INFLAMMATION. ^ 175 



If inflammation consist of increased flow of blood to and through the 

 part, the ready way to abate the inflammation, is to lessen the quantity 

 of blood. If we takeaway the fuel, the fire will q;o out. All other means 

 are comparatively unimportant, compared with bleeding. Blood may be 

 taken from the jug'ular, and so the general quantity may be lessened ; but 

 if it can be taken from the neighbourhood of the part, it will be 

 productive of tenfold benefit. One quart of blood taken from the font in 

 acute founder, by unloading the vessels of the inflamed part, and enabling 

 them to contract, and, in that contraction, to acquire tone and power to 

 resist future distention, will do more good than iive quarts taken from 

 the general circulation. An ounce of blood obtained by scarifying the 

 swelled vessels of the inflamed eye, will give as much relief as a copious 

 bleeding from the jugular. It is a principle in the animal frame which 

 should never be lost sight of by the veterinary surgeon, or the horseman, 

 that if by bleeding the process of inflammation can once be checked, — if it 

 can be suspended but for a little while, — although it may return, it never 

 returns with the same degree of violence, and in many cases it is got rid of 

 at once. Hence the necessity of bleeding early, and bleeding largely, in 

 inflammation of the lungs, or of the bowels, or of the brain, or of any im- 

 portant organ. Many horses are lost for want of bleeding, or from insuf- 

 ficient bleeding, but we never knew one materially injured by the most 

 copious abstraction of blood in the earli/ stage of acute inflammation. 

 The horse will bear, and with advantage, the loss of an almost incredible 

 quantity of blood. Four quarts taken from liim, will be comparatively little 

 more than one pound taken from the human being. We can scarcely con- 

 ceive a considerable inflammation of any part of the horse, either proceeding 

 from sprains, contusions, or any other cause, in which bleeding, local (if 

 possible) or general, or both, will not be of essential service. 



Next in importance to bleeding is purging. Something maybe removed 

 from the bowels, the retention of which would increase the general irrita- 

 tion and fever ; — the blood will be materially lessened, for the quantity of 

 serous or watery fluid which is separated from it by a brisk purge, the 

 action of which in the horse continues probably for more than twenty-four 

 hours, is enormous ; and while the blood is thus determined to the bowels, 

 less even of that which remains will flow through the inflamed part. 

 When the circulation is directed to one set of vessels, it is proportionably 

 diminished in other parts. It was first directed to the inflamed parts, and 

 they were overloaded and injured : it is now directed to the bowels, and 

 the inflamed parts are relieved. While the purging continues, there is also 

 some degree of languor and sickness felt, and the force of the circulation is 

 thereby diminished, and the general excitement lessened. The farmer 

 will, therefore, see the importance of physic in every case of considerable 

 external inflammation. If the horse is laid by for a few days from injury 

 of the foot, ov sprain, or poll-evil, or w-ound, or almost any cause of in- 

 flammation, a physic ball should be given. 



In cases of internal inflammation, much judgment is required to deter- 

 mine when a purgative maybe beneficial or injurious. In inflammation of 

 the lungs or bowels it should never be given. There is so strong a sym- 

 pathy between the various contents of the cavity of the chest, that no one 

 of them can be inflamed to any great extent, without all the others being 

 disposed to become inflamed ; and, therefore, a dose of physic in inflamed 

 lungs would be frequently as fatal as a dose of poison. The excitement 

 produced on the bov/els by the purgative will soon run on to inflammation, 

 which no medical skill can stop. 



The means of abating external inflammation are various and seemingly 



