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.
CONFIRMED INFLUENZA.
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.