6;70 sronADic diseases, 



not, however, to be neglected, so long as the breathing remains 

 at all laborious ; experience having taught me that they not 

 only soothe the irritation and pain, but that they most materially 

 promote convalescence, and diminish the tendency to hydro- 

 thorax and death, but they should not be applied for more than 

 half an hour at a time ; their too long-continued application 

 often becomes annoying to the animal and causes restlessness. 



Bleeding, although often indicated by the hardness of the 

 pulse, seldom does any good ; it certainly has no effect on the 

 duration of the disease, even in cases where its primary effects 

 have seemed to afford relief to the pain and respiratory embar- 

 rassment ; and in the majority of instances where it has been 

 indiscriminately performed, it has delayed the convalescence, 

 increased the tendency to hydrothorax, and increased the rate 

 of mortality. 



Blisters. — Of the application of the so-called counter-irritants, 

 I can only repeat what I have taught, that with rare exceptions 

 they are injurious. Veterinarians, however, generally maintain 

 otherwise; and in support of their arguments appeal to the 

 practice of physicians, who, with rare exceptions, until lately 

 practised this method of treatment. Within the last few years 

 opinion has greatly changed ; and in the latest book on medicine, 

 namely, " Eeynolds'," Dr. Austm, article Pleurisy, page 942, 

 vol. iii., says — " The treatment by so-called ' counter-irritation,' 

 as pursued by many physicians, is no less repugnant to me than 

 is that by mercury or bleeding. Let me make two admissions : — 

 In the first place, the mere application of a mild mustard plaster, 

 or, still better, of a hot poultice or epithem, undoubtedly may 

 give some ease, perhaps even arrest incipient inflammation; 

 and the use of ' small flying ' blisters, in the limited attacks of 

 pleurisy, which are so common in phthisis, undoubtedly appears 

 to give relief in many cases. But the use of large blisters, 

 especially if kept open, appears to me both useless and often 

 prejudicial." I need not here repeat what must be already self- 

 evident, that blisters, especially those extensive ones ordinarily 

 applied, only increase the pain, the embarrassment of breathing, 

 the general febrile condition, and the tendency to excessive 

 effusion and exudation. There are instances, however, in whicli 

 the application of a moderate mustard liniment proves beneficial; 

 these are the cases in which the disease makes but little pro- 

 gress towards recovery, in which the symptoms remain without 

 much alteration for better or w^orse for some days. Tliis con- 



