PNEUMONIA. 107 



cular corner of his abode, most likely with his nose towards 

 some window or doorway. As soon as change for the 

 better is about taking place, his heels instead of his head 

 may be found in such situations, clearly indicating that his 

 respiration is becoming freer, and that some return of 

 appetite is coming over him. 



/ Treatment. — I will take it for granted that pneumonia, 

 in its congestive form, has set in; which being the case, 

 it becomes the imperative duty of the practitioner, without 

 any regard whatever as to the state of the pulse or the 

 condition of his patient, to abstract blood the moment 

 he is called in. Generally speaking, a large orifice in 

 the jugular vein is to be preferred to a small one : in cases 

 of imminent danger it is absolutely indispensable. The 

 quantity of blood to be abstracted must be as great as the 

 patient will bear; our surest guide in this, as in most 

 other cases, being the effect which the efflux of blood has 

 upon the pulse at the jaw. While the blood is flowing, 

 keep you fingers applied upon the submaxillary artery. So 

 long as you feel the pulsation strengthening, so long may 

 the stream of blood be continued ; but the instant the vessel 

 collapses under the pressure of the fingers, and pulsation 

 seems sinking, let the blood-can be removed, and the vein 

 pinned up. Although bloodletting appears not only admissible 

 but advisable, and even absolutely indispensable, in con- 

 gestive conditions of pneumonia, yet in inflammatory diseases 

 of the lungs is the practice, pursued in the best hands, so far 

 altered as to admit of such abstraction only in horses who 

 are high in condition and in work, and of certain mature 

 age. In young horses, and horses labouring under influenza of 

 any kind, letting of blood is positively denounced as harmful. 

 Indeed, some good practitioners carry matters farther than 

 this, and peremptorily forbid bloodletting in any form of 

 pulmonary or pleuritic disease; though, I should imagine, 

 they must make exceptions where congestion is the state of 

 disease. In the influenzal kinds of pneumonia, or any other 

 form of epidemic disease, there is little doubt but that a 

 good deal of harm has been perpetrated by letting out blood, 



