Chapter II: Part 2

An animal is naturally nervous, and by habit has become timid until it is virtually impossible to utilize it. In a body of animals, fear is quickly transferred from one to the other until all join in a wild panic or stampede. This is common in range cattle or horses, but is found in army horses as well, and a whole regiment will sometimes refuse to longer face the enemy and flee in spite of every effort of the rider. On a smaller scale, two timid horses in a team, scared by some unusual sight, add each to the sense of fear of the other, as they try to escape, until they gallop blindly into any danger. This sense of terror is often fostered by the timid rider or driver, every feeling of apprehension conveyed through the trembling or uncertain hand, or the voice which has lost the element of confidence, tending to undermine the last vestige of trust on the part of the horse. Imperfect sight is one cause of panic, as the perception of common objects in distorted form or unwonted situations strikes terror to the timid animal, causing shying or bolting. Better absolute blindness than such imperfect vision.

A constitutional timidity tends constantly to increase unless the animal is judiciously accustomed to the object of terror. The horse once scared, seems to become more and more watchful for other objects of dread, and even inclined to bolt from such as are common and of every day occurrence.

Cattle and sheep attacked by the gadfly (œstrus) flee in great terror, and this dread is communicated from animal to animal so that the whole herd or flock is suddenly panic-stricken. The bellow of the ox attacked and the erection of its tail is the signal for every other within reach to join the stampede.

These panics are associated with the instinct of these races toward a gregarious life; they mass together for protection and they learn to heed the slightest indication of approaching danger. This instinct grows more powerful by constant exercise, and is most marked in those genera which have the least natural means of protection. Hence, of all animals sheep are most easily panic-stricken, and once affected, they move in mass, one following its fellow, without object, without definite direction or destination, and without consideration of the other dangers they are to meet. Hence, if one sheep jumps over the parapet of a bridge to certain destruction, the whole flock speedily follows. If one leaps over a fallen tree into a snow bank, all at once follow suit and pile above each other in one suffocating, perishing mass.

While this condition is hereditary in gregarious families, it is essentially a psychosis in those animals that have been often scared until they are continually on the watch for objects of fear.

_Treatment._ In the case of horses, the best course is to make the animal familiar with the object of dread; let him look at it, approach it slowly, smell it, feel it with his lips. Never turn away his eyes from it and drive him off, as that confirms the impression of dread, and the object retains ever after its dreaded appearance. In this way timid colts become gradually fearless of umbrellas, city sights, street cars, large vans, flags, music, locomotives and the like,—they become, in the expressive language of the horseman, _road-wise_. A paddock or yard beside a railroad will soon accustom a timid horse to the cars, and so with other things, experience will remove apprehension.

A more speedy removal of the habit of dread may often be secured by the principle of substitution. The mind of the animal does not readily attend to more than one matter at a time; if, therefore, we can distract the attention in another direction, the object of fear may be virtually ignored until the eye has become habituated to it, and it will be recognized as harmless. Thus it is that a twitch on the upper or lower lip, a binding of the chin in upon the breast by a Yankee bridle may make the horse temporarily heedless of the object of terror. So also in the bolting horse, the obstruction of the breath by a cord with a running noose around the neck, or the sending of an electric current through wire reins and bit will promptly check him in his wild career.

The result is still better when the animal is made to feel his utter helplessness in the hands of man and the futility of any attempt to escape. On this are based the method of Rarey and of his various successors. With fore limbs strapped up, the animal soon exhausts himself in his efforts to disengage them and escape, and lies down completely reconciled to his fate. He may now be accustomed to his objects of terror—the opening and closing of an umbrella, or the waving of a flag over his head, the discharge of a gun close to his ear, the passing of car or locomotive, or any other object of his dread. When allowed to get up he will usually pay no further attention to these things, especially if patted and spoken to encouragingly, and perhaps fed apple or sugar, or something of which he is fond. As far as is consistent with the thoroughness of the subjection, the animal should be treated throughout with the greatest kindness, so as to retain and even increase his trust in man and sense of dependence, while at the same time he is strongly impressed with the futility of resistance to his will. After the animal has been thus taught to bear with equanimity his former objects of terror, he should not be at once allowed to forget them, but by daily experience he should be confirmed in the conviction that they are harmless, and may be met with safety. This should be carried out, if possible, in the hands of the bold and kind operator who has trained him, as, if returned to a timid driver or rider, he may be easily led back into his former habits of blind terror. A similar and even easier resort is the process of turning as given under balking.

Constant hard work, for a time, is an excellent form of accessory treatment, as the plethora developed by overfeeding and temporary idleness begets an irritability and impatience of control which is quite likely to beguile him into his old habits.

In case of runaway, beside the electric and asphyxiating treatment already referred to, the animal may be blinded and quickly brought to a standstill. Movable blinds may be used which habitually stand well out from the eyes, but which may be instantly drawn closely over them by the simple pulling of a cord. The sudden darkness and the impossibility of directing his course, brings an instant realization of the existence of other dangers beside the original bugbear.

BALKING. RESTIVENESS.

Definition. Common in ass and mule. Causes: low condition;
overloading; nervousness; sluggish nature; irritable driver; shoulder
sores; poor collar; hard bit; sharp or sore maxilla; sores in angle of
mouth; mares; racial tendency; going from stable; a psychosis.
Symptoms: stands stock still; plunges, but won’t draw; will stamp,
bite, kick, rear, buck, crowd on wall; lie down. Breach of warranty:
sound price; willfulness; balking of raw horse; diagnosis from nervous
disorders; sores, etc. Time in which returnable. Treatment:
preventive; curative; distract attention; cord on ear; whiff of
ammonia or capsicum; closing nostrils; blindfolding; tying up the fore
leg; stroking nose, eyes or ears; tapping flexors of metacarpus; move
in circle with head tied to tail; coax to go.

In general terms this has been defined as a refusal to obey. Usually in solipeds it is a refusal to move as directed with a load, under the saddle, or in hand. Though essentially a vice, it may become such a fixed habit that it appears to dominate the will of the animal and may thus be called a psychosis—a mental infirmity.

It is much more common in asses and mules than in horses, in keeping with their more obstinate disposition and too often harsher treatment.

There may be simple refusal to pull. This often comes from overloading, and especially when the animal has been sick or idle, and comes back to work with soft flabby muscles unequal to any violent exertion. After one or two ineffective efforts he sets himself back in the harness refusing to try again and the vice is started. Ordinary loads on bad roads full of holes from which it is impossible to drag the wheels have a similar effect. The danger is greater if the animal is naturally of a nervous or impatient disposition, and if he makes a desperate plunge forward and fails at once to move the load. Such a horse hitched with a slow steady mate is liable to have expended his effort before the latter has had time to join him in the pull, and it becomes impossible to move the load because the two cannot be started simultaneously. The conditions are aggravated if the driver is irritable and by voice and acts further excites the already too excitable animal.

Lesions of various kinds, such as shoulder bruises, abscesses, abrasions and callouses, saddle bruises, callouses, abscesses or fistulæ cause acute pain whenever the effort is made, and render the animal more impatient and indisposed to try again.

Too small a collar or one that fits badly (too narrow, uneven) has often a similar effect.

Among other causes may be named a hard bit harshly used, a sharp edge of the lower jaw bone where the bit rests in the interdental space, sores of the buccal mucous membrane in this situation, and caries or necrosis of the superficial layer of the bone. Also chaps, ulcers, or cancroid of the angle of the mouth.

Young horses, that are as yet imperfectly trained, are more readily driven to balk than old trained animals.

Mares are more subject to the vice than geldings, by reason apparently of a more nervous disposition, but much more because of the excitement to which they are subjected, under the periodic returns of _heat_.

Pench speaks of rare hereditary cases in which the habit is uncontrollable and the animal incurable.

Friedberger and Fröhner accuse chestnut and sorrel horses as being especially liable to balk.

However started the continued exercise of the act fixes it as an incurable habit a virtual psychosis. Yet the inclination of the animal, his likes and dislikes to a certain extent control its manifestations, thus a horse rarely balks in going home, and shows it mostly in going in the opposite direction, and above all on a new or unknown road.

The _Symptoms_ vary greatly in different cases. One animal stands stock still propping his legs outward and absolutely refusing to budge. This may occur even in the stall when it is attempted to take the animal out. When on the road he is usually willing to turn and go back, but no persuasion by voice or whip can force him forward.

Other horses make ineffective plunges forward but never throw weight enough into the collar to overcome any resistance.

Still others stamp, bite, throw themselves to one side rather than forward, rear up, strike with the fore feet, and if whipped kick with the hind. Some will throw themselves down and struggle in this condition.

Under the saddle the animal may crowd against a wall, rear, kick, buck or even throw himself down in his efforts to dislodge the rider. These violent manifestations however rather belong to vice than mere balking. Trembling, perspiration, frequent rejection of urine, and general acceleration of pulse and breathing may manifest a severe nervous disorder.

_Diagnosis._ It is often important to pronounce upon the exact nature of this trouble so as to determine whether the seller is responsible for a breach of warranty given or implied. As regards implied warranty a _sound price_ for an animal sold to do a given kind of work implies a mutual understanding that the animal is not physically or psychically incapacitated for such work.

The balking horse is one that obstinately refuses to perform a piece of work for which his physical condition seems to be well adapted. The _willfulness_ of the refusal is the important feature. In case of such a serious drawback to the value of a horse, the presumption of fraud on the part of the seller is unavoidable, in case he failed to mention the habit to the purchaser, but of course this is even more emphatically certified if he has warranted the animal as a _good worker_, or _kind_, or _true in work_.

On the other hand he cannot be held responsible for the failure to perform an act in case the horse has been overloaded when fat or out of condition, or if he has sores on back, withers or shoulders, a badly fitting collar, a severe or large clumsy bit, or sores on the lower jaw, or indeed any temporary physical infirmity, to which the balking can be fairly attributed.

Balking is not to be confounded with nervous affections (paretic, spasmodic, congestion) in which the failure to obey is not due to lack of will, but to lack of power. Nor must it be confounded with the inability of the paralysis of lead poisoning. It is perhaps most likely to be confounded with that lack of both sensory and motor power which attends on ventricular dropsy and other chronic affections of the brain. In such cases (immobility, coma) the habitual dullness, drowsiness, general hebetude, and lack of energy contrasts strongly, with the strength, vigor and general life of the animal which suddenly, willfully and incorrigibly balks.

The balky horse which has no such nervous disorder as an excuse, no badly fitting harness, no lesion on shoulder, back, limbs nor mouth, no unsuitable bit, no special softness nor poverty of condition, no slow, ill-adjusted mate, no impatient driver, and no excessive load, nor impassable road, but which jibs without excuse, as a willful disobedience, may well be cause for annulling a sale. In most European countries such a horse can be returned to the seller and the sale set aside within 3 days (Austria), 4 days (Prussia), 5 days (Saxony), 9 days (Hesse).

_Treatment_. This should be preventive by avoiding the various causes above enumerated, for if the habit is once contracted it is too often impossible to establish a permanent cure. The horse is largely a bundle of habits and the first act of disobedience has given a bias to the nerve cells of the cortex cerebri which like a planted seed tends to reproduce itself whenever an opportunity offers. With every successive act of the kind, the impression on the nerve cells becomes deeper and more indelible and the habit fixed the more firmly.

In slight recent cases in the milder dispositions the vice may be overcome by some resort which engages and engrosses the animal’s attention. Among these may be named tying a cord round the root of the ear and tying it down; giving an inhalation of ammonia or a sniff of powdered capsicum; closing the nostrils until the horse struggles to breathe; blindfolding for a few minutes; tying up one fore leg until thoroughly tired; even stroking the nose or ears until the fret is overcome. Immediately following on any one of these methods, move the horse gently to the right and left and call him confidently to _get up_. Some will start if gently tapped with the toe below the knee until the foot is lifted and repeating this a few times in succession, then, after a few steps, reward with an apple, sugar or piece of bread, and don’t push too far at a time but repeat the lesson often. If among the first exhibitions of the vice it may be met by occupying the time in a make-believe fixing of the harness until the animal ceases to fret, then standing by his head, tap him on the croup with a whip and call him to go on. Or he may first be moved to the right and left and then ordered to move. A rather wearisome treatment is to place in the stall with a man behind him who taps him on the rump every few minutes, preventing composure, rest, or sleep, and keeping this up without interval for twenty-four hours or even double that time if necessary. If he goes well when hitched, he is driven but if he balks, he is returned to the stall and the treatment continued.

Magner, who mentions all these methods, reserves his highest commendation for the method of tying the horse’s head round to his tail and letting him turn in a circle until he is giddy and falls over. Some stubborn cases get habituated to turning in one direction and continue obdurate until the head and tail are tied around on the other side and the rotatory motion reversed. When thoroughly dazed by this treatment, the animal is hitched up and will usually move on. If there is still an indisposition, stand by his head and tap the croup with a whip, calling on him to start. Or subject him to further rotatory treatment.

DELIRIUM.

A phenomenon in different morbid states; cerebral hyperæmia, anæmia,
congestion, inflammation, intoxication, toxin poisoning. Symptoms:
horse, ox, sheep, swine, dog. Treatment: adapted to primary disease
present, narcotic, poison, and to degree of violence. Anæsthetics,
soporifics, cerebral sedations, cold to head, eliminants, depletion or
tonics and nutritious food.

Delirium or derangement of emotional or mental functions is usually the result of organic disease of the brain and especially of the cortical gray matter of the cerebrum. It is seen in hyperæmia, anæmia, faults of nutrition, intoxications and variations of temperature. The derangements of circulation may be in the meninges or in the nervous substance. The intoxications may be with mineral (lead, mercury), vegetable (opium, Indian hemp, belladonna, hyoscyamus, stramonium, strychnia), or other poisons, including the toxic products of microbes (as in pneumonia, scalma, rabies, influenza, Rinderpest, milk sickness, Texas fever, etc.).

_Symptoms._ These are usually an extraordinary and disorderly nervous excitement. =Horses= take expectant or ready positions of the limbs, plunge with feet in rack or manger, rear, turn, kick, bite, spring violently, neigh, and push or knock the head against the wall. =Cattle= bellow in a loud or frightened manner, attempt to kick and gore, grind the teeth and make movements of the jaws, froth at the mouth, dash themselves in any direction heedless of obstacles, push the head against the wall breaking teeth or horns, and moving heedlessly against fences, or trees, or into water or pits even to their own destruction. =Sheep= stamp the feet, butt, bleat, work the jaws, grind the teeth, leap, and move in a given direction regardless of obstacles. =Pigs= grunt, tremble, champ the jaws, run against obstacles, scratch the ground with their feet or snout and creep under the litter. They may even attempt to bite. =Dogs= are restless, whine, move in a circle, snap at straw, bars, doors, and other objects, and may show a disposition to bite. In all the domestic animals these delirious symptoms may closely resemble those of rabies. This has been particularly noticed in certain forms of poisoning. Pascault has found this in cattle that had eaten garlic and Cadeac in dogs that had eaten tansy.

The animals in such cases become morbid, dull, taciturn, they become usually hypersensitive, sometimes hyposensitive, have a change of voice, and show a readiness to resent and bite if interfered with, and even to wander away by themselves as in rabies. On the other hand they may be seized with lethargy and torpor as in dumb rabies, and with or without access of convulsions may pass away in a condition of paralysis.

Among other conditions these symptoms have been found to be associated with epilepsy, foreign bodies in the pharynx, gullet, stomach or bowels, with intestinal parasites, or with mycotic poisoning (ergotism, smut, the fungus of coniferous trees, etc.).

The lack of the extreme hyperæsthesia and excitability of rabies, and usually of the mischievous disposition to bite, the presence of foreign bodies in the mouth or gullet, and the evidence of disorder of digestion, with costiveness, tympany, and tenderness, and the history of the case may serve to differentiate. In cases of doubt the inoculation of a rabbit on the brain should demonstrate the absence of rabies by the absence of the characteristic symptoms after sixteen days.

_Treatment._ As delirium in animals is a deranged innervation from congestion, narcotic drugs, ptomaines, etc., it must be looked on as in most cases a mere phenomenon, pointing to a definite disease, or to a particular intoxication, and treatment must be directed toward the removal of the primary cause. Thus the remedial measures must be directed in the different cases to the encephalitis, meningitis, digestive disorders, contagious disease, or drug to which the affection may be traced. The patient must be put in a strong enclosure or securely tied so that he can do no harm: it will often be desirable to secure shade or cool air, or to apply cold water or ice to the head, and to quiet the nervous excitement by inhalations of chloroform, or ether, rectal injections of chloral, or bromides, or full doses of hyoscine, sulphonal, trional or tetronal. These may be pushed to the extent of inducing anæsthesia, sleep or quiet, as the case may be, and meanwhile other measures should be taken to eliminate the poisons, correct the congestion, or remove the source of irritation. Anæmic cases may demand iron and bitters, with an aliment rich and easily assimilated, while plethoric cases may require purgation, diuresis or even bloodletting. All noise and any cause of excitement must be carefully guarded against.

VICIOUSNESS. AGGRESSIVE VICE.

Subject maliciously using its natural weapons. Horse kicks, bites,
crowds against wall, rears, bucks, plunges, treads upon. Cattle use
horns or forehead, or kick. Dog bites. Cats scratch and bite.
Ticklishness different. Developed or inherited. Revenge. Desperation
in pain. Sexual. A psychosis. Responsibility of owner, in selling,
toward employe, in exposing in a public place. Treatment: remove
source of suffering, treat kindly, secure confidence, castrate, place
under absolute constraint, throw _a la Rarey_, Comanche bridle, tie
head to tail and circle, etc.

This word is employed to cover only those forms of vice in which the animal shows a malignant disposition to attack or injure man or beast. Each animal uses its natural weapons according to the occasion.

The =horse= strikes with his fore feet, kicks with his hind, bites, crowds his rider’s leg against a wall, or his attendant’s body against the side of the stall, rears, bucks, plunges, or treads his victim under his feet.

The =ruminants=, large and small, use their horns, and cattle their feet as well. In the absence of horns they still use the forehead, but much less effectively and usually only with the purpose of defence.

The =dog= attacks with his teeth and the cat with her claws by preference, and uses the teeth as a secondary weapon.

=Swine= use their tusks to rip or disembowel their adversary or victim.

A very ticklish horse cannot bear to be touched on the flank or hind parts, without throwing the ear backward, glancing back, showing the white of the eye, and lifting the foot. But if this is mere excess of sensitiveness and begets no disposition to kick it is not viciousness.

The vicious horse will in such cases bite or kick repeatedly and with well directed purpose. He will moreover show the movements of ears and eyes and attack his victim in the absence of any such excuse, the simple approach being a sufficient occasion. He will bite and strike with the fore feet at the same time, or he may strike out with one hind foot or with both at once. He may attack indiscriminately all who approach him, or reserve his ill-will for particular individuals, and then he often acts under a feeling of revenge for ill-usage from this individual or some one he conceives him to represent.

In some cases viciousness is inherited and certain families have a bad reputation in this respect. It may be either a survival of the ancestral disposition of the wild horse, or it may be a trait developed by ill-usage of a team of more immediate ancestors.

In other cases the habit is acquired by the individual himself, and in such cases it may be due to brutal treatment at the hands of man; to a continuous punishment of a high-spirited horse leading to resentment and retaliation; to acute pain in boils, abrasions or other sores in the root of the mane, or the shoulder, or the back, where pressed on by the collar or saddle; or to the generative excitement of mares in _heat_. In many such cases the vice lasts only during the persistence of the cause, in others it becomes permanent. The stallion is much more disposed to aggressive vice than the gelding.

Whether we may consider the vice a disease or not, it becomes a habit engrained in the nature, the nerve centres tending to reproduce their habitual acts indefinitely, so that we may look on the condition as a psychosis which is too often incurable.

=Responsibility of the owner.= Dangerous aggressive vice is too self-evident to the buyer to constitute a good cause for annulling a sale, but it has this legal bearing, that the owner who keeps an animal known to be vicious, renders himself responsible for whatever injury to man or beast he may perpetrate. Thus the vicious stallion, bull or dog in a public place which damages person or property, renders his owner liable to the extent of such damages. This, of course, must be largely qualified by the attendant circumstances. The man employed to take care of a horse, knows his habits as fully as the owner, takes his chances and should exercise due precautions to avoid danger. The person who enters a stall carelessly without speaking to the horse, seeing that he stands over, or otherwise responds to his call, is himself to blame if he gets kicked. The attendant who does things to a dangerous or questionable horse for mere bravado cannot blame the owner if he gets himself injured. If a person teases a horse so as to tempt him to retaliate, not only is he responsible for his own consequent injuries, but largely also for the habits of the horse and for such injuries as others may subsequently sustain from him.

A dog or a bull shown in a public place, and which breaks loose and injures spectators or others, manifestly renders his master responsible for all such damage.

_Treatment of aggressive vice._ In mild dispositions in which the vice is roused by temporary suffering, it may often be cured by removal of the cause of such suffering. Indeed, without the healing of sores under the collar or saddle the vice cannot be arrested. Considerate and gentle treatment, too, will go far to restore confidence and to gradually do away with the aggressive disposition.

In wicked stallions castration will usually restore to a good measure of docility. The exceptional cases appear to be those that are hereditarily and constitutionally vicious, or in which the habit has been thoroughly developed and firmly fixed by long practice.

Mares, too, which become vicious and dangerous at each recurrence of œstrum, can usually be completely cured by the removal of the ovaries especially if this is done early in the disease.

The inveterate cases may usually be subdued and rendered controllable for a time by one of the methods of subjugation employed by the professional tamers, but unless they are thereafter kept in good hands they are liable to relapse into the old habit. Among the more effective methods are the Rarey mode of throwing which may be repeated again and again until the animal is thoroughly impressed with a sense of the domination of man and the futility of resistance; the resort of tying the head and tail closely together and letting the animal weary and daze himself by turning in a circle, first to the one side and then to the other; the application of the Comanche bridle made of a small rope, one loop of which is passed through the mouth and back of the ears and drawn tightly, then another loop is made to encircle the lower jaw, and the chin is drawn in against the trachea by passing the free end of the rope round the upper part of the neck and again through the loop encircling the lower jaw and drawing it tight; or a similar small rope is passed a number of times through the mouth and back of the ears and drawn tightly so as to compress the medulla and stupify the animal. This is supposed to be rendered more effective by passing one turn each between the upper lip and gums and between the lower lip and the gums.

CATALEPSY.

Definition. Tetanic and paralytic forms. Balance of flexors and
extensors Cataleptoid. No constant lesion. Hysterical. Hypnotic.
Subjects: horse, ox, wolf, cat, chicken, Guineapig, snake, frog,
crayfish. Causes: strong mental impression, indigestion, etc., in
susceptible system. Lesion: inconstant, muscular degeneration, etc.
Symptoms: wax-like retention of position given, voluntary movement in
abeyance, mental functions impaired, secretions altered. Duration and
frequency variable. Treatment: shock; cold; ammonia, pepper, snuff,
electricity, amyle nitrite, nitro-glycerine, apomorphine, bromides,
purgatives, bitters, iron, zinc, silver, open air exercise.

_Definition._ This is a functional nervous disorder, characterized by paroxysms of impaired or perverted consciousness, diminished sensibility, and above all a condition of muscular rigidity, by means of which the whole body, or it may be but one or more limbs retain any position in which they may be placed.

Laycock describes two forms in man—the catochus or tetanic form, and the paralytic form. Mills would restrict the name catalepsy to cases in which the muscular tone is such that the affected part may be bent or moulded like wax or a leaden pipe, and will not vary from this when left alone. Other forms in which this waxen flexibility (flexibilitas cerea) is absent or imperfect he would designate as cataleptoid.

The disease is not associated with any constant cerebral lesion, though it may supervene in the course of other nervous disorders, and therefore may own an exciting cause in existing lesions of the brain. The immediate cause must however be held to be functional, and this is in keeping with its most common form in man (hysterical), and with the hypnotic form which is observed both in man and animals. This latter may be looked on as a form of induced or hypnotic sleep, in which the retention of the position given to a limb or part is the most prominent symptom. In all cases there is an impaired condition of the sensory functions of the cerebral convolutions, and an insusceptibility of the motor centres to the control of the will, or the reflex stimulus.

Hering has recorded the disease in the horse, Landel in the ox, and Leisering in the prairie wolf. The hypnotic form has been shown in cats, chickens, and Guinea pigs. The serpent charming of the Indian dervishes and similar effects on frogs and crayfish have been attributed to hypnotic catalepsy.

_Causes._ Strong mental emotions and diseases which profoundly affect the nervous system have been adduced as causes (fear, excitement, chills). Indigestible food has even been charged with causing it. There is undoubtedly, to begin with, a specially susceptible nervous system, and hence it is liable to prove hereditary, and in man to appear as a form of hysteria, or to alternate in the same family with epilepsy, chorea, alcoholism, opium addiction and other neurosis.

Hypnotism as a cause is claimed by various writers. Azam says that in the fairs in the South of France, jugglers hypnotize cocks by placing the bill on a board, on which they trace a black line passing between the two feet of the bird. Cadeac adds that Father Kircher, in the 17th century, employed a similar method to put fowls to sleep. Alix put cats to sleep by securing them firmly, and then looking steadily into their eyes. The condition attained varies according to the degree of the sleep, the will being dominated first, and later, consciousness of external objects is lost. Hypnotism, however, appears to be difficult and uncertain in the lower animals, in keeping with the limited development of intelligence and will, as compared with the human being. Cadeac states that the very old and the very young are completely refractory to hypnotizing influences.

_Lesions._ No constant pathological changes are found, though different nervous lesions may serve to rouse the disease in a predisposed subject. Fröhner found in the affected muscles granular swelling, fatty degeneration, hæmorrhages, and waxy (amyloid) degeneration of the cardiac muscles, corresponding to what has been found in tetanus; also hæmorrhages on the stomach and intestines.

_Symptoms._ The leading objective symptom is the tonic condition of the muscles by which a perfect balance is established and maintained between the flexors and extensors so that the affected part maintains the same position which it had when the attack began, or any other position which may be given to it during the progress of the paroxysm. The position is only changed when the muscles involved have become completely exhausted. During the attack the affected muscles are swollen and firm, so that their outline may often be traced through the skin, later as the attack subsides they become soft and flaccid. Voluntary movement of the affected muscles is impossible until after the paroxysm. The attack usually comes on suddenly and in this respect resembles epilepsy; at other times there are premonitory symptoms of nervous anxiety, excitement or irritability. There is usually considerable impairment of consciousness, intelligence, common sensation, and even of the special senses. In a cataleptic dog Fröhner noted mental and motor troubles, considerable anæsthesia, and loss of sight, smell, and hearing. The eyes are fixed, the pupils either contracted or dilated, and the urine passed may be albuminous or even icteric.

_Course, Duration._ Like other functional nervous disorders this is extremely uncertain in its progress. There may be but one attack or a succession; they may last from a few minutes, to 7 days (Fröhner), or even several weeks (Hertwig); they may end in recovery or less frequently they may prove fatal usually by inanition.

_Treatment._ During a seizure a sudden shock will sometimes cut short the attack, douching with cold water, an inhalation of ammonia, of capsicum or of snuff, or the application of electricity in an interrupted current through the spine and affected muscles. Ether anæsthesia will not always relax (Sinkler). Inhalation of a few drops of nitrite of amyle has proved effective in man, as has also the injection subcutem of three drops of a 1 per cent solution of nitro-glycerine, apomorphine hypodermically is usually effective (Sinkler). Bromide of potassium has also been advised, and in case of coldness of the surface, a warm bath.

When there is overloaded stomach and gastric indigestion an emetic is indicated, and in constipation a purgative (for speedy action chloride of barium or physostigma subcutem).

In the intervals between attacks tonics and general hygiene should be invoked to build up the weakened nervous system. Quinine, and salts of iron, zinc or silver with a nourishing diet and out door exercise are especially indicated.

INSOLATION. HEAT EXHAUSTION. SUNSTROKE. THERMIC FEVER.

Definition: two forms. =Heat exhaustion.= Causes: prolonged heat, and
moisture, overexertion. Impaired vaso-motor centre. Failing heart.
Carbon dioxide poisoning. Symptoms: weak, fluttering pulse,
perspiration, muscles flaccid, prostration, no hyperthermia.
Treatment: stimulant, digitalis, digitalin, subcutem, nitro-glycerine,
warm baths. =Thermic fever.= Hyperthermia excessive. Causes:
insolation, prolonged heat and impure air, furnace heat, moist and dry
heat, electric tension, overwork, muscular exhaustion, coagulation of
myosin, constant heat on one part (head), excess of carbon dioxide,
stiffening of bodies when killed in hot weather, debility, weakness,
fatigue, chest constriction, tight girths or collars, short bearing
reins, plethora, obesity, open cars and yards, fever, privation of
water, heavy fleece. Lesions: right heart and systemic veins full,
blood black fluid or diffluent, left ventricle empty, congested
meninges, effusions in or on brain, or hæmorrhages. Symptoms: =horse=:
dull, stupid, stubs toes, sways quarters, droops head, hangs on bit,
props on feet, breathes rapidly, pants, stertor, dilated nostrils,
gasping, fixed eyes, dilated pupils, tumultuous heartbeats, gorged
veins, epistaxis, perspiration, convulsions: =ox=: parallel symptoms:
=sheep=: open mouth, stertor, fixed eyes, pupils dilated, panting,
swaying, fall, convulsions: =dog=: dull, prostrate, pants, congested
veins and mucosæ, weakness, spasms, syncope, speedy rigor mortis.
Overheating. Diagnosis: early excessive hyperthermia, venous
congestion, shallow panting breathing, violent heart action, loss of
sensory and motor functions, convulsions. Prevention: avoid violent,
prolonged heat, and exertion, especially in case of fat animals or
those new to hot climate, keep emunctories acting, shade head, water
on head and to drink, protect fat cattle, shear sheep, water.
Treatment: shade and laxatives; if severe, cold water from hose, ice
bags to poll, rub legs, acetanilid subcutem, stimulant enemata, later
mineral tonics, iron or zinc.

_Definition._ A morbid condition produced by the exposure to extreme heat, and marked by profound disorder of the _vaso-motor_ and _heat_ centres.

The single term of _sun-stroke_ or _heat-stroke_ has been replaced by two,—=heat exhaustion= and =sun-stroke=, indicating two distinct conditions, brought about by exposure to heat and manifested by different states of the body and distinctive symptoms.

Heat Exhaustion.

This appears as an exaggerated form of the general sense of relaxation, weakness and languor which follows on prolonged violent exertion in a hot atmosphere. There is more or less impairment of the vaso-motor nerve centre in the medulla, relaxation of the capillary system, and flagging of the heart’s action, which loses its customary stimulus, by reason of the defective supply of blood returned by the veins. This may become so extreme that the patient dies by syncope. In other cases the paresis is mainly shown in the vaso-motor system, and its centres in the medulla, the blood is delayed in the distended capillaries and veins, it becomes overcharged with carbon dioxide, the heart’s action is accelerated and feeble, the pulse rapid, weak and fluttering, perspiration breaks out on the skin, and the temperature is normal or subnormal. The muscular weakness, the flaccid condition of the facial muscles, and general depression suggest a state of collapse. This condition is not necessarily due to exposure to the intensity of the sun’s rays, but may come on in animals subjected for a length of time to artificial heat, and especially if the air is impure, and if the subject has to undergo severe physical exertion.

_Treatment._ In slight cases of this kind a stimulant is usually desirable and ammonium carbonate in bolus or solution will usually serve a good purpose. In its absence alcohol or spirits of nitrous ether may be given. Digitalis is of great value in sustaining the flagging action of the heart and has the advantage that as digitalin it can be given hypodermically when it is impossible to give ammonia, alcohol or ether by the mouth. For the same reason nitro-glycerine may be resorted to, or even atropia as a vaso-motor stimulant. Active friction of the body and limbs will aid circulation and indirectly stimulate the heart, and in case of subnormal temperature it may be supplemented by a warm bath in the smaller animals, kept up until the normal temperature in the rectum has been restored.

Thermic Fever. Sun-stroke.

This is readily distinguished from _heat exhaustion_ by the predominance of the hyperthermia. While in =heat exhaustion= the temperature is usually subnormal, in =sun-stroke= it is excessive, (108°–113° F.).

_Causes._ The immediate cause of sun-stroke is exposure to undue heat, but this need not be the heat of the sun’s rays direct. A large proportion of cases in the human subject are attacked during the night, and again at sea where an attack in a passenger is practically unknown, it is terribly common among stokers working in a close atmosphere of 100° to 150° F.

The attendant conditions have much influence in determining an attack, thus it is generally held that heat with excess of moisture is the most injurious, yet in Cincinnati, statistics showed a greater number of cases in man when the air was dry. The suppression of perspiration and the arrest of cooling by evaporation in the latter case would tend to a rapid increase of the body temperature, and the condition would be aggravated by the electric tension usually present with the dry air. With the hot, moist air perspiration might continue, but evaporation would be hindered, and there would be arrest of the cooling process and an extreme relaxation of the system.

Again, if is usually found that seizures take place during or after hard muscular exertion in a hot period, and much importance is attached to the attendant exhaustion, the excess of muscular waste, and the alteration of the myosin, which latter coagulates at a lower temperature in the overworked animal. But on the other hand, experiment shows that the animal confined to absolute inactivity in the hot sunshine or in a high temperature (at 90°), dies in a few hours, whereas another animal left at liberty in the same temperature does not suffer materially. The explanation appears to be that the dog, kept absolutely still, has the continuous action of the heat on the same parts and on the same blood, for the capillaries dilate, and the blood is delayed, overheated, and surcharged with carbon dioxide, and the result is either syncope from heart failure, or asphyxia from excessive carbonization of the blood. Back of these and concurring with them is the paralysis of the vaso-motor and heat generating nerve centres, from the high temperature or the condition of the blood.

The excessive carbonization of the blood deserves another word. The prolonged contact of the blood and air in the lungs is essential to the free interchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Vierordt showed that with sixty respirations per minute the expired air became charged with but 2.4 per cent. of this gas, whereas with fourteen respirations it contained 4.34 per cent. Therefore, with violent muscular work (which charges the blood with carbon dioxide) and rapid breathing (which fails to secure its elimination), the overdriven animal soon perishes from asphyxia. Under a high temperature of the external air, this condition is aggravated since the rarefied air contains just so much the less oxygen, the absorption of which is the measure of the exhalation of carbon dioxide.

Dr. H. C. Wood, who has experimented largely on the subject in animals, finds the cause of heart failure in the coagulation of the myosin, which takes place under ordinary circumstances at 115° F., but at a much lower temperature when a muscle has been in great activity immediately before death. As the temperature of thermic fever frequently reaches 113°, or even higher, he easily accounts for the sudden syncope occurring during active work in a high temperature. As an example of such sudden rigor, he adduces the sudden stiffening of the bodies of some soldiers killed in battle during hot weather.

Wood further shows that all the symptoms of thermic fever can be produced in the rabbit by concentrating the temperature on its head, which seems to imply a direct action on the brain and in particular on the heat producing and vaso-motor centres. This becomes the more reasonable that the temperature attained does not impair the vitality of the blood but, leaves the leucocytes possessed of their amœboid motion. He found, moreover, that if the heat were withdrawn before it has produced permanent injury to the nervous system, blood or other tissues, the convulsions and unconsciousness are immediately relieved and the animal recovers.

Other conditions may be adduced as predisposing or concurrent causes of thermic fever. Whatever impairs the animal vigor has this effect. Fatigue, as already noticed, is a potent factor, in man a drinking habit; in all animals a long persistence of the heat during the night as well as the day; impure air in badly ventilated buildings; and mechanical restriction on the freedom of breathing. In military barracks with the daily temperature at 118° F. and the night temperature 105, the mortality became extreme, and in close city car stables the proportion of sun-strokes is enhanced. In all such cases, the air becomes necessarily more and more impure continually. The atmosphere has the same heat as the animal body, so that no upward current from the latter can be established, to create a diffusion. The carbon dioxide and other emanations from the lungs, the exhalations from the skin, dung and urine, accumulate in the air immediately surrounding the animal and respiration becomes increasingly imperfect and difficult. This condition is further aggravated by the accumulation of the animal heat in the body. The blood circulating in the skin can no longer be cooled, to return with refrigerating effect on the interior of the body, the cooling that would come from the evaporation of sweat is obviated by the suppression of that secretion, as well as by the saturation of the zone of air immediately surrounding the body, and thus the tendency is to a steady increase of the body temperature until the limit of viability has been passed.

The mechanical restriction of respiration should not be overlooked. In European soldiers landed in India and marched in the tight woolen clothing and close stocks a high mortality has been induced and in horses with tight girths or collars and short bearing reins, and oxen working in collars a similar result is observed. Any condition of fever is a potent predisposing factor.

Horses or cattle that are put to violent or continued exertion when too fat or out of condition are especially subject to sun-stroke. Fat cattle driven to market under a hot sun, or shipped by rail, crowded in a car and delayed on a siding under a hot sun, with no circulation of air, often have insolation in its most violent form. The same may be seen in the hot stockyard, with a still atmosphere and the fat animals subjected to the full blaze of a July sun. The chafed feet caused by travel, and the muscular weariness caused by standing in the moving car are material additions to the danger.

Similarly horses suffer on the race track when subjected to protracted and severe work in hot weather, or again dragging loads in a heated street under a vertical sun, or on a side hill with the sun’s rays striking perpendicularly to its surface.

A change in latitude has a decided effect, the Northern horse suffering much more frequently than the one which is native to the Southern States and which has inherited the habit of heat endurance.

Finally faults in feeding and above all watering are appreciable factors. The privation of water in particular is to be dreaded. Tracy in his experience with American soldiers in Arizona, found that the command could usually be guarded against sun-stroke when a supply of water was kept on hand. It should be used guardedly, but nothing would act better in obviating an attack. On the other hand, when the canteens were empty, under the hot sun the seizures increased disastrously.

Sheep are especially liable to suffer from heat by reason of their dense fleece, which hinders the evaporation of perspiration, and the cooling effect of air on the skin. When the temperature rises, respiration is accelerated and panting, the lungs seeking to supplement the work of the skin. When traveling in a heavy fleece, or in the hot sunshine in July or August sun-stroke is not uncommon among them.

_Lesions._ Among the lesions may be named, vacuity of the left ventricle and fullness of the right ventricle and veins with fluid blood or a diffluent clot; congestion of the pia or dura mater, effusion into the ventricles, hæmorrhages into the subserous tissues, and degeneration of the muscles.

_Symptoms._ =Horse.= When premonitory symptoms are observed the animal fails to respond to whip or voice, lessens his pace, stubs with his fore feet and sways with the hind, depresses his head and hangs heavily on the bit.

Too often these are omitted or overlooked, and the horse suddenly stops, props himself on his four limbs, drops and extends the head, breathes with great rapidity, panting and even stertor, dilates the nostrils widely, retracts the angle of the mouth and even gapes, has the eyes fixed, the pupils dilated and the beats of the heart tumultuous. The superficial veins are distended, the visible mucosæ congested with dark blood, and blood may escape from the nose. Perspiration usually sets in.

The animal may fall and die in a few minutes in convulsions, or, if stopped sufficiently early and suitably treated, he may in a measure recover in 15 to 20 minutes.

_Symptoms._ =Ox.= The premonitory symptoms are like those in the horse: dullness, rapid, panting breathing, the mouth is opened and the pendent tongue is covered with frothy saliva, a frothy mucus escapes from the nose, the eyes are congested and fixed, the pupils dilated, the nostrils and flanks work laboriously, the heart palpitates, the animal sways or staggers and falls. Death follows in convulsions, or it may be delayed, the animal struggling ineffectually to rise, or having periods of comparative quiet. The rectal temperature is very high, 107° to 114° F. If able to stand, there is usually blindness and heedlessness of surrounding objects.

_Symptoms._ =Sheep.= The open mouth, protruding tongue, frothy saliva, reddened fixed eyes, rapid breathing, beating flanks, stertor, and unsteady gait are characteristic when taken along with the manifest causes. Swaying movements followed by a sudden fall and death in convulsions form the usual termination of the disease.

_Symptoms._ =Dog.= These have been mainly produced experimentally and consisted in hyperthermia, dullness, prostration, accelerated breathing and heart action, congested veins, and mucosæ, muscular weakness, convulsions, and syncope or asphyxia. After death the muscles became speedily rigid, and the blood accummulated in the venous system, was fluid or only loosely coagulated. In these animals, if the experiment were stopped in time the animal could be restored to health.

Slighter cases may occur in the different animals, more particularly from overdriving in hot weather, and in such cases the _overheated_ animal recovers, but there is liable to remain a special sensitiveness to excessive heat and a tendency to be dull, sluggish and short winded, to hang the head in hot weather, and to seek shelter from the direct rays of the sun.

_Diagnosis_ is largely based on the suddenness of the attack, on the occurrence of high temperature before the seizure, not after as it is liable to be, if at all, in apoplexy, on the dark congestion of the mucosæ, and of the venous system, on the rapidity and shallowness of the respirations, on the tumultuous action of the heart, and on the general loss of sensory and especially of motor function, in circumstances calculated to induce sun-stroke. Localized paralysis or spasm would suggest the formation of a cerebral effusion or clot.

_Prevention._ This will depend on the class of animal and its conditions of life and work. In horses care should be taken to regulate the work by the heat of the season and condition of the animal. When the temperature ranges from 80° to 100° F. the work should be lessened and every attention should be given to maintain the healthy functions (bowels, kidneys, skin) in good working condition. If the horse is young, fat, or out of condition from idleness or accumulation of fat he must have the greater consideration. So it is with a horse recently come from a colder latitude, and with a heavy draught horse that may be called on to do rapid work. Some protection is secured by wearing a sunshade or a wet sponge over the poll, and much may be expected from an occasional rest in the shade, a swallow of cool water and sponging of the head.

Very heavy fat cattle should not be driven far nor shipped on the hottest days, and the packed car should not be left in the full sunshine in a still atmosphere. Yards with sheds under which they can retreat must be secured if possible.

The heavily fleeced sheep must have equal care and the pastures for fat sheep and cattle should have available shade in form of trees, walls or sheds. Access to water is an important condition.

_Treatment._ In slight cases (_overheated_) a few days of rest, under an awning rather than in a close stable, with a restricted and laxative diet.

In severe thermic fever the first consideration is to lower temperature. If available turn a hose on the head, neck and entire body for five or ten minutes, or until the rectal temperature approaches the normal. In the absence of such a water supply, dash cold water from a well on the body but especially the head and neck, and if available tie a bag of ice around the poll. Active friction to the legs and body is often of great advantage. A large dose of antipyrin or acetanilid may be given hypodermically. On the other hand stimulants, and especially carbonate of ammonia, or sweet spirits of nitre may be given as an enema. This may be repeated in an hour in case the pulse fails to acquire force and tone.

Should the temperature rise again later it may often be kept in check by cold sponging and scraping followed by rubbing till dry.