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of the ablest veterinary surgeons in the profession. First, 

 it is known that a horse of ordinary strength will bear the 

 loss of several quarts of blood, when in a state of health, 

 without any apparent injury to his strength, ability to endure 

 labor, or his health in any particular. This we learn from 

 the habit, in some parts, of bleeding the horses at certain 

 periods, with a view of improving their condition. Men of 

 the closest observation, though they regard the habit useless, 

 have not found such horses injured by it. Hence, we infer 

 that the horse may suffer the loss of blood with comparative 

 impunity. jS'ow, why is this? It is because the horse is 

 naturally a full-blooded or plethoric animal, with powerful 

 lungs, powerful digestion, and of great powers of endurance, 

 and because the reparative powers of his system are very 

 active. His system may endure a temporary drain, or loss of 

 the vital fluid, but, from his full habit, it will very soon be 

 restored. Second, it is an established fact that acute inflam- 

 mation wall invariably yield immediately to bleeding; and it 

 is equally true that it will not return again in a large propor- 

 tion of cases, after the first bleeding, if nothing else is done. 

 In every case, in the early stage of disease, it f)i'ocures at 

 least a temporary arrest of the inflammation, and gives time 

 for the use of other remedies to prevent its return. It also 

 reduces the proportion of those elements of the blood which 

 favor the progress of inflammation. It thus, as it were, cuts 

 off the fuel from the flame. It draws off the undue quantity 

 of blood from the congested vessels of the inflamed organ, 

 and gives them an opportunity to contract to their proper 

 size. It removes the irritable state of the heart and arteries 

 of the system, and equalizes the circulation of the blood. 

 This is shown by the pulse becoming soft and natural, and 

 the warmth of the extremities returning, in such a case as 

 pleurisy, while the blood is being taken. Now, while I con- 

 tend that these efi*ects are most desirable, I regard it of equal 



