226 



A DICTIONARY. 



absorption of water and of comparatively 

 crude materials, while the highly-organized 

 globules are regenerated with great slow- 

 ness and difficulty. 



" It is a well-established fact, that the red 

 globules of the blood are essential to life, 

 and that their abundance or scarcity is a 

 criterion of the vital force and activity of 

 the constitution. As the proportion of the 

 red globules increases, the general vital 

 power rises, and the activity or energy of all 

 the organs increases ; while a diminution of 

 their ratio enfeebles or disorders the various 

 organs, and predisposes to nervous and 

 tuberculous disorders, and to the whole 

 range of adynamic and cachectic diseases. 

 If the ratio is diminished as much as one- 

 seventh, general debility is the consequence, 

 predisposing to disease and diminishing the 

 power of recovery ; if as much as one-fourth 

 or more, this reduction of vital power is 

 incompatible with health, and inevitably 

 results in some form of disorder. 



" Is it not, then, exquisitely absurd to 

 adopt, as a remedy in disease, a measure 

 which, even in the most vigorous health, 

 tends directly, with rigorous precision, to 

 destroy the vital powers and bring on 

 disease ? Yet this measure has been, and 

 still is, sustained by many medical men, 

 although clinical experience, as w^ell as 

 chemical science, has shown its injurious 

 effects, and thousands in America and 

 Europe have been, and are now, demon- 

 strating that all forms of disease may be 

 better treated without bloodletting than 

 with it. 



" We affirm that, in disease, the patho- 

 genetic elements of the blood should be 

 removed, instead of its healthful and neces- 

 sary constituents. Nature has provided for 

 the removal of all noxious materials, by 

 numerous appropriate outlets, which dis- 

 charge every thingthat is injurious to human 

 health. It is the duty of the physician to 

 aid nature by such medicines and means as 

 will rouse the secretions and excretions, and 

 thus insm-e the restoration of the blood to a 

 perfectly healthy condition. When, for 

 want of knowledge how to accomplish this, 



he destroys with unnatural violence a large 

 portion of the vital blood itself, which is as 

 necessary to the body as its solid tissues, he 

 acts with as much scientific precision as the 

 savage, who would treat a case of convul- 

 sions, not by removing its causes, but by 

 cutting out a portion of the convulsed 

 muscles." 



It will be very difficult, however, to con- 

 vince some of the " older heads^^ and the 

 world in general, that bleeding can be dis- 

 pensed with ; therefore the veterinarian must 

 be prepared to please his employer, and do 

 just as his superiors have done, — or else 

 " loose caste " and practice. 



Blemishes. — They consist of broken 

 knees, loss of hair, cracked heels, false quar- 

 ters, splents, windgalls, spavins, etc. 



Blind, Moon. — A disease of the horse's 

 eyes, which is supposed to be the forerunner 

 of cataract, and often ends in total blindness. 



Blister Fly. — Cantharides, or Spanish 

 fly. The object in applying a blister is to 

 promote absortions and to combat deep- 

 seated inflammations. 



Bloodroot. — Sanguinaria Canadensis, 

 used to prevent the growth of fungus, or 

 proud flesh ; a substitute for caustic. 



Blood Spavin. — Enlarged bursas. 



BoTs. — Short reddish worms, which are 

 often found attached to the horse's stomach. 

 Mr. Clark says " that bots are not, properly 

 speaking, worms, but the larvae of the gad- 

 fly, which deposits its eggs on the horse's 

 coat in such a manner as that they shall be 

 received into his stomach, and then become 

 bots. When the female fly has become im- 

 pregnated, and the eggs are sufficiently ma- 

 tured, she seeks among the horses a subject 

 for her pm-pose, and, approaching it on the 

 wing, she holds her body nearly upright in 

 the air, and her tail, which is lengthened for 

 the purpose, carried inwards and upwards. 

 In this way she approaches the part where 

 she designs to deposit the eggs ; and, sus- 

 pending herself for a few seconds before it, 

 suddenly darts upon it, and leaves the egg 

 adhering to the hair by means of a gluti- 

 nous liquor secreted with it. She then 

 leaves the horse at a small distance, and pre- 



