INTRODUCTION 21 



plenty of clothing and give a good stimulant, say from \ to 1 pint of 

 whisky, with the same quantity of water, or a quart of hot ale and 

 1 ounce ginger or fever drench (par. 1067, No. /.), when resolution 

 may be brought about and the animal ail nothing further. But, as 

 generally happens, the shivering fit has not been seen, the first thing 

 to be noticed is the patient hanging its head, breathing heavily and 

 hurriedly, with nostrils distended, eye bright, and temperature 

 increased to about 104 to 106 . Endeavour must then be made to 

 find the cause and remove it. If this cannot be done, treat the 

 symptoms thus : Place the animal in a roomy, well-aired loose box, 

 clothe the body, bandage the legs, and give the saline medicine named 

 under sympathetic fever. If not better or relieved in a few hours get 

 other advice. Sometimes when the breathing is quick and the pulse is 

 very full and strong, and the eyelid injected and red, the taking of 4 to 

 6 quarts of blood from the neck may relieve the animal so much that 

 no further treatment will be needed, except giving nitre water and soft 

 cooling food for a few days (this I have seen done in scores of cases), 

 but the bleeding should only be done by a veterinary surgeon. The 

 advantage of blood-letting is that it relieves the overloaded system 

 quickly. To depend upon purgatives for this purpose, either for 

 horses or cattle, would be loss of time, because it takes from twenty- 

 four to thirty hours in the horse, and frequently longer in cattle, to 

 act on the bowels, while it is very difficult to unload the system by 

 perspiration ; therefore, early blood-letting in many cases is advan- 

 tageous, at least it is so in country practice. Bleeding in the past 

 was abused ; in the present, as a remedy, it needs to be judiciously used. 



41. Septic Fever (sapramia) is due to septic organisms gaining 

 access to the system, as in septicaemia and pyaemia. Such cases 

 are of a more formidable character than simple fever, and should at 

 once be put under the care of a qualifi&d practitioner, as the treat- 

 ment is quite different to that of simple fever, requiring antiseptics 

 and nourishing diet to keep up the strength. Quinine is useful, and 

 can be given in from 1 to 3 drachm doses three or four times a day ; 

 hyposulphite of soda in 2-ounce doses, and chlorate of potash in 

 3-drachm doses, are also given alternately every six or eight hours, 



