DISEASES OF THE HEAKT AND BLOOD, ETC. 369 



and rarely, indeed, without witnessing marked and speedy ^ 

 improvement afterward. The object of bleeding is to relieve ^ 

 the circulation of impure, diseased blood, and to relax the ^ 

 system generally; and, in this condition, medicines may be 

 administered to some purpose. Its tendency is not to debili- 

 tate in those cases where the horse's system is already pros- 

 trated, or greatly deranged by disease of such character as to * 

 render bleeding proper. For example, we have taken a horse 

 with big head, time and again, when he was so stiff and 

 weak that he could not get up. without help, and, in a very 

 few days after bleeding, have seen him rise to his feet by 

 his own strength, and continue to grow stronger and stronger 

 until quite well. 



Some persons have a zeal without knowledge, and, in their 

 haste to assume the character of reformers, do not stop to 

 weigh facts with due care, or to test new theories by actual 

 experience. We are as much in favor of improvement as 

 any one else, but we want it to be in the right direction, i^o 

 arbitrary views should be clung to in the face of an over- 

 whelming array of facts upon the other side of the question, 

 simply because they constitute the distinctive policy of one's 

 self or of any other person whatsoever. We would gladly 

 dispense with the trouble of bleeding, if it were not necessary 

 for the cure of the diseased horse. The system of blood- 

 letting was undoubtedly abused in former times, but that is 

 no argument against its practice on the proper occasions. - ;^ 



Those occasions are not seldom, or difficult to distinguish. 

 Many of the horse's diseases it is impossible to reach effect- 

 ively in any olher way. 



Our views upon this point are in harmony with those of 

 the best talent whom this subject has ever engaged. We 

 are in excellent company in this respect, in support of which • jT 



position let us quote the opinion of that unsurpassed au- 

 thority in veterinary science, William Youatt, than whose 

 judgment, in this important matter, no man's is worth 

 more : 



" If inflammation consists of an increased flow of blood to 

 24 



