Fush^ on stuchjvig the diseases of Animals,'^ lix 



The cure of madness in a dog, by means of a profuse hss- 

 ftiorrhage which followed the cutting oif his tail, suggests the 

 propriety of copious blood-letting in the hydrophobia. Per- 

 haps a remedy unilormly certain in that awiul disease, may 

 be reserved to reward the successful application of industry 

 and humanity, to its cure, in the affectionate centinels of our 

 houses and our lives. 



The safety of blood-letting in old people, is deducible from 

 the appearances of inflammation which are discovered in the 

 bodies ol old animals that die of acute diseases. The famous 

 race horse Eclipse, so long known and celebrated at New- 

 Market in England, died in the 26th year of his age of a colic, 

 after two days sickness. Upon dissecting his body, not only 

 the whole aliementary canal, omentum and mesentery, ex- 

 hibited marks of violent inflammation, but the stomach, li- 

 ver, spleen, lungs, blood vessels and glands, all discovered 

 the same, and other eflPects of the highest degree of morbid 

 excitement."^ Many other instances of the light which the 

 anatomy, physiology-, and remedies for the diseases of do- 

 mestic animals have shed upon medicine, shall be mentioned 

 from this chair in our lectures upon the institutes and prac- 

 tice of physic. 



8th. We are bound to study the means of preserving the 

 health of domestic animals, by all those precepts in the Old 

 and New Testament, which recommend kindness to them 

 and protection from outrage and oppression. A portion of 

 the humane spirit of those precepts has pervaded all coun- 

 tries, and descended in a particular manner to the nations of 

 the east. One of the tales of a philosopher of India, has re- 

 corded this fact in a striking manner. A traveller who was 

 permitted to visit the piace of torment for v/icked men, sav/ 

 there every part of the body of a man of high rank in flames, 

 except one of his feet. Upon asking the reason why that part 

 of his body alone was exempted from the rage of the fire, he 



Vial's elements of the Veterinary art, p. 9, 10, 11. 



