INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 51 



Copious bleeding is the remedy most to be depended on for sub- 

 duing the inflammation, and should be had recourse to as soon as the 

 disease is discovered. The beast should be put into a cool cow-house 

 well littered, and inmiediately bled. If the difficulty of breathing and 

 other symptoms are not much relieved in six or eight hours after the 

 first bleeding, it should be repeated. A third or fourth bleeding may 

 in bad cases be requisite. In this disease, more than in any other, 

 the person who attends the cattle should be present when the beast 

 is bled. It is impossible, by looking at the patient, and considering 

 the symptoms, to say what quantity of blood ought to be taken away; 

 but as a general rule, and especially in inflammation of the lungs, 

 and at the first bleeding, the blood should flow until the pulse begins 

 to falter, and the animal seems inclined to faint. The faltering of the 

 pulse will regulate the quantity of the after-bleedings. Little bleed- 

 ings of two or three quarts, at the commencement of inflammation of 

 the lungs, can never be of service; from six to eight quarts must be 

 taken, or even more, regulated by the circumstances that have been 

 mentioned, and the blood should flow in a large full stream. 



A seton should be set in the dewlap immediately after the first 

 bleeding, and the purging drink (No. 2, p. 47) given. Four drachms 

 of nitre, two of extract of belladonna, and one of tartarized antimony, 

 may afterwards be administered twice a day in a drink. 



In very severe cases the chest has been fired and blistered with 

 advantage. 



Warm water and mashes must be regularly given two or three 

 times a day. 



When the beast has recovered, it will be proper, as much as possi- 

 ble, to avoid all those causes which induced the complaint. The 

 animal should for a short time be housed during the night, and, if the 

 weather is very unsettled, kept up altogether, or turned out for a few 

 hours only in the middle of the day. 



CHAPTER VII. 



RHEUMATISM, OR JOINT-FELLON. 



The early symptoms of this complaint are those of common catarrh, 

 with no great cough, but more than usual fever: by degrees, how- 

 ever, the animal shows some stitfness in moving, and if the hand is 

 pressed upon the chine or any part of the back, the beast will shrink, 

 as if this gave him pain. When the complaint goes no farther than 

 this, it is called chine-fdlon in many parts of the country ; but gene- 

 rally, in two or three days, the animal appears stiffer in the joints; 

 these afterwards begin to swell, and are evidently painful, particu- 

 larly when he attempts to move. Sometimes the stiffness extends all 



