THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 177 



alimentary canal, is our motto, by means of purgatives ; * thus 

 the superabundant fluids of the body can be drawn off, and the 

 system as certainly prostrated as in the use of the fleam ; not to 

 the same extent, however, unless purgation be continued beyond 

 the limits of reason and experience. Why should not a system, 

 comparatively speaking, of starvation, be superior to the common 

 mode of prostrating, viz., by bloodletting? for in withholding food 

 we put a stop to the nutritive processes, and the animal, as it 

 were, lives upon himself, thus reducing the fluids and solids of 

 the body: this is just precisely what the practice of phlebotomy 

 contemplates. At the same time we seriously protest against 

 unnecessary use of physic. Cathartics may now and then be 

 indicated, but bloodletting never. This is our honest conviction ; 

 yet at the same time we have no ill feelings towards those who 

 conscientiously practise the latter. 



During the active stage of this disease, cooling drinks are use- 

 ful, because they lessen the febrile symptoms, and at the same time 

 prove refreshing to our patient ; and, if composed of suitable 

 agents, they tend to aid the exit, by appropriate channels, of all 

 excrementitious matter. In this view we use cream of tartar or 

 epsom salts. One ounce of either article, dissolved in a common 

 bucket of water, answers the purpose. 



This drink may be allowed, at discretion, during the time and 

 after the medicine shall have operated ; provided, however, the 

 animal be not griped from the effects of the physic, nor the evac- 



* " Of the direct effects of a full dose of cathartic medicine on the system, 

 we have pretty satisfactory evidence. Not only does it influence the general 

 distribution of blood by causing a preternatural determination to the abdominal 

 viscera, but its operation is attended with a greater consumption of that fluid, 

 in consequence of there being an augmentation of the intestinal, and probably 

 other secretions. And when we calculate the extent of the secreting surface 

 of the alimentary canal, and take into our consideration that there may be an 

 augmented afflux of other secretions to it, in addition to its own, we shall be 

 able to form some idea of the loss of vital fluid the system may sustain in this 

 way ; nothing indeed, can evince to us the debilitating effects of cathartics more 

 strikingly than the quick depression of condition, and with it strength and 

 spirits, which supervene upon excessive purgation. Even as a depletive, 

 therefore, next to bloodletting, catharsis is the most potent remedy we pos 

 sess ; and it is chiefly with the intention of determining blood to the bowels, 

 and of drawing it off in the form of secretion, that we employ purgation in most 

 inflammatory diseases." — PercivaWs Lectttres. 



