420 EXTRAVASATION OF BLOOD. 



Cure. — This will not be difficult, when we make ourselves 

 master of the cause In removing horses from grass to the 

 stable, with the precautions mentioned, it may be prevented ; 

 but when it has occurred, it must be combated by hand- 

 rubbing, bandages, tonics, and gentle exercise. When 

 swelled legs occur in a horse that is thin and impoverished, 

 the general debility must be counteracted to promote a 

 cure, by feeding somewhat liberally, particularly with a 

 mixture of the edible roots, as carrots, parsneps, mangel- 

 wurzel, &c. &c. ; it is aided also by giving tonics, and by 

 the measures already referred to. The weakened vessels 

 having been long distended, will perhaps not readily regain 

 their tone ; they may therefore, in this case, be assisted by 

 bandages moistened in astringent solutions. When it occurs 

 among cart horses, haybands may be used for this purpose, 

 dipped in cold w^ater ; at twisting which, round the animal's 

 legs, some carters are very expert. In other instances, 

 strong woollen of any kind may be made use of; but flannel 

 forms the best bandage, when evenly and firmly applied, by 

 means of a roller of four yards in length and four inches in 

 breadth. Occasionally we meet with cases wherein the legs 

 appear to become habitually enlarged, or where the recur- 

 rence of the swelling is so frequent as to occasion continual 

 trouble : in these cases it is best to study the constitution 

 of the animal, and to endeavour so to adapt the means at 

 your disposal as to restore to the horse that power w^iich 

 its body has lost. If the animal should be very fat, from 

 staying much in the stable, do not all at once order full 

 exercise, or imagine such a horse can bear bloodletting. No 

 creature can endure that which he is unused to, and a fat 

 body has far less blood to spare than a lean one. Begin 

 gently ; and by degrees you may do all you wish, only 

 remember the horse is prized because of his strength, and 

 it ill becomes the veterinary surgeon to permanently destroy 

 that, the possession of which is the animal's chief recom- 

 mendation. 



EXTRAVASATION OF BLOOD, OR ECCHYMOSIS. 



Ecchymosis is a pouring out of blood into the cellular 

 membrane, either the consequence of spontaneous or of 

 accidental lesion. In the former case, it is usually symp- 



