8 INTRODUCTION 



indicated only when certain abnormal complications appear (very- 

 high fever, heart weakness, diarrhoea, etc.). The same principle 

 also applies to catarrh of the upper air-passages, gastric catarrh, 

 intestinal catarrh, and to numerous surgical conditions (distor- 

 tions, tendinitis, spavin, etc.)- 



9. The prophylactic method is, strictly speaking, not a curative 

 method, but a process of preventing the occurrence of disease and 

 its extension to healthy animals. Nevertheless, it is of great impor- 

 tance ("Prevention is better than cure"). It consists in attention 

 to hygiene, dietetics, rational breeding and feeding, disinfection, 

 and the sanitary police measures for controlling disease. 



10. The abortive method combats disease in its initial or for- 

 mative stage. Emetics and calomel appear to have an abortive 

 effect against certain infectious diseases (canine distemper, swine 

 erysipelas) in consequence of their action in removing the cause of 

 the infection from the body. In poisonings an abortive cure can 

 be spoken of in the same sense. This is also true of arecoline and 

 phlebotomy in laminitis and in cerebral inflammation, likewise of 

 amputation of the tail in tetanus resulting from infection of a 

 wound in the tail. On the other hand, the claim that contagious 

 pneumonia of horses is influenced by the intravenous injection of 

 salvarsan, in the sense that inflammation of the lungs does not 

 develop or that complications and secondary diseases do not 

 occur, does not appear to have been proved. 



11. The conservative method aims at the greatest possible con- 

 servation of the diseased organ. In veterinary surgery it has a 

 certain importance (preservation of cutaneous flaps in abraded 

 wounds and also in wounds of the wings of the nostrils and of the 

 eyelids). 



12. The vital method (vital cure, indicatio vitalis) concerns 

 itself with the preservation of life when it is suddenly threatened in 

 the course of a disease. It is really a symptomatic method (trache- 

 otomy in pharyngitis and oedema of the glottis; bleeding in oedema 

 of the lungs; puncture of the pleural cavity, peritoneal cavity, the 

 rumen, intestines, and bladder when collections of fluids or gas 

 threaten life). 



