178 THE HORSE. 



indit a e t^ w which we snould recommend in fever. Fever is general 

 incrfcased action of the heart and arteries, and theiefore evidently appears 

 the necessity for bleeding, regulating the quantity of blood taken by the 

 degree of fever, and usually continuing to take it (the finger being kept on 

 the artery) until some impression is made upon the system. The bowels 

 should be gently opened; but the danger of inflammation of the lungs, and 

 the uniformly injurious consequence of purgation in that disease, will pre- 

 vent the administration of an active purgative. One drachm and a half of 

 aloes may be given morning and night, with the proper fever medicine, until 

 the bowels are slightly relaxed ; after which, nothing more of an aperient 

 quality should be administered. Digitalis, emetic tartar, and nitre, should 

 be given morning and night, in proportions regulated by the circumstances 

 of the case, and these should give way to white hellebore, in doses of half a 

 drachm twice in the day, if symptoms of inflammation of the lungs should 

 appear. The horse should be warmly clothed, but be placed in a cool and 

 well-ventilated stable. 



Symptomatic fever is generally increased arterial action, proceeding from 

 some local cause. No organ of consequence can be long disordered or 

 inflamed without the neighbouring parts being disturbed, and the whole 

 system gradually participating in the disturbance. Inflammation of the feet 

 or of the lungs never existed long as to any material extent, without being 

 accompanied by some degree of fever. 



The treatment of symptomatic fever should resemble that of simple fever, 

 except that particular attention should be paid to the state of the part ori- 

 ginally diseased. If the inflammation which existed there can be subdued, 

 the general disturbance will usually cease. 



The arteries terminate occasionally in openings on different surfaces of 

 the body. On the skin they pour out the perspiration, and on the different 

 cavities of the frame they yield the moisture which prevents friction. In 

 other parts they terminate in glands, in which a fluid essentially different 

 from the blood is secreted or separated from it : such are the parotid and 

 salivary glands, the kidneys, the spleen, and the various organs or labora- 

 tories which provide so many and such different secretions for the multi- 

 farious purposes of life ; but the usual termination of arteries is in veins. 



THE VEINS. 



These vessels carry back to the heart the blood which had been con- 

 veyed to the different parts by the arteries. They have but two coats, a 

 muscular and a membranous ; both of them are thin, and comparatively 

 weak. They are more numerous and much larger than the arteries, and 

 consequently the blood, lessened in quantity by the various secretions sepa- 

 rated from it, flows more slowly through them. It is forced on partly by 

 the first impulse communicated to it by the heart; partly, in the extremities 

 and external portions of the frame, by the pressure of the muscles ; and 

 in the cavity of the chest its motion is assisted or principally caused by the 

 sudden opening of the ventricles of the heart, after they have closed upon 

 and driven out their contents, and thereby causing a vacuum which the 

 blood rushes on to fill. There are curious valves in the veins which pre- 

 vent the blood from flowing backward. 



BOG AND BLOOD-SPAVIN. 



The veins of the horse, although their coats are thin, compared with 

 those of the arteries are not subject to the enlargements (varicose vems) 



