•820 AMEKICAN FAKMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



ture may be relieved. Bleeding, then, must be the first re- 

 sort, affording the only hope in obstinate cases. It is the 

 sheet-anchor of the practitioner's treatment. - The bleeding 

 should be from the neck vein, and never from the mouth. 

 Blood is neither food nor medicine to the horse, but is posi- 

 tively hurtful when taken into the stomach, in nearly all cases. 

 Moreover, it is impossible from the mouth to take enough 

 blood, or with sufficient rapidity to produce the desired effect. 

 It should flow rapidly, so that the required quantity may be 

 discharged in the shortest time possible. 



The bleeding should be continued until there is a percep- 

 tible faltering of the pulse. As comparatively few persons 

 know where to look for the pulse, it will be proper here to 

 describe it again, and, if possible, so plainly that its location 

 can not be mistaken. It can readily be found by pressing 

 the fingers upon the sub-maxillary artery, which passes 

 directly over the extreme lower part of the under jaw-bone, 

 where it feels like a small cord running across the edge of 

 the bone, under the skin. By resting the fingers upon this 

 artery, the pulsation can be felt and counted in precisely the 

 same mianner as in one's wrist. If the owner has any timid- 

 ity, let him remember that bleeding does not at all endan- 

 ger the life of the animal. It is not the horse which the 

 lancet attacks, but the disease. 



All that is needed in the form o^ medicine is some simple 

 remedy to correct the acid condition of the stomach, which 

 organ, even when not itself the seat of disease, is quickly 

 affected sympathetically ; and, when there is fermentation of 

 the food in consequence of obstructions, its own condition is 

 the occasion of great distress. For this purpose, chloroform 

 is the best prescription, and is especially valuable from the 

 fact that a small dose suffices to secure very speedily the de- 

 sired effects. It is a powerful anodyne, allaying this condi- 

 tion of the^ stomach at once ; gives instant relief from pain, 

 and causes a speedy relaxation of the whole system. The 

 dose should be a table-spoonful, in a gill of whisky mixed 

 with half a pint of warm water — a remedy so perfectly harm- 



