92 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



amount of blood to the nerves of the part, combined 

 with the pressure of the surrounding textures upon 

 them. It is accordingly most severe when the 

 surroundings are the most unyielding. With increased 

 heat of the surface, great thirst, dry skin, scanty and 

 hiffh-coloured urine, we have the most obstinate and 

 sluggish state of the bowels. Many different modes of 

 treatment have been recommended, and reasoning on 

 o-eneral physiological principles, the functions of the 

 alimentary canal are so tardily carried on that we cannot 

 insure the operation of a purge under twenty-four hours, 

 there being no animal but the horse in which acute 

 disease makes such sad havoc in so short a space of time. 

 Empty his stomach you cannot with an emetic, nor can 

 you purge in a few hours ; and, well knowing the obstinacy 

 of the bowels m this disease, our measure must be prompt 

 t o act, for the grand purpose, if the groom or veterinary 

 surgeon desires to be successful, must be to conquer the 

 disease by resolution. As every other mode of termination 

 is unfavourable, to bring about this issue is the aim and 

 end of every one treating this malady, and as the nature 

 of the disease, its seat and the disorganisation which it 

 produces are well known, this result is not so difficult of 

 accomplishment as at first sight appears. In proof of 

 this I beg to ofter to my readers the treatment I have 

 found successful during a number of years' practice. 

 It as is follows : bleeding from the coronary plexus, give 

 aconite in ten-grain doses every hour in one pint of cold 

 water ; gently purge, give nitrate of potass, three drachms 

 in cold water every time the patient drinks, day and 

 night ; give half a pound of new yeast two or three times 



