52 JaDDS veterinary surgery and MEL>ICiNB. 



but does the surgeon imagine that callous will form better, or an 

 abscess be resolved or reach maturity sooner, by general blood- 

 letting and antiphlogistics ? Experience teaches him otherwise; 

 and in the same manner it may be most reasonably argued tl at 

 «uch treatment can not favor the natural termination of internal 

 inflammations. 



OTH I^ROP. — That all positive knowledge of the experience of ihs 

 past, as well as tJie more exact observation of the present day, alik^ 

 establish the truth of tJye preceding propositions as guides for thi 

 future. 



Before it is possible, however, to determine with exactitude the 

 value of any practice, it is essential to ascertain the natural dura- 

 tion of the disease we propose to treat. Fortunately, we hav€ 

 now some data which will enable us to arrive at this information 

 with regard to many diseases. We have seen many severe caseo 

 of pneumonia submitted tr> homepathic remedies — that no rea - 

 sonable medical man can suppose to be any thing else than inert — 

 vet most of these cases got well, and, I think, may be considered 

 as excellent studies of the disease left entirely to Xature. Many 

 years' experience and close observation have convinced me thai 

 uncomplicated pneumonia, especially in young and vigorous con • 

 stitutions, almost always gets well, if, instead of being lowered, 

 the vital powers are supported, and the excretion of eflfote pro- 

 ducts assisted. It is in exactly these cases, however, that we wer« 

 formerly enjoined to bleed most copiously, and that our systematic 

 works even now direct us to draw blood largely, in consequence 

 of the supposed imminent danger of suppuration destroying th«3 

 texture of the lung. Such danger is altogether illusory, and the 

 destruction to lung tissues, so far from being pi evented, is far 

 more likely to be produced by the practice. In fact, the onlj 

 cures in which it occurs are in the aged or enfeebled const itutiona, 

 in which nutrients, and not antiphlogistics, are the remedies indv 

 cats^l. We can, however, readily understanu now blood-lettings 

 prpctiv^od early, and in young and vigorous constitutions, does lesu 

 harm, or, to use a common expretssion, is " borne better," ihua 

 when the disease is advanced, or the patient weak, and this be 

 cause then the vital powers are less afiected by it. But that it 

 cures the greater number of aulnials attacked, or shortens th»- 

 duration of the disease, is dijp»oved oy every fact with which we 

 are acquaint*^(l. Before cijsin^ we have a few words to oher ob» 



