The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-11-04
THE HORSE MALADY.

IdE dOfIS6 hAAhDA'
Indications or Its appear
anee I'm CharIeston-Hundreo VI
Horses Laid up In the Stables.
The investigations of The NEWS reporters
into the runners of the appearance ID Cnariee-
ton of the terrible epidemic among horses'
which has caused such widespread lnconVe-
n,once and consternstion at the North, were
continued ON Saturday and Sunday, anu nun
the facts obtained we are reluctantly iofceo "
the conclusion that the dreaded malaay mas
found some foothold' In our city, and tnat IL
may, If not carefully watched anu guarueu
AGAINST, become widespread and destrucuVe
disaster.
It was stated in TIE NEWS OF Saturday that
fearfnlly large proportion OF the WORK
horses in the city were found to be suffering
from ailments which were supposed to have
heen caused by the trying and changeable
weather of the past few weeks, and the negli-
gent and sometimes brutal treatment that
thew received at the hands OF Ignorant ana
reckless drivers. The opinion was then ex-
nressed that the utmost care and vigilance on
the part of the owners and drivers Of horses
wonld he necessary to prevent the sickness
which was then apparent from developing
Into the terrible malady which is decmatlng
the Northern horses. The necessity OF such
caution has become more and more apparent
every hour sincs that article was written, and
Il ia now certain that II the horse owners OF
charleston do not desire to see widespread
endemic among their stock, they Will DO wen
to exercise the utmost vigilance IN "a'onius
ouonected animals and to make use OF every
nosaible precaution by retiring them from ser
vice and isolating them from all communica-
tIon with others.
It would, erhaps, be not strictly accurate
to say that the horse malsdy has broken out
in Charleston, and we certainly have no desire
IN sound such doleful alarm until the fact ls
established beyond question. The line OF
distinction between the common colds 10
which working animals are always liable and
the lnfiuenza.lIke disease which Is raging at
the North, is an extremely narrow one, and 1t
NAV be that 1t has not been crossed In any of
the cases of sickness that have appeared here.
It is. however, certain that there are more
than one hundred horses and mules in this
oity that are 60 sick as to be incapacitated for
work. and that these cases closely resemble
each other, and as closely resemble the pub
lished descriptions of the Northern cases.
The sickness also appears to be contagious, or
else 1t has been simultaneously communicated
by common cause to numbers Of horses kept
in stables together. There are several stables
in the city in which there are now from two
to twenty or thirty horses under treatment
for this mysterious sickness, and In which
energetic measures have been resorted to for
its suppression. OF the United States horses
al the Citadel, every one has more or less
slcknesu. They are being treated as for ordi.
nary colds, but the symptoms, with the exeep-
ton that there Ia little or no running at the
eyes, are the same as those observed in the
Northern cases. The disease, whatever 1t
may be, has spread with alarming rapidlty
among these horses, the entire lot having be.
come affected within forty-elght hours Of It's
first appearance. The horses are being care
fully tended, and allowed as much rest as
possible, and quantities of tar are being burnt
In the stables.
F. At one of the largest of the hotel stables
most of the horses have colds, and some OF
them are aggravated cases. The symptoms
are dry cough, running at the nose and
mouth and loss OF appetite, and In fact the
symptoms differ from the newspaper descrip-
tIons of the epidemic only In their not running
at the eyes. The proprietor says that 1t Is GER
tainly very unusual affection, and that In the
many years that he has been engaged In busl-
ness he has never encountered any sickness
which assumed such proportions or anything
like 1t.
Instances like these might be repeated
almost indefinitely, but these statements Will
be enough at least to show that If the dreaded
horse disease oe not among US 1t Is only to be
averted by the most prompt and vigorous
measures.