SEROUS ABSCESS. 305 



convenience the purge can occasion, is to keep the horse 

 a week or less from work : but should swelling super- 

 vene — which is almost certain to occur — then we have 

 gained an important step : we have procured purgation twelve 

 or twenty-four hours sooner than we otherwise should have 

 done. In case the swelling rapidly increases, and grows 

 hot, hard, and painful, we must abstract blood, and, after 

 that, set a man to foment the part with flannels dipped in hot 

 water placed under the body. The fomentations must steadily 

 be persisted in. Should fever have developed itself, and the 

 swelling become larger, we had better draw more blood : 

 and, if the physic be setting, exhibit daily two drachms of 

 purging mass in combination with four drachms of diuretic 

 mass, until the purgation is renewed. Where the swelling 

 acquires a large volume, and the skin is .exceedingly dis- 

 tended, I have experienced the best effects from punctures, 

 an inch in depth. I am not friendly to the introduction of 

 any rowel or seton, during the progress of inflammation ; 

 though I have found them serviceable when it has began to 

 decline. Walking exercise will prove beneficial : the animal 

 may be led about for half an hour between the intervals of 

 the fomentations. After a free drain from the bowels has 

 been instituted, we may exhibit some diuretic medicine 

 daily. As for the wound, that is of but secondary import : 

 it may be dressed with any digestive. 



Should the wound have penetrated the abdomen, danger 

 of peritoneal inflammation will be added to that arising from 

 tumefaction : our most efficient remedies, however, will still 

 consist in bleeding, purging, and fomentation; though now, 

 as far as the wound is concerned, it will be desirable to 

 close it. The hair may be shorn off, and a plaster or 

 compress applied, confined by a broad roller or surcingle. 



SEROUS ABSCESS. 



We meet with two kinds of abscess — the purulent and 

 the serous. Of the former I. have already spoken : in this 

 place I shall make some observations upon the latter, it 

 being a kind of dropsical affection. 



I. 20 



