86 PATHOLOGY. 



bined with the vegetable bitters. For the constipation, which 

 is due to debility of the muscular walls, nux vomica is very 

 useful, mashes being now and then allowed. To the food above 

 prescribed, it may be necessary in aggravated cases to allow the 

 animal to have a quantity of milk twice a day — say one gallon 

 of skimmed milk night and morning, mixed with oatmeal or 

 porridge ; this it will usually become very fond of in a day or 

 two. The system of forcing food, by horning it, upon animals 

 is not to be recommended ; for what an animal does not eat 

 spontaneously is not digested, but disorders the digestive system, 

 and destroys any little appetite that may possibly remain. 



Horses, during the spring and autumn, when casting their coats, 

 suffer more or less from anaemia and debility, and are incapable 

 of performing the same amount of work as at other seasons of 

 the year. A little rest and gentle treatment at this period often 

 prevent the accession of disease. Again, horses whose coats 

 are very long, if kept in stables of even ordinary warmth, suffer 

 from ansemia,with anasarca, and even dropsy of the serous cavities, 

 which will increase notwithstanding the most powerful tonics 

 and the most nutritious food, until their heavy coats are removed 

 by clipping. I have seen the lives of many valuable horses 

 saved by timely clipping. 



In all ana3mic cases the secretory organs — the kidneys, skin, 

 &c. — are very apt to become torpid ; the urine is scantily secreted, 

 the skin dry and harsh, the animal hide-bound, as it is termed. 

 These complications must not be overlooked, or the blood will 

 become loaded with effete materials. To stimulate the kidneys 

 the spirits of nitrous ether may be given occasionally, and to 

 excite the skin nothing is to be compared to good groom- 

 ing, particularly damp wisping the whole surface of the body. 

 Warmth, comfort, gentle exercise, and pure air all play an 

 important part in the treatment, and should by no means be 

 neglected. 



The changes and alterations in the several constituents of the 

 anaemic blood are briefly as follows : — (1.) The red corpuscles 

 are remarkably diminished; they have been known in the human 

 being to sink as low as 27 ; they also appear to contain less 

 haematin, and are somewhat paler than those of healthy blood. 

 (2.) The amount of white corpuscles does not appear to be altered. 

 (3.) The fibrin, or the constituents by the interaction of which 

 the fibrin is formed, is never found below the normal standard. 



