Year: 1872

Sixteen thousand horses, by the closest cal
culation, are now afflicted in the New York
district with the epihippic, which has come
to us, like SO many other annoyances, from
Canada. The inspections made of this
city, Brooklyn, Jersey City and Hoboken by
our reportorial corps give very little hope Of
an immediate abatement. The animals
attacked before yesterday in almost all
the disease, and it becomes evident
that, dating the majority Of cases from Mon
day or Tuesday, the crisis can yet be hardly
said to have arrived. In the meantime new
cases have broken out The bad and cruel
plan of working horses unmistakably afflicted
is bearing its legitimate fruit in the utter pros
tration Of the wretched beasts, and will in all
likelihood entail losses from death which will
far more than counterbalance the petty amount
gained by taking two or three days work
out Of q tottering animal The per-
centage Of horses dangerously sick would not
appear to be large as yet, computation put
ting it down as low as three in hundred. No
deaths have been reported in this vicinity,
although some are rumored to have occurred.
The railroad companies do not seem over
anxious that the truth in this particular should
be announced, and hence possibly a discrep-
ancy in our information. The treat
ments adopted are various and depend
made in the particular stables. The
short dry cough, the offensive running
at the nose and the debility following all indi-
cate that it is allied to influenza there are
however, frequent notifications Of the symp-
toms which confound the inexperienced. Rest,
swathing in fannels, the external application
Of counter-irritants to relieve the infam nation
Of the throat, frequent spongings Of the mouth
and nostrils to remove the discharge, with the
internal exhibition Of a variety of saline pur-
gatives to allay the fever, are among the pre-
scriptions used in the most successful cases.
The suddenness of the attack and the want, up
to the present, of an autopsical examination,
prevent any specific being prescribed.


Boston has much the same story as New
York to tell, the injury to business being
general At Rochester, in this State, the
utter prostration Of the equines has rendered
necessary a rescindment6 of the city ordi-
nance against hand trucks. At Newburg the
disease has also declared itself. The best
news comes from Buffalo, where a miti-
cation Of the malady is reported From
several points in New Hampshire,
Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut,
fresh outbreaks are reported. South Of New
York State the disease does not appear to have
taken hold except at Newark, which is in
direct communication with Jersey City, Phil
adelphia reports that all is well, and unless
it travels thither in a few days the Quaker
City may hope to escape. It is nevertheless
worth particular attention to note the track of
the plague, which, SO far, has gone steadily
southwark.


| The interruption to business is not in this
city very severely felt Two hundred and fifty
cars have ceased running and one entire line
! of stages. If the horses are disabled at this
rate we shall soon find it inconvenient enough.


The merchant community, which depends SO
much for its local transfer of merchandise
on horses, will find the Inconvenience serious,
no doubt; but there is remedy which will
at once suggest itself for this in the employ
| meut a. porters Of the drivers and conductors