178 EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 



be present at this first venesection, that he may close the orifict 

 as soon as the pulse begins to falter. This attention to the first 

 bleeding is indispensable. It is the carelessness with which it is 

 perlbrmed — the ignorance of the object to be accomplished, and 

 the effect actually produced, that destroys half the horses that 

 are lost from this malady. The first falter of the pulse is the sig- 

 nal to suspend the bleeding. Every drop lost afterwards may be 

 wanted. 



If there is no appearance of febrile action, or only a very slight 

 one, small doses of aloes may be given, combined with the fever 

 medicines recommended for catarrh. As soon as the faeces are 

 pultaceous, or even before that, the aloes should be omitted and 

 the fever medicine continued. It will rarely be prudent to con- 

 tinue the aloes beyond the third drachm. 



A stricter attention must be paid to diet than the veterinarian 

 usually enforces, or the groom dreams of. No corn must be al- 

 lowed, but mashes and thin gruel. The water should be entirely 

 taken away, and a bucket of gruel suspended in the box. This 

 is an excellent plan with regard to every sick horse that we do 

 not wish to reduce too much ; and when he finds that the morn- 

 ing and evening pass over, and his water is not ofiered to him, 

 he will readily take to the gruel, and drink as much of it as is 

 good for him. Green meat should be early ofiered, such as grass, 

 tares (the latter especially), lucerne, and, above all, carrots. If 

 these cannot be procured, a little hay may be wetted, and ofiered 

 morsel after morsel by the hand. Should this be refused, the hay 

 may be damped with water slightly salted, and then the patient 

 will generally seize it with avidity. 



Should the horse refuse to eat during the two or three first 

 days, there is no occasion to be in a hurry to drench with gruel ; 

 it will make the mouth sore, and the throat sore, and tease and 

 disgust : but if he should long continue obstinately to refuse his 

 food, nutriment must be forced upon him. Good thick gruel must 

 be horned down, or, what is better, given by means of Read's pump. 



The practitioner will often and anxiously have recourse to aus 

 cultation. He will listen for the mucous rattle, creeping down 

 the windpipe, and entering the bronchial passages. If he camiot 

 detect it below the larynx, he will apply a strong blister, reach- 

 ing from ear to ear, and extending to the second or third ring of 

 the trachea. If he can trace the rattle in the windpipe, he must 

 follow it, — he must blister as far as the disease has spread. This 

 will often have an excellent efiect, not only as a counter-irritant, 

 but as rousing the languid powers of the constitution. A rowel 

 of tolerable size between the fore-legs cannot do harm. It may 

 act as a derivative, or it may take away a disposition to inflam 

 mation in the contiguous portion of the chest. 



