TREATMENT. 507 



reliable practitioners not only advised its employment, but its 

 employment under all circumstances and in every condition, 

 giving- it as their opinion that anyone called to attend an 

 animal suffering from pneumonia and neglecting to abstract 

 blood was acting in a blameworthy manner. That an}' 

 remedy, carried out thus unreflectingly, without regard to the 

 many modifying influences which are ever in operation, should, 

 in a not very lengthened period, come to be regarded Avith 

 distrust, and ultimately with disgust, is not to be w^ondered at. 



Now, although it does not appear that indiscriminate 

 blood-letting, the constant exhibition of tartar emetic, aconite, 

 or calomel and opium, the so-called antiphlogistic system of 

 treatment, is all- potent to cut short an attack of pneumonia, 

 or to promote its rapid resolution, we cannot doubt that 

 cases do occur where the abstraction of blood is not onl}- 

 admissible but attended with much benefit. 



AVhatever may have been the reason for the extensive em- 

 ployment of depletive measures in former days, whether it ma}- 

 be accounted for on the supposition that these morbid actions 

 in which it appears to have played such a prominent part as a 

 remedial measure were of a different type from the same pro- 

 cesses now encountered, or whether animal constitutions and 

 activities were so different from those of our da}^ it is probably 

 not easy to tell. 



This, however, is certain, that a much less heroic and de- 

 structive system of treatment is now found to be productive of 

 more beneficial results. 



In recommending for adoption what may be considered a 

 rather simple line of treatment, I only state what, from ex- 

 perience, I feel satisfied is a preferable method, both on account 

 of its efiicacy in averting fatal results, and shortening the 

 period of the disease. 



The lines upon which I have found it most advantageous to 

 carry out the constitutional treatment of ordinary cases of 

 pneumonia are : 



1. Locating the horse in a roomy box, where an endeavour 

 is made to maintain an equable temperature. 



2. The body-temperature to be regulated by means of 

 friction and clothinsf. The rues and bandasfes oudit to be 



