APPENDIX. 291 



by irritation. Now, the most rational way to proceed is, to 

 remove the cause of irritation, (no matter whether the stomach 

 or bowels are involved.) and invite the blood to the surface 

 by counter-irritants, (see list of medicines,) and distribute 

 it over the general system, so that it will not be excessive 

 any where. This mode of relief is termed counter-irri- 

 tation. The popular method is to concentrate vital action to 

 a certain spot in the form of a blister, composed of canthar- 

 ides, which is generally worse than the form of irritation they 

 wish to relieve. We do it by inviting action to all parts of 

 the surface, and of course, through all other parts of the 

 body, through the relaxing influence of our medicines. 

 There is generally but little difficulty in producing an equi- 

 librium of action ; the great point is to sustain it. When the 

 blood accumulates in a part, as in inflammation of the bowels, 

 the sensibility of the part is so highly exalted that the least 

 irritation calls it back again ; hence we recommend bland teas 

 and mucilage of slippery elm to sheatUe the surfaces from 

 irritation. 



Horn -Ail in Cattle. — On applying the hand to the horn or 

 horns of a sick beast, an unnatural heat or coldness is felt ; this 

 enables us to judge of the degree of sympathetic disturbance ; 

 and here, reader, permit us to enter our protest against a cruel 

 practice, that is much in fashion, viz., that of boring the horns 

 with a gimlet, for it does not mend the matter one jot. The 

 gimlet * frequently penetrates into the frontal sinuses which 

 communicate with the nqgfril, and where mucous secretion, 

 if vitiated or tenacious, will accumulate. Sometimes pus is 

 formed in these sinuses, resulting from common catarrh or 

 hoove ; the gimlet often penetrates the sac in which the pus 

 is contained, and matter follows the withdrawal of the instru- 

 ment, and the operator sagely concludes that he has hit the 

 right spot. Should the animal by any means recover within 

 the space of a week or two, the recovery is strangely attrib- 



* When the horns are bored in a transverse direction, and the gimlet 

 passes between the horn and ossific structure, it enters the sinus, and the 

 bungler, meeting with no resistance, concludes that the horn is hollow. 



