133 DISEASES OF THE LUNGS. 



never having tried it myself, I cannot pretend to give an 

 opinion. I think it, however, in desperate cases well worth 

 a trial. 



The MEDICINE we must rely upon is mercury; and the 

 form in which I give it, and continue it until the mouth 

 is made tender or the breath affected by it, is described 

 under bronchitis and pneumonia. I prefer the Plummer's 

 pill or ball to any other preparation, because there is reason 

 to think it may act on the skin, whilst its diuretic action is 

 great and manifest, and its salivative tendency, acting on 

 another order of parts, is undoubted ; nor have I ever had any 

 reason to apprehend diarrhoea or purgation from its use.^ 



Counter-irritation is, in the disease before us, a 

 measure of great import. Its early and effectual adminis- 

 tration is of the greatest consequence. In the height of 

 inflammation, mustard plasters to the sides, repeated if they 

 do not take effect, are highly recommendable. They act 

 quicker and surer, and more sharply than blisters. At the 

 same time, the breast may be rowelled, and blistered over the 

 rowel. The mustard plasters will in some cases produce 

 painful and copious perspirations, which will indicate the 

 necessity of sponging them off with warm water, and 

 clothing the horse afterwards well to encourage the dia- 

 phoresis : an operation, though annoying and painful at the 

 time, which oftentimes much relieves the patient. With a 

 view of arriving at the same end by different means, 

 Mr. Field has for some years past been in the habit of prac- 

 tising DRY CUPPING in pleurisy. His cups are made of 

 brass, are of the ordinary shape of the glass cups, and about 

 the size — though in this respect they vary some little — of a 

 common tumbler. Their application, which is effected by 

 means of rather a large spirit-lamp, is the same as in human 

 practice ; only the animal requires being watchfully held, 

 bridled by the head, lest he should spring up or fall and 

 hurt himself, which is very apt to occur at the moment the 

 cup seizes hold of the skin. In some cases, so many as 



' An excellent mode of introducing mercury rapidly into the system is to place 

 five grains of calomel upon the horse's tongue every hour. 



