C40 SPORADIC DISEASES. 



" (1.) That indiscriminate bleeding immensely increases the 

 mortality of the disease. 



" (2.) That it is especially fatal in old people and young 

 children, in patients of exhausted constitutions, and in those 

 suffering from chronic diseases, and particularly in Bright's 

 disease. 



" (3.) That it is absolutely unnecessary in the majority of 

 cases of young adults and also young children. 



" (4.) That in the vast majority of cases it has no influence 

 whatever either in cutting short the disease, or in lessening its 

 duration or diminishing the pyrexia, but that occasionally these 

 results appear to follow its use when practised early. 



" (5.) That in the majority of cases it hinders the critical fall 

 of temperature and delays convalescence. 



" (6.) That in the majority of cases, as shown especially by 

 Dr. Bennett's and Dietl's data, recovery is equally, if not more 

 rapid, when it is not practised as when it is resorted to. 



" (7.) That in a few cases a moderate venesection may be 

 necessary in the early stages to avert immediate danger of death 

 from asphyxia." 



The above conclusions have reference to moderate bleeding 

 only, repeated bleedings being condemned by Dr. Fox as " a 

 system whose impropriety it is scarcely needful to discuss 

 further." 



Bleeding, then, can only be safely practised in the very earliest 

 stages of a few exceptional cases, in which symptoms of dyspnoea 

 are very urgent ; and even then it must not be pushed so as to 

 debilitate, for more horses die from the prostration of strength 

 at later periods than from the occasional suffocative effects of the 

 earlier and congestive stages. 



Bleeding in some cases, no matter when it is practised, seems 

 to afford a relief to the breathing, but this effect is only tem- 

 porary, and disappears in a very short time, the rapidity of the 

 respiratory movements in pneumonia being dependent on oedema 

 or consolidation, conditions upon which the withdrawal of blood 

 can have but little or no effect. 



Convinced of the inutility and danger of venesection, many 

 veterinarians, undoubtedly influenced by the teaching of Dr. 

 Tod, fell into the other extreme, and treated pneumonia by large 

 and repeated doses of stimulants. What possible good effect 



