CONGESTION. 103 



certainly a strong case to show the stomachic origin of the 

 malady. 



Mr. Blain says, "The treatment of staggers has been 

 notoriously unsuccessful. I never witnessed a successful 

 issue, and think that men have strangely erred in pointing 

 out remedies for this malady. Phlebotomy will certainly 

 tend to relieve congestion or inflammatory action, that may 

 exist in the brain ; but the main question for us to consider, 

 is, whether it can have any effect in unloading the stomach. 

 Practitioners are in the habit of expressing their surprise at 

 the obstinate apathy of the bowels ; whereas, is it unreasonable 

 to suppose that 12 or even 20 drachms of aloes can have any 

 effect, when they can pass no farther than the stomach ? It 

 is possible that active stimulants may have such an impres- 

 sion upon the stomach, as to excite contraction in it. [Then 

 why not use them ?] The state of the brain in staggers, 

 generally speaking, appears to be, in the beginning, that of 

 simple congestion, or unequal distribution of the blood. [Then 

 equalize, instead of abstracting it.] In most of the heads I 

 have examined, vascular distention of the membranes was 

 found, with minute bloody specks upon the divided surfaces 

 of the brain." 



From the professor's remarks we are led to conclude, that 

 prevention is more valuable and successful than their attempt 

 at cure. The reason why their treatment is " notoriously 

 unsuccessful," the reader can readily perceive, when he takes 

 into consideration the destructive nature of the treatment, 

 which is as follows : " Bleed profusely ; most of those sub- 

 jects will bear to lose six or eight, and some even ten quarts 

 of blood. The next consideration is purgation. The com- 

 mon saying is, Purge a horse with staggers and you cure him ; 

 and there is much truth in the observation, for we know that 

 hardly any one thinks of purging before he has bled the 

 animal, so that the purge is acting under the most favorable 

 circumstances. [Unfavorable he ought to have said.] Two 

 drachms of castor nut, and a small quantity of calomel, are to 

 be given in a bolus ; promote the action by aloetic injections, 



