CHRONIC COUGH. 273 



the world will keep our patient warm, if he is placed in a cold and uncomfort- 

 able situation. 



As for food, we think not of it. In nine cases out of ten he will not touch 

 anything ; or if he is inclined to eat, we give him nothing but a bran-mash, or 

 a little green- meat, or a few carrots. 



We now look about us for some counter-irritant. We wish to excite some 

 powerful action in another part of the frame, and which shall divert the current 

 of blood from that which was first affected. We recognise it as a law of nature, 

 and of which we here eagerly avail ourselves, that if we have a morbid action in 

 some vital organ an unusual determination of blood to it we can abate, perhaps 

 we can at once arrest, that morbid action by exciting a similar or a greater dis- 

 turbance in some contiguous and not dangerous part. Therefore we blister the 

 sides and the brisket, and produce all the irritation we can on the integument ; 

 and in proportion as we do so, we abate, or stand a chance of abating, the inflam- 

 mation within. 



We have recourse to a blister in preference to a seton ; and decidedly 

 so, for our stimulus can be spread over a larger surface, there is more chance 

 of its being applied to the immediate neighbourhood of the original inflamma- 

 tion and, most assuredly, from the extent of surface on which we can act, we 

 can employ a quantity of stimulus beyond comparison greater than a seton would 

 permit us to do. Rowels are frequently excellent adjuvants to the blister, 

 but should not be depended upon alone. 



In the latter stage of disease the blister will not act, because the powers of 

 nature are exhausted. We must repeat it, we must rouse the sinking 

 energies of the frame, if we can, although the effort will generally be fruitless. 

 The not rising of a blister, in the latter stage of the disease, may, too often, be 

 regarded as the precursor of death, especially if it is accompanied by a livid or 

 brown colour of the membrane of the nose. 



Pneumonia, like bronchitis, requires anxious watching. The first object is to 

 subdue the inflammation, and our measures must be prompt and decisive. If 

 the mouth continues hot, and the extremities cold, and the nose red, we must 

 bleed again and again, and that in rapid succession. The good which we can do 

 must be done at first, or not at all. 



When we have obtained a little returning warmth to the extremities, we must 

 continue to administer our sedative medicines without one grain of a carmina- 

 tive or a tonic ; and the return of the deathy-cold foot will be a signal for farther 

 depletion. 



The commencement of the state of convalescence requires the same guarded 

 practice, as in bronchitis. As many horses are lost by impatience now, as 

 by want of decision at first. If we have subdued the disease, we should let 

 well alone. We should guard against the return of the foe by the continued 

 administration of our sedatives in smaller quantities ; but give no tonics unless 

 debility is rapidly succeeding. When we have apparently weathered the storm, 

 we must still be cautious ; we must consider the nature and the seat of the 

 disease, and the predisposition to returning inflammation. If the season will 

 permit, two or three months' run at grass should succeed to our medical treat- 

 ment ; but if this is impracticable, we must put off the period of active work as 

 long as it can be delayed ; and even after that, permit the horse to return as 

 gradually as may be to his usual employment and food. 



Most frequent in occurrence among the consequences of inflammation of the 

 lungs, is 



CHRONIC COUGH. 



It would occupy more space than can be devoted to this part of our subject, to 

 treat of all the causes of obstinate cough. The irritability of so great a portion 



