Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-06
ABSOLUTELY PURE

tion. The milestones of modern civilza- ton are marked by the new diseases, and, later their cures, discovered by the modern physician. When Russia sent la grippe to the western world the horse
 got it as well as man, and it. showed the
 same contagious tendencies in horse com-
 munities as in men communities. Not
 long ago a California horse got the brain fever. The surgeons at first thought
 that there was something the matter
 with his ear.
 As he couldn't speak, he couldn't tell
 the surgeons that his poor old head felt
 as if It was about to split open. So he
 did the next best thing. He shook his
 head as hard as he could. and tried to
 raise havoc with everything within reach
 of his heels. After he was tied firmly
 the surgeons found out the trouble, and
 in few days sent him back to his owner
 feeling like an old gentleman who has
 just had Turkish bath, no doubt to be-
 come source of wonder among all of
 his horsey friends as being the first nag who had ever recovered from wheels in E the head"
 Probably many horses before him had
 had brain fever, but nobody understood
 what was the matter with the beast. and
 accordingly shot him after calling him a
 quack horse doctor" In the last few
 years veterinary medical science has
 made wonderful strides. Whenever m
 M. D. discovers @ new disease in man~ths
 veterinary straightway discovers a new
 disease in horses. In the old days every
 disease of the horse was named a colc The modern horse doesn't get writer's
 cramp, but the modern horse does get
 racers heart" The racers heart is
 the most aristocratic of horsey affec-
 tions. A race horse always has larger
 heart than a coach horse or truck
 horse; often he has twice as large a
 heart. In racing or trying to beat a rec
 ord the greatest possible exertion Is re-
 quired of the heart. which results in en-
 largement. Sometimes the horse will have his heart enlarged without being
 affected; but often the result is valvu-
 lar disease, which is pretty certain to
 take him off the track, If not to kill hima
 The race horse is a hot house production,
 anyway. He is like a highly civilized
 man. Nancy Hanks for instance, is
 a sort of Paderewski of the horse world.
 Your finely bred horse wouldn't be worth
 his oats as a farm horse. It must have
 a veterinary surgeon at its heels at ev-
 cry minute, and is prepared for a race
 with all the care that violinist uses in tuning his instrument. Men who have
 big strings" of horses have the entire
 service of al veterinary surgeon to su-
 pervise the work of the trainers, who
 play the part of trained nurses to the
 highly nervous beasts. Such things
 weren't necessary 200 years ago, but the
 horse of today has a great many more
 nerves than his ancestor and he can
 also run a great deal faster.
 The highly civilized horse is troubled
 with nearly all of the nervous diseases
 which affict civilized man and were un- known to the uncivilized man and the unciviliZed horse, except that he doesn't imagine that he is sick which occurs among human beings who want an eX- cuse for going to Europe or Hot Springs, or have nothing to do except to think that they are sick. The modern horse has nervous prostration and spinal men ingitis. as well as Bnghts disease and appendicitis.
 It's the horse from the country which is suddenly set down in the midst of city life that suffers most. The youth fresh from the quiet of country college town, who does twelve hours of appren- ticeship on newspaper as his first days experience in the artificial life of the city, feels no worse than the dumb beast, fresh from the pastures green which is driven a few miles up Fifth avenue hitched to a landau. The horse often becomes so nervous that he does not digest his evening meal.
 Pneumonia, however, is the greatest enemy. When the wise Stableman goes home for the night he closes all of the doors and windows, depriving the stable of all ventilation. This Is hard on lungs used to fresh country air. When the horse is taken out he gets a chill and pneumonia ensues. Then the poor fel- low sits down on his launches, spreads his feet wide apart to give his lungs room, breaths from his abdomen and suffers like hero
 When he convalesces he is the hungri- est horse in town. He is fed on milk punches and eggs, and he develops such a great liking for them that he will fol- low the one who feeds him about the stable using all of the horse methods of coaxing at his command. In this, too, he is like the man. Once he gets g. taste of whisky he can't get enough of it. If he had his way he would become an in- ebriate. Man becomes an inebriate. but will not allow his horse the same privil- ege. There's a hospital for horses up town where horses are treated for all of the diseases in the category and which has 0 great table to which horses are strapped for operations. wise man who does the doctoring told the reporter all of the things he is teitng you, and many more. This hospital which Is the annex of 8 college, is always experimenting on hors- es that are past curing except by experi- menting. Tt also manufactures anti toxine for the board of health, and pos sesses famous No. ', which originally cost $7. No. has been at the point of death dozen times, but is still alive and covered with scars where his blood has been drawnto save the lives of his young countrymen who get the diphtheria. He won fame in two hemispheres instead of the oIIai cdft Decduse ne IS d VeGltaDle anti-toxine genius, with out rival any where in the world.
 Just now the doctors at the hospital are experimenting with tetanine which is to lockjaw Cor tetanus) what anti-toxine is to diphtheria. A fine specimen of lock- jaw came in the other day; but before they could inject any tetanine into him he was dead One horse has been cured in France The Italians and the Ger mans are the greatest masters of the the ory of veterinary science and the Eng fish and Americans are the best practi- tioners.