BLEEDING. 171 



bleed horses in regular work twice a year, while a diuretic ball, 

 (or when it was determined "to do it mild," a ball half 

 diuretic and half cordial was substituted), was given every 

 Saturday night ; and this constituted a portion of the regular 

 treatment of the generality of horses, no matter whether they 

 were diseased at the time or not. To those diseased the balls 

 were given to cure them, while to those in health they were in 

 like manner given to prevent the horses from being invaded 

 with disease. 



Of late, however, the practice of bleeding has fallen, and 

 justly so, into disrepute. Tor our own part, for a period of 

 three years at a time, we have not found it necessary to bleed 

 a single patient, although diseases of the most violent nature 

 in one form or other were constantly under treatment. It is 

 very rarely indeed that we abstract blood. It may, on some 

 occasions, be found of benefit, particularly in severe local 

 inflammation, as in Laminitis, and in Acute Inflammation of 

 the JS'avicular Joint ; but we more than question its utility in 

 such inflammatory diseases as Pneumonia or Pleuritis. "Why 

 the abstraction of blood should prove beneficial in one case and 

 not in the other is, we think, obvious. In circumscribed local 

 inflammatio]!, the blood abstracted is withdrawn directly from 

 the tissues inflamed, as in Laminitis for example, and a far less 

 quantity sufiices to make a direct impression upon the disease ; 

 while in such a disease as Pneumonia, before any impression 

 can be made upon the part inflamed, the blood abstracted must 

 be greater in quantity, because the abnormal quantity of blood 

 which exists in the inflamed organ can only be lessened by an 

 indirect process, i.e. by abstracting blood from the system at 

 large ; and this we find to injure the system and weaken its 

 vital power, without conferring benefit locally ecpdvalent to the 

 injury injlicted upon the organism. In cases of this nature 



