574 THE HORSE. 
that the system was reduced to a dangerous degree. Stallions were 
constantly submitted to this treatment, and mares as long as they were 
worked, so that in course of time it has happened to the horse, as it has 
also to man himself, that the horrible abuse of the lancet for two or three 
consecutive generations has completely changed the type of the diseases 
to which they are both subject. Inflammation does not now follow the 
same course that it used to do, but is of a much milder type, and the 
attendant fever is inclined to assume a typhoid character, if lowering 
measures are pushed to any great extent. An attempt has been made to 
account for this change in human diseases by the alteration in the habits 
of the present generation, which are certainly more temperate than those 
of the previous one; but in the case of the horse the reverse holds good, 
for he is now stimulated by more corn than ever The only point, as far 
as I can make out, in which the horse and his master have been similarly 
maltreated, is in the abuse of the lancet, which undoubtedly may account 
for the change in the type of their diseases to which I have alluded, and 
it is, therefore, reasonable to refer it to this cause. But though this 
powerful agent has been thus abused, we must not be deterred from 
having recource to it when severe inflammation occurs in the horse. 
Sometimes there is no time to wait for the effects of a slower remedy, 
even if there is one which will be sufficiently powerful to control the 
heart’s action. The only sensible plan in such case is to choose the lesser 
of the two evils, and to save life, or the integrity of the organ attacked, 
as the case may be, by abstracting blood, always remembering that this is 
to pe avoided as long as it is safe to do so, but that when it is decided 
on, a sufficient quantity must be taken to produce a sensible effect, 
without which theve is no attendant good to counterbalance the evil. 
BLeepine is either performed in the jugular vein, when the whole 
system is to be affected ; or when a part of the body only is inflamed, it 
may be desirable to abstract blood locally, as for instance from the toe or 
from the plate vein, in inflammation of the foot, and in ophthalmia from 
the vein which lies on the face just below the eye. 
THE INSTRUMENTS USED are either the lancet or the fleam, the former 
being the safer of the two, but requiring some practice to manage it pro- 
perly. In bleeding from the jugular vein a string is sometimes tied round 
the neck below the part to be opened, which is four or five inches below 
the fork in the vein (shown at page 447) in the upper part of the neck. 
The skilled operator, however, makes pressure with his left hand answer 
the purpose of causing the vein to rise, and during this state either uses 
the lancet with his right or the fleam with the aid afforded by the blow of 
a short stick, called a “blood stick.” When the blood begins to flow, the 
edge of the bucket which catches it is pressed against the same part, and 
as long as this is continued a full stream will run until faintness occurs. 
After sufficient blood has been taken, the two lips of the wound are raised 
between the fingers, and a smal/ common pin passed through both, when 
the point is cut off and some tow is twisted round, by which the edges are 
kept together and the pin is retained in position. In a couple of days 
the pin may be withdrawn without disturbing the tow, and the wound 
wili heal with little or no deformity. Sometimes the blood continues to 
flow beneath the skin after it is pinned, and a swelling takes place in 
consequence, which is called ecchymosis. When this happens, cold water 
should be freely applied and the head kept up by racking to the manger. 
THE QUANTITY OF BLOOD necessary to be taken will vary according te 
circumstances, and can scarcely be fixed from the appearance of the blood 
