372 EPIZOOTIC AND ENZOOTIC DISEASES. 



The duration of the fever cannot be cut short by any treatment, 

 and attempts to do this are very often the cause of numerous 

 deaths. Its severity, however, is amenable to modification by — 



(1.) Complete rest whenever the slightest sign of illness is 

 discoverable. 



(2.) By housing the animal in a warm, dry, light, well-venti- 

 lated loose box. 



(3.) By taking special precautions that no draught of cold wind 

 blows upon it ; for it must be remembered that cold, more especi- 

 ally cold wind, is the common cause of the disease, and that 

 removal of the cause is the first step in the treatment of all 

 diseases ; and, again, that the severity of many affections is 

 dependent on the " dose " of the cause. "VVlien this is heavy or 

 long continued, the results will also be heavy and severe. 



(4.) By clothing the animal and bandaging the legs, in fact by 

 keeping up the equilibrium of the circulation ; for if the vessels 

 rf the skin are prevented, by the operation of cold — acting upon 

 and constringing them — from receiving a due supply of blood, 

 internal congestions and inflammations are aggravated and often 

 determined. 



In addition to these rules, the practitioner must remember 

 that the disease, once established, is the effect of a cause which 

 has been in operation for some time past ; that the effects, what- 

 ever they may be, are the natural physiological responses of the 

 animal body to the action of such cause or causes ; and that all 

 attempts to remove such eff"ects or conditions by other than those 

 processes which nature herself attempts, and generally accom- 

 plishes, can only result in disappointment and loss. 



How, then, does the animal body rid itself of disease and 

 its results ? Briefly, in the one before us, the inflammation 

 is the result of an irritant, acting for a certain time upon a 

 certain tissue or organ. If the dose of the irritant is strong, the 

 resulting inflammation will be strong also, and nothing will 

 subdue that inflammation so long as the cause retains its strength 

 and is allowed to operate. This inflammation is characterised 

 by congestion, effusion, and exudation. When the cause is re- 

 moved, or when its strength is exhausted, the congestion slowly 

 disappears, and the products of the inflammation, namely (1.) 

 the effusion, is gradually taken up into the circulation and 

 removed from the body by the excretory organs ; and (2.) 



