210 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Farmers' Club should, in short, be a strong and ready 

 weapon. The wliole country demands uniformity; 

 and when you gather together the delegates of the whole 

 country, who offer you evidence quite as valuable as 

 that you would obtain by the slow, tedious process of a 

 committee, what do these ask you to do ? Is it the 

 dangerous or costly exj^eriment of a new system ? Is 

 it sometliing that the people know little of, and that 

 they will take to with proportionately little liking ? 

 Nothing of the kind. The buyers and sellers of corn 

 simply request that jou will be good enough to 

 stand by your own act. You have said there should 

 be an imperial bushel by which all such transactions 

 fihould be regulated. Granted. We are willing to 

 obey the law if you are only ready to enforce it. There 

 is an old joke against a certain county member 



who drew up a most meritorious measure, but who 

 forgot to insert any penalty for its non-observance. In 

 this instance the framers of the bill would appear most 

 carefully to have " provided always" that people should 

 not use the imperial bushel without they cared to. 



We shall obtain no uniformity by such half-measures 

 as these. What the country simply wants is " the Bill, 

 the whole Bill, and nothingbutthe Bill." Let the question 

 be argued as it will, there is no doubt but that we are 

 becoming more and more accustomed to the imperial 

 standard; and its general enforcement would be attended 

 with little inconvenience or annoyance. Comparatively, 

 there is no other such a means so ready to our hand ; 

 and we cannot help thinking that the Farmers' Club 

 resolution will stand as a tolerably good finger-post. 

 It points to the safest -way aud the shortest. 



ON THE TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD IN THE HORSE. 



By Mr. James Farrell, V. S. to the Lord-Lieotenant and Constabulary force in Ireland. 



During the autumn of 1856, aud spring of 1857, an 

 epidemic prevailed in and abiut Dublin ; indeed, I believe, all 

 over Ireland, to a greater or less extent ; which at its outset 

 presented the leading features of influenza, but of a low 

 typhoid character; it was much more prevalent along the 

 eastern coast than on the western, or in the midland counties. 

 In Dublin it was very fatal, and in most of the cases which I 

 was called on to see I found intense debility, which in some 

 instances had come on within a few hours after the disease had 

 first manifested itself. Horses were seen to eat their food in 

 the morning with every appearance of health and good spirits, 

 and before evening they were found resting against the side of 

 their stables for support ; so rapidly had debility followed the 

 first symptoms of the disease. 



With all these cases the principal difficulty was to support 

 the strength, watching at the same time closely the symptoms 

 which manifested themselves as the case progressed. Some- 

 times the urinary organs becime affected, and repeated evacua- 

 tions caused the patient to sink rapidly. In others the bowels 

 were involved, and to such an extent as to resemble bad cases 

 of cholera in the human subject ; but the worst forms of this 

 disease that I witnessed were those in which the animals had 

 been bled previously to my having seen them. With those 

 caaes which had not been bled, I had, in treating them, an 

 average amount of success; but in most of those that had, I 

 am bound to admit, I was by no means so fortunate. I found 

 that everything I could do to restore the vital powers was, in 

 the majority of cases, usiless, and, save in the instance of some 

 young, vigorous horses, collapse set in within a few hours after 

 the abstraction of the blood. 



I gave a fair trial to all the usual remedies. In cases where 

 influenza had assumed a typhoid form, and in which the lead- 

 ing symptoms were a feeble, thready pulse, quick and laboured 

 breathing, cold extremities, clammy mouth, drooping eyelids, 

 utter prostration of strength, and, in short, the usual symptoms 

 of collapse, especially such as had been reduced to this state 

 by loss of blood, or by excessive purgation, I was generally 

 unsuccessful. Discouraged by repeated failures, I determined 

 to try the effect of " transfusion," believing it to be a not un- 

 natural restorative, especially in cases where the improper 

 abstraction of blood had superinduced the symptoms above 

 alluded to. 



To enable me, therefore, to give this operation a fair trial, 

 I comaienced a series of experiments, so as to discover the 

 simplest, safest, and most effectual method of conveying blood 

 from one animal iuto another : I first tried the transfusion 

 synnge, which has been used by medical practitioners for this 

 purpose; but, whether from want of skill in its use, or from 

 some defect in the instrument (which had been recommended 

 to me as one of the best), or from some other cause, I cannot 

 tell, but certain it is I was in no case so successful with it as I 

 was with a more simple apparatus. I fancied that the blood 

 lost much of Its vitality by being exposed to atmospheric ac- 

 tion, aud also by its being forced aud compressed withia the 



cylinder of the instrument. These impressions as to the cause 

 of failure induced me to undertake several experiments, with a 

 view to the construction of an instrument which would fulfil 

 the requisite indications, viz., to allow the blood to pa-s freely 

 from the vein of the healthy into that of the diseased subject 

 without coming in contact with the atmosphere, and without 

 alteration of its temperature. I at length adopted an exceed- 

 iugly simple apparatus, which may be described in a few words. 

 It consists of an india-rubber tube some two-andahalf feet in 

 length, and three-eighths of an inch in diameter — that is, about 

 the calibre of the vein in the adult horse. To either end of 

 this is fitted a silver tube, curved somewhat like a syphon, so 

 that the end, which is slightly rounded at the point, might be 

 passed easily into the vein, both tubes being exactly alike. A 

 narrow zinc or tin trough is required to contain hot water, in 

 which two-thirds of the lube should be immersed during the 

 time that the blood is flowing. This completes the apparatus, 

 and, being prepared, and the horses ready, held by assistants, 

 the jugular vein of tr.e healthy horse, from which the supply is 

 to be taken, may be opene"), and into it one of the silver tubes 

 carefully passed, point upwards, so as to receive the current of 

 blood as it flows back from the head ; the operator holding 

 the other end, and, having previously opened the corres- 

 ponding vein in the patient, he should wait till the current 

 is passing freely down the tube from the healthy horse, and 

 then bring it in contact with that which is now flowing slowly 

 from the patient ; he should pass the end of the tube carefully 

 into ttie vein, point dosuwarda, by which means the possi- 

 bility of any ahr getting iuto the tube is avoided. Tne quan- 

 tity to be transfused is readily ascertained by watching the ex- 

 pression of the eyes, and noting the pulse carefully. So long 

 as there is no dilation of the pupils, and so long as the heart's 

 action is not very much affected, the blood may be allowed to 

 flow on uninterruptedly; but as soon as the pupils become 

 dilated, it is necessary to lessen the supply gradually, by com- 

 pressing the tube with the finger and thumb. Ii the dilata- 

 tion disappear after a minute or two, the blood may be again 

 allowed to flow; but if it increases, further transfusion must 

 be stopped, or otherwise injurious consequences will result. 

 In the cases of two animals which I purchased for the purpose 

 of experiment, I purposely allowed the blood to flow after the 

 dilatation of the pupil had manifested itself iu order that I 

 might see the result ; and I found it to increase : and in one 

 of the cases, after winking both eyes three or four times in 

 rapid succession, the hoise reared up, and fell back. Iu the 

 other case, I forced tlie blood in from an india-rubber enema 

 bottle. The pupils first became still more dilated, the breath- 

 ing very quick aud difficult ; the eyes assumed a wild, 

 agonized look ; and the animal, with a sudden bound forward, 

 fell dead. I had my finsjer on the artery during the entire 

 time, and observed a great unsteadiness and fluttering of the 

 pulse, which increased in frequency until the instant before he 

 fell. In the first of these cases I did not force the blood into 

 the vein, but allowed it to flow until I perceived the iujuriom 



