Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-10-31
EPI-HIPPiC INFLUENZA.


The throat disease that prevails in the
northern States among horses, presents
some facts which all who are rich enough to
own horse may proftably study.
The malady has been confined alike in
Canada and the United States, to horses
owned and stabbed in cities and villages.
Farmers horses have very generally es-
capped the disease. Why this exemption Of
horses on farms in Erie county, while those
in stables in Buffalo (ts county seat) have
suffered severely, and some died? City sta
bles are not so open and well ventilated as
country stables; while the number of horses
kept in one stable is generally much larger
to poison the atmosphere.
Very few stable men, or men who oIn
horses, know how much carbonic acid gas
(Which is a deadly poisOn) horse dis
charges from his lungs into the surround
ing air in twenty-four hours. To such we
would say that the air expelled from the
lungs of man and beast il breathing, con-
tains about one hundred times more car
bonic acid than it does when it enters them,
if not vitiated in an unventilated room or
stable. A horse that neither gains nor
loses weight, gives to his droppings about
one-fourth of the carbon in bis daily food,
and three-fourths to excreta from the lungs
and skin.
Take water out of the account and the
excrements from the organs Of respiration
and perspiration, (Which are active night
and day. exceed those from the bowels and
kidneys in weight. But in comparatively
close, stables, all the organized matter con.
sumed by all the horses kept, however void
ed, goes to contaminate the atmosphere
which the animals breathe. Stables in the
worst condition in regard to defective ven
tilation, and lack of cleanliness, are in
truth hot beds for breeding pestilence pre-
cisely as toad stools and mould grow on
dung heap. The rapid spread OF disease,
like that of rust on wheat, when all the
conditions are favorable, appears marvel
Gus.
The tendency of medical and chemical
science is to this result: We know that
both fire and electricity may be developed
into activity by friction alone in thous-
and distant places, simultaneously. Fire is
propagated by contact, and is therefore
contagious, as much so as the virus in
small fox or in rabid dog. Whether the
germs developed in q horse afflicted with
or CHAMBERS are diseased particles
of flesh that escape into the air, or are sim
ply compound gases, or low kind of mi
organism, like the ovules Of smut |
or rust on grain, sciencs has not fully de-
cided. But the BALANCE of evidence is in |
favor of local generation of all diseases,
whether contagious or not.
Some dogs run mad without having been
bitter, anu then propagate this terrible NAL
ady. la the same way, horse deVelo ps |
the glanders, or throat disease,and infects |
other sound horses with the poison formed |
de moro in his system.
The above remarks will probably satisfy |
the reader that where stables and horses |
are in bad condition, malignant and con-
tagious diseases are the natural fruit of |
mans mistakes and misconduct. A lady |
housekeeper who puts damp linen into a
chest, invites and really plants the seeds of |
mildew, and raises crop of this cellular |
plant. In the same way, a farmer whoputs
a pair of damp Shoes OF boots in closet,
raises on the leather crop of mould.
All who are old enough to read news
paper should see that there never is an eff
feet without cause. This'latest epi-hippic |
influenza, or in plain English, horse dis
temper, appears to be spreading in two
ways. In one case, 1t breaks out in stables
where there is no reason to believe that any |
diseased horse has brought the infection.
Il is charged to the general atmosphere
being poisonous to these horses. But the
writer believes the poison is local, as much
as the fire that burnt Chicago was local.
Twenty-Five thousand horses in the city of
New York have wholly escaped, and vastly
more in the country. Where the condi-
tons are unfavorable to disease, there is no
distemPer.
Rightly considered, this immunity proves |