The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

50 The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
noted for affecting severely the mucus membranes of the
air passages, but in the epizootic of 1872, the most fatal
year in New York with only rare exceptions, nothing of
the kind occurred. Their phases varied in several points
of detail, but they had all many points in common. I
have before me a treatise on influenza in the horse, written
by Mr. Spooner, of Southampton, in the year 1837. It
contains not only his views, but also an ably written
essay upon the same subject, written by Professor Sewell.
A valuable discussion ensued, in which we have the
opinions of Professor Spooner, Messrs. Field, Turner,
Youatt, Dickins, Braly, Cheetham, Sibbald, and Ainslie.
The treatise also contains the opinion of Stewart William
Percival, Karkeek, and others. I have taken great pains
and trouble to peruse the whole of these valuable opinions
and many others, written in the Veterinarian, and works
of other authors, many of which are to be found in the
library in the South Kensington Museum, to many of
which I am indebted for my knowledge. I find Professor
Sewell and Karkeek and some other eminent men
attribute " influenza " to a meteoric or volcanic origin.
Many of them view it as inflammatory in its nature ; but
since that period times have changed men's views upon
this and many other diseases, and a change has also taken
place in the type of disease. We very rarely now see a
clear well-defined case of local inflammation. In the
present day the constitution of neither man nor animal
can tolerate the old-fashioned treatment. Enlightened
and scientific men have discovered that in the present day
a milder plan of treatment is more successful, to the
honour of Mr. William Haycock and Mr. E. A. Friend,