TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 71 



sidered. If the blood flows freely from the vein during the 

 first bleeding, and if the animal stands a full blood-letting, 

 say from five to seven quarts, without manifesting symptoms 

 of syncope by sighing and sweating, he may be considered to 

 have borne the operation well; but if, on the contrary, the 

 patient manifests these signs shortly after the vein is opened, 

 it will be well for the practitioner to desist from further deple- 

 tion. The urgent symptoms of the disease may by the bleeding 

 be relieved, but may return again after a longer or shorter period, 

 and demand a repetition of the remedy ; but before this is 

 done the reaction of the system generally, the local symptoms, 

 and the urgency for relief, must be taken into consideration. 

 If the reaction be great, and of a sthenic character, with the 

 pulse full and strong, the operation may be repeated ; but if it 

 be asthenic, the pulse rapid, quick, and jerking, the respira- 

 tion oppressed, with partial sweats on the body, and the 

 extremities cold, the bleeding is not to be repeated. The 

 appearance of the blood after it has coagulated is not of very 

 great service as an indication either for re-bleeding or re- 

 fraining from it. The firmness of the coagulum has been 

 considered as a mark of the tonic state of the system, and 

 as a warranty for repeating the bleeding when the part is 

 as yet unrelieved, and the reaction continues of the sthenic 

 type. On the contrary, a looseness of the consistence of the 

 clot is a sign of weakness, and that the bleeding should not 

 be repeated. 



The proportion of serum to the crassamentum, and also its 

 altered character, are arguments for or against bleeding. If 

 the quantity of serum is large, the bleeding should not be 

 repeated. When the properties of the serum are so altered 

 that it coagulates and forms one' mass with the clot, bleed- 

 ing is always injurious ; and when the serum, which has little or 

 no affinity to the red globules in health, readily dissolves them, 

 it is an unerring sign that further bleeding should be avoided. 



There are many instances for not esteeming the firmness 

 and dimensions of the buffed coat as an indication for bleed- 

 ing, even when it has the cupped appearance; for this con- 

 dition exists in many debilitating aff'ections, more especially in 

 epizootics affecting the fibrous and serous membranes ; and no 

 one now thinks of bleeding in these diseases. 



