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.
THE HIND LEG OF A HORSE ENDURING
PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA.
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.