230 Veterinary Medicine. 



dangerous distension and over charging of a fatigued and over- 

 worked heart. In short the condition is one closely allied to acute 

 congestion in which the value of bleeding is all but universally 

 admitted. It is especially warranted early in the disease, though 

 it may still be adopted with caution in a similar condition which 

 has supervened at a later stage. A strong pulse and bright red 

 mucous membranes, are not as has been supposed, essential pre- 

 requisites to its employment. The mucosae may be pale, or more 

 likel}' cyanotic, and the pulse small and weak, from the over 

 charging of the heart and its tendency to failure, and it is to re- 

 lieve these conditions that we adopt this most potent of all meas- 

 ures for. securing a temporary lessening of the blood pressure in 

 the right heart and pulmonary circulation. Even the transient 

 relief may allow this to right itself and then less radical or danger- 

 ous measures may be relied on. Bleeding should very rarely be 

 resorted to save at the outset of the disease ; extensive exudation 

 into the lung tissue strongly contra-indicates it ; it cannot be safely 

 employed in the very young or old, in weak or debilitated sub- 

 jects, when the pneumonia has relapsed or supervened on another 

 serious malady, or when occurring in an unhealthy district. Dela- 

 fond met with a very high death-rate from bleeding in a damp 

 undrained locality. Where bleeding is permissible, the blood 

 should be drawn from the jugular in a full stream, from a large 

 orifice, the finger being placed upon the pulse, and the flow 

 arrested as soon as the blood is felt to pass along the vessel in a 

 fuller, freer current, and the breathing is seen to be relieved. It 

 can rarely be repeated with profit or safety, and in the vast ma- 

 jority of cases can be well dispensed with altogether. 



Antipyretic Treatment. When the temperature runs danger- 

 ously high, a temporary use of antipyrin, acetanilid, phenacetin, 

 or other potent antithermic remedy may be resorted to. But 

 agents that so profoundly affect the heat centres are not devoid of 

 danger and should not as a rule be continued after the dangerous 

 excess of temperature has been overcome. They may be looked 

 on as valuable to temporarily obviate an extreme danger rather 

 than as a form of regular treatment. 



The modern resort of applying ice bags to the chest may be sim- 

 ilarly disposed of. In very high fever they have been apparently 

 beneficial, but the danger of chill or injurious reaction is so great 



