’I gave a laxative in combination with a diffusible stimulant, and ordered doses of aconite and potassium iodide; I also applied strong sinapisms to each side, immediately behind the shoulders.  After three hours I found my patient rather easier; respiration about 90, and temperature 104 deg.; willing to take a little water, and even attempted to take some hay.  Ordered continued applications of hot water to the poultices at feet, and clothed him up for the night.  Next morning there was little improvement; respirations over 80, and temperature 103.5 deg..  Continue same treatment.  Second morning, horse apparently easier; temperature 102.5 deg., but very difficult respiration; laxative had operated during the night; ordered diffusible stimulants.  About two hours and a half after my last visit, the horse turned round in his stall and dropped down dead!

’History of the Horse.—­He belonged to an extensive horse-hiring establishment; was purchased a short time before for L60—­a long price for a post-horse—­had recently suffered and been off work from some “severe cold”; was taken out, and did forty-seven miles of a journey the day before I saw him; on forenoon of the day on which he was attacked he did two or three short turns, and then twenty-one miles of a journey in the afternoon, during which he became so ill as scarcely to be able to conclude the twenty-one miles; this was the last turn he was to do.  He was a grand stepper, and no doubt was pushed a little during this final journey, as the driver intended, after a short rest, to finish off with the twenty-six miles between this and home.  With the short turns on the second forenoon, this would have been over 100 miles in less than two days, with a horse just out of a severe cold.’[A]

[Footnote A:  Veterinary Journal, vol. xvii., p. 314 (A.E.  Macgillivray).]

2.  ’Whilst attending a patient on a farm on September 5 last my attention was called to a cart-horse, five years of age, that had been castrated in the standing position by a travelling castrator about ten days previously.

’I found the animal presenting the following symptoms:  Head down, blowing hard, very dull, and disinclined to move, temperature 105 deg.  F., hard, rapid, slightly irregular pulse, membranes injected, appetite lost; scrotum, sheath, and penis tremendously swollen, castration wounds unhealthy, and exuding a thin, reddish-brown discharge of a most foetid odour.

’The next day well-marked symptoms of laminitis were present.  I finally ceased attending him about the middle of October, and at the end of that month he was turned out for the winter.’[A]

[Footnote A:  Veterinary Record, vol. xiv., p. 649 (Charles A. Powell).]

3.  ’On July 8 an interesting case of laminitis came under my notice.  The subject was a mare, eight years old, which had been running on the common here for some months, and was taken up on the night of July 2 by a boy, who did not observe anything amiss with her.  The following morning, on the owner going to the stable, he found the animal in great pain, and at once sent for me.  I discovered her to be suffering from laminitis, and saw her again in the evening, when she was much worse.  The attack proved to be a most severe one.