110 DISEASES OF THE LUNGS. 



frequently happens that a copious sweat follows the evacu- 

 ation, the encouragement of which I often have thought has 

 proved most beneficial to my patient. No habitation is 

 equal to a " loose box^' for him ; and one facing the south 

 or south-west is to be preferred to another having a con- 

 trary aspect. A dry and ample straw bed ought to cover its 

 floor, and a pailful of cold spring water be hung up in one 

 corner of it. Last, but not least, let the patient^s shoes be 

 taken oflP : his feet being freed from restraint will, doubtless, 

 add to his comfort. As to food, none at this time will be 

 taken, or even looked at, probably ; neither is it proper that 

 any, for the first few hours, should be offered. 



Mr. Sibbald relates a case of pneumonia of great danger, 

 in the pressing stage of which he employed the actual 

 cautery, drawing lines, with his iron, over the surfaces of the 

 entire chest. In less than twenty-four hours, he says, the 

 disease had given way. The horse, however, was marked for 

 life. 



SUB-ACUTE PNEUMONIA. 



The epithets, sub-acute and chronic, are here used to 

 denote subdued or milder forms of pulmonary disease, 

 sequelae very often to the acute; though cases do occur, 

 which from the first assume these mild and lingering forms. 

 With the exception of such attacks of acute pneumonia as 

 by bold and early treatment are at once arrested, and 

 supplanted by the return of health, and of such as rapidly 

 continue their destructive course in spite of every measure 

 we may employ to counteract them, all cases may be said 

 to decline into the sub-acute stage prior to their termination, 

 whether that be in the return of health, perfect or im- 

 perfect, in pulmonary consumption, or in death : here the 

 sub-acute is to be regarded but as a mitigated form of acute 

 pneumonia. The rage of the inflammation is past ; the 

 horse is no longer in any immediate danger; he appears 

 and is better ; his breathing is less oppressed ; his pulse is 

 less quick and more distinct; the body and extreme parts 

 have, perhaps, become warm, or they may continue cold ; 



