DISEASES GF THE HEART AND BLOOD, ETC. 36^ 



vented it altogether. How many a farmer and horseman 

 there is in the land who never knows when his horse is on 

 fire with fever and disease until the case becomes utterly des- 

 perate, if not hopeless, and who has not the remotest idea of 

 how to manage to prevent the attacks of disease which are 

 always lying in wait to avenge any enforced violation of 

 !N"ature's laws by his poor, dumb servitor. When the horse 

 of such a man is taken ill, the symptoms of the case are 

 pretty sure t(^ argue to the better-informed observer careless- 

 ness and neglect, if not downright cruelty, on the part of 

 the owners. 



The second inference to be drawn from the facts laid down 

 in expounding what we consider the true theory of fever is, 

 that if disease should make its appearance, it should be at- 

 tacked at once, and vigorously. No time ought to be lost. 

 The first stages — the development of the earliest symptoms — 

 indicates the period for beginning energetic and intelligent 

 treatment. As in the case of the fire, so it is here — a little 

 blaze may be put out with trifling exertion, but if this be 

 neglected, a conflagration may ensue beyond the power of 

 hundreds to arrest. Thousands of horses — and, for that 

 matter, thousands of people — die yearly that might be saved 

 if treatment was soon enough begun. 



TREATMENT. 



The successful treatment of fever embraces three distinct 

 considerations — the organ or part diseased ; the blood, which 

 spreads universally the influences arising in the diseased 

 part; and the capillaries and pores. From the first of these 

 it is our opinion that all fever proceeds. We may not always 

 be able to find the aflected organ; but it exists, and upon 

 our success in finding it greatly depends our chances for 

 curing the fever. For the many failures to cure fever two 

 principal causes may be assigned ; namely, ignorance in re- 

 spect to the primary location of the disease — the part where 

 the prevailing fever and heat have their origin — and igno- 

 rance of the proper remedy after the nature of the disorder 



