BLEEDING RARELY NECESSARY. 277 



treatment must be in accordance ; and it is usually 

 subdued without much difficulty. Mr. Youatt says, 

 " The animal should be bled, and the quantity regulated 

 by the impression made upon the circulation, — from 

 six to ten quarts often before the desired effect is pro- 

 duced." He wrote at a time when bleeding was 

 adopted as the universal cure, and before the general 

 reasoning and treatment of diseases of the human sys- 

 tem was applied to similar diseases of animals. The 

 cases are very rare, indeed, where the physician of the 

 present day finds it necessary to bleed in diseases of 

 the human subject ; and they are equally rare, I appre- 

 hend, where it is really necessary or judicious to bleed 

 for the diseases of animals. A more humane and 

 equally effectual course will be the following : 



A pound to one and a half pounds of Epsom or Glau- 

 ber's salts, according to the size and condition of the 

 animal, should be given, dissolved in a quart of boiling 

 water ; and, when dissolved, add pulv. red pepper a 

 quarter of an ounce, caraway do. do., ginger do. do. : 

 mix, and add a gill of molasses, and give lukewarm. 

 If this medicine does not act on the bowels, the quantity 

 of ginger, capsicum, and caraway, must be doubled. 

 The insensible stomach must be roused. When purg- 

 ing in an early stage is begun, the fever will more 

 readily subside. After the operation of the medicine, 

 sedatives may be given, if necessary. 



The digestive function first fails, when the secondary 

 or low state of fever comes on. The food undis- 

 charged ferments ; the stomach and intestines are 

 inflated with gas, and swell rapidly. The nervous 

 system is also attacked, and the poor beast staggers. 

 The hind extremities show the weakness ; the cow 

 falls, and cannot rise ; her head is turned on one side. 

 ^Yhere it rests ; her limbs are palsied. The treatment 

 24 



