THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. \i)7 



strength, &c., of horses, and the state or habit of body 

 they are in at the time. Although blood ought not, 

 in general, to be taken from horses on trifling occa- 

 sions, when they may be said to be in health, yet when 

 cases occur that do require it, it may not only safely 

 but usefully be recommended to take away a greater 

 quantity at once than is usually done ; for instance, 

 from three to four quarts, according to the urgency 

 of the symptoms at the time, the strength and age 

 of the horse being also taken into consideration. 



" For as horses are very subject to inflammatory 

 diseases, and those that are of the spasmodic kind, 

 and as bleeding plentifully relaxes the whole system in 

 these cases, the taking away a small quantity of blood 

 is in fact playing with the disease. The horse is then 

 said to have been bled, and that satisfies the ow^ner and 

 the farrier. Time is thus lost, the disease acquires 

 strength, and it may then be beyond the power of art 

 to mitigate or conquer it, hence the horse falls a sacri- 

 fice to timidity and ignorance. It is to be remembered 

 that inflammatory diseases, particularly when the 

 bowels are aflected, make a very rapid progress in 

 horses, and if they are not overcome in the beginning 

 by bleeding plentifully, the horse commonly dies in 

 twenty-four hours of a 2;angrene or mortification in 

 the intestines. 



" Mr. Coleman, in the first part of the transactions 

 of the Veterinary College, speaks of the inflammation 

 of the vein which sometimes succeeds bleeding in the 

 following terms : — ' Although,' says he, 'a vein is 

 not strictly a circumscribed cavity, yet it has no com- 

 munication with the air of the atmosphere, and when 

 once exposed, if the parts after the operation do not 

 unite by the first intention, the vein is liable to great 

 mischief. 



