal will usually recover upon these being opened.
The great danger of strangles is in the disease fixing upon any internal organ; the horse is of no use afterward. It sinks from bad to worse, till it resembles the illustration appended to "Chronic Indigestion." The best thing which can happen in such a case is the death of the wretched creature. To prevent so lamentable a termination to a generally mild affection, nurse with every possible care, and begrudge no expense which can add to the comfort of the patient.
GLANDERS.
This is the most loathsome disease to which the horse is subject. It is provoked by stimulating food combined with exhausting labor. It was formerly very common in posting stables; long stage teams were seldom free from it. The London omnibuses, by night, are said to drive glandered horses, and the proprietors of those vehicles are reported to keep glandered stables.
In all of such cases the food is of the best and most stimulating description--twenty pounds of oats and beans with five pounds of hay, per day, are needed to keep a glandered horse in working condition. Gentlemen formerly used to fee the post-boy to "push along." We well remember the quivering forms of gasping flesh which were unharnessed whenever the old coach changed horses.
Omnibuses are very heavy; the constant stoppages make the draught still more severe. The animals which appear in front of these vehicles are small in size, rarely sixteen hands high, but the best and strongest their proprietors can afford. A little breed is desirable, as a coarse horse would lack the courage to take the collar and to persevere. The age of these horses is generally three years when first bought in. Some animals have worked through many seasons, but such instances are exceptions. Numbers annually yield to the drag upon the constitution. These are sold for what they will fetch. But several, either from weakness or some other cause which our science yet lacks perception to discover, annually become glandered.
Youth and high feeding, conjoined with excessive labor and damp lodging, will certainly produce =glanders=. Age, starvation, and ceaseless toil generally induce farcy. The glanders and the farcy, however, are one and the same disease, modified by the cause which originates them. Glanders is the more vigorous form of the disorder; farcy is the slow type, fastening upon general debility.
These disorders have been the scourges of horse-flesh. They still are the inheritance which man's willing slave gains by service to a harsh and cruel master. Men, to their fellow-men, sometimes confess, without any sense of shame, that they buy cheap horses to work them up. It is, in some cases, esteemed more economical to exhaust the life than to purchase and to maintain that number of animals which would be equal to the labor. This horrible system is in daily operation in a country professing Christianity!
Glanders is provoked by human depravity. Had people common feeling for the life over which they are given authority--would they only admit, in its largeness and its truth, that "the laborer is worthy of his hire"--the disease might, in one year, become a tradition.
At present the affection exists as the dread of every horse proprietor. It is highly contagious--all owners of horses know this. The stable may be scrupulously clean, yet the poison may have been lodged there by the last inhabitant. It is not only contagious to horses, but it is equally dangerous to men. Three sad instances of this fact have come to the author's knowledge. Two respectable gentlemen, moving in good society, were each contaminated, and both pitiably perished of this terrible disease. They were no stable-helpers, moving and living among suspicious beasts, but individuals whose avocations did not oblige them to mix with horses--gentlemen of professional standing, who were inoculated they knew not how. Mr. Gowing, of Camden Town, informed the writer, of a boy who once went from a shop to stand at the head of a pony the master of which wished to make a purchase. The animal, while the boy was so placed, cleared its nostrils, and a portion of the ejected matter flew into the lad's eye. The handkerchief removed the soil, and the accident was soon forgotten. However, the poor youth was glandered, and became a patient in the University Hospital.
Such facts sufficiently prove all men have an interest in opposing any conduct likely to generate so horrible a scourge. Man, as a community, is answerable for the comfort of every creature intrusted to his charge. He may refuse to accept the conditions of the trust, but he cannot escape the responsibility. In proof of the truth of this conclusion, glanders is now recognized as one of those incurable diseases, generated by neglect, to which the human being is liable, in every hospital throughout the kingdom.
Why is the legislature behind the medical profession in the extent of its recognitions? Any man may now, according to law, drive or ride a glandered animal through the crowded streets of any town in the three kingdoms. He may, without fear of punishment, endanger the lives of the unsuspecting wayfarers, whom it is the especial province of the Parliament to protect. Why should not the glandered stable be detected, and the animals, dangerously diseased, be slaughtered? Why should any man be allowed to retain, and openly use as property, that which is perilous to society; and wherefore should law protect him, when harboring pestilence for the sake of profit?
That the foregoing observations are correctly based, is proved by the pest becoming less common as the public have morally improved--only, why leave so immediate an evil to be cured by so slow a process? Years ago, an affected horse, led through the streets, was an almost hourly occurrence. Since that time we have improved, and such sights are no longer common. Therefore the morality here alluded to is not of limited meaning. It implies improvements in drainage, and all those innovations by which life has been made more secure. He is the truest benefactor of mankind who lessens the ills to which existence is exposed.
Glanders is the phthisis of the horse. Phthisis is, in some countries, esteemed even more dangerously contagious than glanders and farcy are in England admitted to be. Man, however, employs a handkerchief; the plates off which he feeds are washed. The manger is never cleansed; and the discharge soils the boards on which the corn reposes.
The lungs of very many horses, however, which have perished of the pest, will exhibit numerous tubercles; these, in the human subject, are considered conclusive evidence as to the existence of phthisis.
By some practitioners glanders is esteemed a purely local disorder. In books, schools, and elsewhere, the running from the nose has been pointed out as the disease itself; and the situation of the affection is said to be the frontal sinuses--hence the dependence placed in various caustic injections forced up the nostrils.
A very little reflection will, however, enable the reader to take a more extended view of the malady. When glanders exists, a staring coat generally declares the skin affected; and the customary termination of the disorder--farcy and dropsy--proves more than the surface of the body to be implicated. The lungs--or, at all events, the air-passages--never escape. Loss of flesh and swelling of the glands demonstrate the absorbent system to be involved. Absence of spirit and inability to work, toward the close of the affection, are evidence the nervous system does not escape. The secretions are derived from the blood; and the blood, it has been shown, by a silly experiment, is capable of generating the malady. Their pallid aspect, after death, convinces us the muscles were far from healthy. Of all parts, perhaps, the abdominal contents are least diseased, though the marked decay of appetite does not favor such an opinion. What disease, then, can be considered a constitutional disorder, if one which involves so many and such various structures is to be regarded as a strictly local affection?
A horse, full of corn, and in the prime of health, if unfortunately inoculated with the virus of glanders, generally has the disease in its acutest form: the animal may be dead by the expiration of a week. Other quadrupeds, in which the disorder is provoked by natural causes, may, on the contrary, exhibit glanders in the most chronic shape. If the exciting cause has a strong constitution to act upon--especially if the horse, soon after imbibing the poison, be removed to easier work or a more dry abode--the malady may exist for years in a subtle, undeveloped form. A thin discharge only may run, irregularly, from one nostril. At times no fluid may appear, nor is the liquid ever copious. One of the kernels, or lymphatic glands, situated between the branches of the channel, may be more or less fixed. But, otherwise, the horse is active, full of fire, and exhibits nothing to excite suspicion. During all this time the creature may be endowed with a fatal power of communicating the disease. Horses, having received the taint from such a source, may die within the week, while the cause of the mortality eats well, works well, delights the master's eye by its thriving appearance, and in such a condition even may exist for years.
In the early stage it is difficult to pronounce positively upon a case of glanders. Ulceration of the nasal membrane would be confirmation of the worst doubt; but the ulceration may be situated so high up as to defy all our efforts to distinguish it. Yet running from the nose may be perceptible, and the gland may be fixed to the jaw. Both of these symptoms, although lawfully provoking our fears, are frequently attendant upon aggravated or upon prolonged colds. The only lawful test, in such cases, is the administration of three doses of solution of aloes, eight ounces to the dose--allowing three days to elapse between each. If the horse be glandered, before the last purgative has set the real nature of the malady will be apparent in the aggravation of the symptoms. If glanders be not present, a little careful nursing will generally remove all effect of the medicine.
The glanders is mostly ushered in by febrile disturbance. The appetite is bad, the coat stares, and the pulse is quickened. A mash or two, however, apparently sets all right, and the matter is forgotten. Soon afterward a slight discharge may issue from one nostril; but it is so very slight, it excites no alarm. One of the lymphatic glands, on the same side as the moist nostril, alters in character. It may remain loose and become morbidly sensitive. Usually, however, it grows adherent to the jaw, turns hard, insensitive, and, from being wholly imperceptible in the healthy animal, enlarges to about the size of half a chestnut.
At a later period the discharge, retaining its clear appearance, becomes more consistent, and, to a slight degree, the hairs and parts over which it flows are incrusted. It subsequently adheres to the margin of the nostril, and then, in the transparent, albuminous fluid may be seen opaque threads of white mucus. This marks the second stage.
The next change takes place more rapidly. The transparent fluid entirely disappears, and in its place is seen a full stream of unwholesome pus. At this time there is some danger of glanders being mistaken for nasal gleet. A little attention will, however, rescue any person from so imminent a peril. The smell of glanders is peculiar. It is less pungent but more unwholesome, suggesting a more deep-seated source, than characterizes the disease with which it has been confounded. The ejection of glanders, moreover, is obviously impure; whereas that of nasal gleet generally flows forth in a fetid stream of thick and creamy matter.
When the third stage is witnessed, the disease is rapidly hurrying to its termination. The membrane of the nose changes to a dull, leaden color. The margins of the nostrils become dropsical, and every breath is drawn with difficulty. The defluxion exhibits discoloration. Scabs, masses of bone or pieces of membrane, mingled with patches of blood, next make their appearance; and the internal parts are evidently being broken up by the violence of the disorder.
The above description of filthy facts is, probably, sufficiently explicit; but to render the foregoing more clear, the following diagram is appended. The reader will perceive there are two kinds of tubercles--the large and the small. One is no bigger than a grain of sand; the other is as large as half a pea. The disease which follows both is the same,--is equally contagious and is equally fatal. It will also be remarked, the membrane appears swollen and partially discolored in the case of glanders. It loses its bright, fleshy, or healthy hue; and it assumes a dull, heavy, and dropsical aspect. It will likewise be observed that comparatively few blood-vessels are ramifying upon the affected membrane, which sign, in a well-marked case, is often so obvious as to become a leading indication of the disorder.
It is usual for low dealers, when a tubercle in the vesicular stage is detected, to assert that it is only a piece of mucus. To test such assertion, wrap a portion of tow, or anything soft, round a small stick, and wipe the place. If it be mucus, it will be removed; but if it remains, the reader may rest assured as to its nature. When an ulcer is seen, the dishonest salesman will laugh, and ask if that is all the inspector can discover--declaring the horse recently hurt itself against a nail. The interior of the nostril is a very sheltered part, and, therefore, very unlikely to be wounded. Yet so that the reader may be prepared to recognize such reality, in spite of the hard swearing and loud jocularity which is designed to confuse him, a diagram of a portion of the nostrils, covered with healthy membrane and showing the veins natural to the part, also displaying the shapes and appearances of wounds--when they occur--is inserted.
The reader has been told what constitutes glanders. He has been instructed how to recognize its more marked indications. There, however, remains to teach him the manner in which a suspected horse should be handled or examined.
The animal's head should be turned toward the strongest light obtainable; if toward the blaze of the noonday sun, so much the better. The examiner should then place himself by the side of the creature's head, not in front, but in a situation where, though the animal should snort, he is in no danger of the ejected matter falling upon him. With one hand the upper and outer rim of the nostril should be raised; when, grasping this part between the finger and thumb, no fear need be entertained. The case would be something more than suspicious, were any risk of contamination incurred.
The wing of the nostril being raised, the examiner must note the appearances exposed; this he will best do by knowing where to look and what to expect. His eye has nothing to do with the skin nor with the marks that appear upon it. The opening of the lachrymal duct often challenges observation by being well defined and particularly conspicuous; but that natural development does not concern him; to that no attention must be given. The inspection must be concentrated upon the membrane more internally situated than the skin seen at the commencement of the nostrils. The skin, moreover, suddenly ceases, and is obviously defined by a well-marked margin; there is, therefore, no difficulty in distinguishing the membrane by its fleshy and moistened aspect, as well as by its situation. If, on this membrane, any irregular or ragged patches are conspicuous, if these patches are darker toward their edges than in their centers, and if they, nevertheless, seem shallow, pallid, moist, and sore, the animal may be rejected as glandered. Should any part of the membrane--after being wiped as before directed--seem rough or have evidently beneath its surface certain round or oval-shaped bodies, the horse assuredly is glandered. The membrane may present a worm-eaten appearance, or be simply of a discolored and heavy hue. In the first case, the animal ought to be condemned; in the second, it is open to more than suspicion.
No animal should be permitted to slowly perish of glanders. The disease, as it proceeds, affects the fauces, pharynx, and larynx; all become ulcerated. Not a particle of food can be swallowed; not a drop of saliva can be deglutated; not a breath of air can be inspired, without the severest torture being experienced. As the disease proceeds, the obstruction offered to the breathing grows more and more painful. Farcy breaks forth, and, as a consequence, superficial dropsy is added to the other torments. The edges of the nostrils enlarge; the membrane lining the cavities bags out, while the fauces and larynx contract: the discharge becomes more copious and the breathing is impeded. Thus the difficulty of respiration is increased, just as the condition of the lungs renders the necessity of pure air the more imperative. Ultimately, however, laborious breathing induces congestion of the brain, and the wretched sufferer falls insensible--it is hoped--to die of actual suffocation.
Such is a brief description of glanders, to cure which every now and then pretenders arise. No medicine, however, can restore the parts which disease has disorganized. There is no cure for glanders, which is essentially an ulcerative disorder. Every horse being thus contaminated should be at once destroyed: it is now lawful to do this when animals are taken in Smithfield market; but what is just in one place is surely not unjust in another. Moral rectitude resides on no particular spot. The blackguards who deal in contagion, driven from the public market, now reap a rich harvest by private sales. A chronically-glandered horse is an actual property to these rogues. It is sold. No sooner is the money paid and the vendor out of the way, than an accomplice appears and points out the nature of the bargain. The unfortunate purchaser seeks advice, and finds his worst fears confirmed. The accomplice offers to buy the horse at a knacker's price. It is obtained; and again it is advertised as "a favorite horse, the property of a gentleman deceased."
Any person ought by law to be empowered to give any man, driving or riding a glandered horse, into custody. There should be appointed certain qualified practitioners who should have authority to enter any stable at any time. Those abominations, where numbers of glandered horses are now stived together, whence they only are taken out to draw public vehicles by night, would then soon cease to exist. Were glandered horses by law condemned, men, from mercenary motives, would soon cease buying cheap life for the purpose of working disease to utter exhaustion. Such proprietors, were glanders declared just cause for slaughtering any horse wherever found, would soon discover their cheap purchases to be dear bargains. It is terrible now to witness animals, in almost the last stage of a most debilitating malady, goaded through the public streets with cruel loads behind them. It is horrible, when we reflect that every citizen in a large town is, by the avarice of unscrupulous people, exposed to a most loathsome disease, and to a most torturing death.
FARCY.
When the horse, which has been the pampered favorite in its youth, grows old, it generally becomes the half-starved and over-worked drudge of some equally half-starved proprietor. In the fullness of its pride and the freshness of its strength, it had to canter under the airy burden of my lady's figure. When the joints are stiff--when accident, disease, and sores, have rendered every movement painful; and when its energy is poorly fed upon the rankest provender--then the wretched animal is, by the whip of a thoughtless hireling, forced to toil between the shafts of some creaking cart. It is sad to watch the vehicles on a London road, and speculate upon what has been the past fortune and will be the future fate of the animals which propel them!
=Farcy= is peculiarly the lot of the poor man's horse. It is the consequence of utter exhaustion. It is the horrid friend--the last and dreadful rescuer of the thoroughly wretched. No one cause will produce it. To generate farcy, there must be a congregation of evils: the constitution must be weakly; the grooming must be neglected; the food must be stinted; the bed soiled; the dwelling small; the drainage bad; the master unfeeling, and the work excessive. All of these things, or so many of them as nature can endure, must exist before farcy can be generated.
It is true the disease can be communicated by inoculation. But that source of farcy is of very small importance. Not one case in a thousand thus originates. Farcy is essentially a skin disease. It commences with specific inflammation of the superficial absorbents. This inflammation leads to suppuration and to ulceration. Abscesses first appear. They may come on any part of the body. They seem to be, in the primary instance, lumps or hard enlargements. Something of the annexed form is first observed. There may be one of these, or there may be many. Ultimately they burst or are opened. Apparently healthy matter then issues from the interior. But the first discharge being released, the wound does not heal. The edges grow rough, the center of the sore becomes pale, and moistened by a thin, semi-transparent fluid. Then, if the neighborhood of the sore be felt, cords, more or less thin, will be discovered running from it toward some other lumps on the body.
Such is the distinguishing sign by which to recognize farcy. Lumps appear, which prove to be abscesses. They, after discharging, do not heal; they become ulcers. From them run certain cords, which are the swollen lymphatic or absorbents. Till the enlargement of the absorbents is discerned, a man, from the other signs, may suspect, but he cannot pronounce with certainty, the disease to be farcy.
If a recent case of farcy be slaughtered and dissected, the affection appears to go no deeper than the skin. The cellular tissue will exhibit indications of dropsy, which invariably is present. The muscles will be pallid and flabby, suggesting bodily debility; but, to most observers, such signs will be all that is discernible.
Is farcy, then, strictly, a local disorder? Can such be asserted of a malady which appears to be so constitutional in its origin? Is there nothing continuous with the skin? Yes, there is. Intimately connected with the outward covering of the body, imperceptibly blending with it, and capable, after exposure, of assuming its appearance, is the mucous membrane. Mucous membrane lines the interior of the body, and is very abundantly supplied with absorbents. The French, who are far more minute observers and more accomplished dissectors than the generality of English surgeons, have, in cases of farcy, detected signs which assure us the disease is not strictly an external affection. It has an internal and a deep-seated origin, as is evidenced by the discovery of a few tubercles upon the mucous membrane of the interior.
The course of the disease would likewise teach us to arrive at this conclusion. The appetite often fails; sometimes it becomes voracious. The matter is, by pressure, to be squeezed through the skin. The thirst becomes torturing; the horse will cry for water. All it drinks, however, passes quickly through the body, and the desire for fluid cannot be satisfied. At last--as though to prove the correctness of our opinion concerning the constitutional nature of farcy--glanders breaks forth.
Glanders and farcy seem to be the same disease, modified by certain circumstances to which the animal is exposed. Thus a horse, inoculated with the matter of glanders, may become farcied; or an animal, infected with the taint of farcy, may exhibit glanders. These results, together with the fact of a glandered horse displaying farcy prior to death, and of a farcied animal exhibiting glanders previous to decease, are pretty conclusive evidence.
Farcy is of two kinds, the large and the small. The large may appear as one or more abscesses. Generally it is disposed to select, in the first instance, those places where the skin is thin and the hair all but absent. It breaks, and becomes shallow ulcers, which, however, may heal upon the application of any escharotic. The abscesses are not, in every instance, of one absolute figure. They vary in such respect, and have a tendency, if neglected, to generate large ulcers, from which spring unsightly bunches of fungoid granulations.
The smaller description of this disorder has no preference for any particular locality. It appears, like surfeit, in small lumps all over the body. These lumps, from their size and uniformity, have been likened to buttons--hence the term "button farcy." Cords soon connect them; they maturate and burst, like the larger sort. The "button farcy," however, leaves a deeper and a more painful ulcer. It yields less readily to treatment, and seems to exhibit itself before the body is utterly exhausted.
How very numerous the absorbents of the skin are, may be conjectured from the subjoined engraving of a prepared specimen--and not a very successful one either--of a piece of farcied skin, when deprived of hair. In this case, the animal suffered under the large or common form of the disease. In the button variety, the tumors would only be smaller, of a more even size, and far more numerous.
Farcy is, by the generality of practitioners, regarded as a more tractable disease than glanders. Certainly the course of the disorder is arrested much easier; but, to cure the malady, there is a constitution to renovate and a virus to destroy. Is it in the power of medicine to restore the health and strength, which have been underfed, sapped by a foul atmosphere, and exhausted by overwork? Tonics may prop up or stimulate for a time; but the drunkard and the opium-eater, among human beings, can inform us that the potency of the best-selected and the choicest drugs, most judiciously prescribed and carefully prepared, is indeed very limited. What, then, can be hoped for in an animal whose treatment is generally an affair of pounds, shillings, and pence? Sulphate of copper or of iron, oak-bark, Cayenne pepper, and cantharides, probably, are the chief medicines the practitioner will give. With such the horse may be patched up; it may even return to work. But at what a risk! It carries about the seeds of a disorder contagious to the human species, and in man even more terrible than in the quadruped. Is it lawful, is it right, to save an avaricious master the chance of a few shillings, and to incur the risk of poisoning an innocent person? The author thinks not. Therefore he will give no directions how to arrest the progress of farcy. The horse, once contaminated, is, indeed, very rarely or never cured. The animal, after the veterinary surgeon has shaken hands with the proprietor and departed, too often bears about an enlarged limb, which impedes its utility, and, at any period, may break forth again with more than the virulence of the original affection.