fSLEEDING.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[PUEGmO." 



"Witli regard to instruments employed to let 

 blood, the common blood-stick and phleme, 

 and a variety of lancets, are in use. The lan- 

 cet is the most surgical-looking instrument ; 

 but, perhaps, the phleme is preferable in country 

 practice, where necks of all thicknesses have to 

 be contended with. We have seen some prac- 

 titioners make one puncture through the skin 

 first, then another through the coats of the 

 vein ; and without some experience the vein is 

 also apt to be altogether missed, in attempting 

 to do it with a lancet. The lancets and phlemes 

 should be always clean, and highly polished ; 

 and, after bleeding, their points examined. 



Blood is most frequently taken from the 

 jugular vein, though there are other superficial 

 veins, from which blood may be taken with 

 advantage, such as the plate and thigh veins. 



The proper place for bleeding at the jugu- 

 lar vein is about two inches below the branch- 

 ing ofi" of that vein, towards the head. To 

 perform the operation, the principal require- 

 ment is a steady hand. If the intention is to 

 bleed on the near side, take the phleme in the 

 left hand, and bold it with the finger and 

 thumb. Then, with the middle and third 

 fingers raise the vein by carrying the hand the 

 backward way of the hair. The vein being 

 raised as high as required, strike the phleme 

 with the blood-stick in the centre of the vein. 

 Let your assistant receive the flowing blood in 

 a bucket, whilst you replace your tackle, and 

 prepare, with a pin and tow, to bind up the 

 orifice. This being done, let a wet sponge be 

 applied, and remove the blood. 



In abstracting blood, it should be an inva- 

 riable rule never to let it fall on the ground. 

 A bucket is generally the usual utensil for 

 receiving it. By chance a graduated can is 

 sometimes met with, in well-regulated stables ; 

 and exceedingly useful it is ; as then you have 

 a certain measure, by whicl) you can regulate 

 the quantity of blood wished to be taken away. 

 Ton will frequently find you take much more 

 on the graduated principle, tlian if you trusted 

 to chance. As, for example, in a large horse, 

 with a strong attack of inflammation upon him, 

 on the first bleeding the recovery mainly de- 

 pends. Tou are here working in the dark ; 

 jbr it will be next to an impossibility to ascer- 

 tain what quantity of blood is tf'.keu, without 

 some measure for a guide. 

 328 



In all inflammatory afiections, it is important 

 to draw the blood from a large orifice, and as 

 quickly as possible, though the general system 

 may be weakened from hastily drawing blood. 

 The disease, however, gives way to such treat- 

 ment much quicker than if blood were drawn 

 from a small orifice. 



There are two kinds of blood-letting, termed 

 local and general. 



Local blood-letting is abstracting blood as 

 near to the part aftected as possible ; and a 

 few ounces thus abstracted frequently does 

 more good than if a quart were taken from the 

 system generally. 



General Heeding is that wherein the system 

 at large partakes of the operation, depleted by 

 the stores more immediately derived from the 

 heart. 



Blood-letting, in veterinary practice, is very 

 important. The amazing quickness with which 

 some diseases run their course, and which ap- 

 pear to be only arrested by blood-letting, is, ia 

 many instances, to be considered as our only 

 sheet-anchor ; and therefore is so much resorted 

 to in most fevers, and those internal inflamma- 

 tory aifections to which the horse is so ex- 

 ceedingly liable. Blood-letting is also impor- 

 tant as a criterion of the state of the disease^ 

 certain appearances of the abstracted fluid pre- 

 senting certain indications which act as a guide 

 for future treatment. Indeed, if it were not 

 from a knowledge of the difierent states of the 

 blood and the pulse, we should be in continual 

 error ; therefore, the state of the blood in health, 

 as well as in sickness, should be well attended 

 to. 



PURGING. 



Purging, it is well known, is produced in tlie 

 horse with the view to renovate him, and to 

 bring him into condition; and though it may 

 be treated lightly by a great many persons, 

 still it is a very important matter, especially 

 when we read of the number of race, and other 

 horses, that annually foil victims on account of 

 the bad management they receive during the 

 time of their physic. Though almost every 

 groom declares he can put a horse through ins 

 doses of physic as well as any man, yet, were 

 he asked how the medicine acts, or, if things do 

 not go on quite so well as expected, what is the 

 reason, he ia completely puzzled, and does not 



