180 THE HORSE. 



To insure the full operation of the blister, the hair must be closel\ 

 shaveJ, and an ointment, composed of one part of Spanish flics and four of 

 lard and one of resin, well rubbed in. The lard and the resin should be 

 melted together, and the powdered flies afterwards added. 



To form a rowel, the skin is raised between the finger and thumb, and, 

 with a lancet, or with scissors contrived for the purpose, a slit is cut an inch 

 in length. The finger, or the handle of the improved rowelling scissors, 

 which are to be procured fi'om any veterinary instrument-maker, is intro- 

 duced, and the skin is forcibly separated from the muscular or cellular 

 substance beneath, until there is a circular cavity two or three inches wide. 

 Into this a piece of tow is inserted, sufiicient to fill it, and previously 

 smeared with blister ointment. This causes considerable inflammation anti 

 discharge. If a little of the tow be left sticking out of the incision, the 

 discharge will conveniently dribble down it. The tow should be changed 

 every day with or without the ointment, according to the action of the 

 rowel, or the urgency of the case. The large piece of stifl' leather witli 

 a hole in its centre, used by the farrier, is objectionable, as not being easily 

 changed, and frequently, in the extraction of it, tearing the skin, so as to 

 cause a lasting blemish. 



The blister sometimes will not rise. It will not when the inflanmiation 

 of the chest is at its greatest intensity : too much action is going on there 

 for any to be excited elsewhere. The blister occasionally will not act in 

 the later stages of the disease, because the powers of nature ai'e exhausted. 

 It is always a most unfavourable symptom when the blisters or the rowels 

 do not take effect. The best time for the application of the blister, is when 

 the inflammation is somewhat subdued by the bleeding; and then by the 

 irritation which it excites, and in a part so near the original seat of disease, 

 the inflammation of the chest is either abated or transferred to the skin; 

 for, as we have before observed, it is an important law of nature, that no 

 two violent actions of diff'erent kinds can take place in the frame at the 

 same time. 



Next comes the aid of medicine. If the patient was a human being, 

 the surgeon would immediately purge him. We must not do this : for 

 from sympathy between the bowels and the lungs in the horse, we should 

 either produce a fatal extension of inflammation, or a transferring of it in a 

 more violent form, and the horse would assuredly die. We must back- 

 rake, administer clysters, or perhaps give eight ounces of Epsom salts, 

 dissolved in warm gruel. No castor-oil must be given. It may be a mild 

 and safe aperient for the human being : it is a very dangerous one for 

 the horse. 



Having a little relaxed the bowels, we eagerly turn to cooling or sedative 

 medicines. The farrier gives his cordial to support the animal, and pre- 

 vent rottenness. He adds fuel to the fire, and no wonder that the edifi_ce is 

 frequently destroyed. Nitre, digitalis, and emetic tartar should be given 

 in the doses already recommended, and persisted in until an intermittent 

 state of the pulse is produced. Many practitioners give hellebore in doses 

 jf half a drachm, or two scruples, every six or eight hours, and they say 

 with considerable advantage. It is continued until the horse hangs his 

 liead, and saliva drivels from his moutli, and he becomes half stui)id and 

 half delirious. These symptoms pass over in a few hours, and the inflam- 

 mation of the chest is found to be abated. If it be so, it is on the principle 

 of the blister: the determination of blood to the head, and the temporary 

 exc'lemcnt of the brain or its membranes, divert the inflammation, or 

 a portion of it, from its original seat, and give time for the parts some- 

 what to r^onvpr their tone. We confess that we prefer the di},itali.s, 



