158 THE HORSE. 



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face, 11 dkes its course down the neck. Veterinary surgeons and horse- 

 men hAve agreed to adopt the jugular, a little way below the union of 

 tliese two branches, as the place for bleeding; and a very convenient 

 one it is ; for it is easily got at, and the vessel is large. Of the manner 

 of bleeding, and the states of constitution and disease in which it is proper, 

 we shall speak hereafter, confining ourselves at present to an occasional 

 consequence of bleeding, namely, 



INFLAMMATION OF THE VEIN. 



It is usual and proper, after bleeding, to bring the edges of the cut care, 

 fully together, and to hold them in contact by inserting a pin through tlie 

 skin with a little tow twisted round it. In ninety-nine cases out of a hun- 

 dred the wound quickly heals, and gives no trouble; but in a few instances, 

 fiom using a blunt instrument, or a dirty or rusty one ; or striking too hard, 

 and bruising the vein with a thick part of the fleam ; or pulling the skin 

 too far from the neck, and suffering some blood to insinuate itself into the 

 cellular texture ; or neglecting to tie the horse up for a little while, and 

 thereby enabling him to rub the bleeding place against the manger, and 

 tear out the pin ; or from the animal being worked immediately afterward, 

 and the collar pressing the blood against the orifice ; or the reins or the 

 bridle rubbing against it ; or having several blows clumsily given, and a large 

 and ragged wound made ; or from some disposition to inflammation about 

 the horse, for the bleeder is not always in fault, the wound does not heal. 

 The edges of it separate, and are swelled and red ; a discharge of thin 

 bloody fluid proceeds from the cut, followed perhaps in a few days by mat- 

 ter; the neck swells, and is hot and tender; the vein, particularly above 

 the wound is hard and cordy ; the cordiness of the vein increases more 

 and more upward ; and little abscesses begin to form about the original 

 wound. This is sometimes a very serious case, for the inflammation con- 

 tinues to spread upwards, and destroys the horse. It is easy to imagine 

 why it spreads upward, because the blood has run off below the wound, and 

 nothing remains there to irritate ; but the vein becoming thickened in its 

 coats, and diminished in its capacity, and at length quite closed by the 

 inflammation, the blood descending from the head, and pressing upon the 

 closed part, will coagulate ; and that clot of blood will gradually increase, 

 and the obstruction, and the inflammation produced by that obstruction will 

 increase, and that necessarily upward. 



Human surgeons say that inflammation of a vein spreads towards the 

 heart. In the horse, and we will venture to say in every animal, it spreads 

 in the direction in which the coagulation is formed, and that in the jugular 

 must be upward, although from the heart. In the veins of the arm and leg 

 it will likewise spread upward, and then towards the heart, because the 

 coagulation takes place in that direction. 



The application of the hot iron to the orifice of the wound will sometimes 

 stimulate it and cause its edges to unite. When this fails, and the swelling 

 is large, and abscesses have formed, it is for the veterinary surgeon to decide 

 how far he will introduce setons into them, or inject a caustic liquid, or dis- 

 sect out the diseased portion of the vein. 



Should the vein be destroyed, the horse will not be irreparably injured ; 

 and perhaps, at no great distance of time, scarcely injured at all ; for nature 

 is ingenious in making provision to carry on the circulation of blood. All the 

 vessels conveying the blood from the heart to the different parts of the frame, 

 or bringing it back again to the heart, communicate with each othe? by 30 



