72 SYMPTOMS OF IXFLA.MJLA.T10N. 



It is well known that tlie LufTy or sthenic appearance of the 

 blood depends greatly upon the manner in which the' blood is 

 drawn. If this is done in a full stream, these characters are ever 

 present in the healthy horse; but if the" stream be slow, and if 

 the blood runs down the side of the vessel, there will be little 

 or no buffy appearance. The form of the vessel into which 

 the blood is received, and its temperature, will also affect the 

 process of its coagulation. Therefore, as already mentioned, the 

 mere appearance of the blood is not a guide to the repetition 

 of the bleeding As a rule to be safely followed, one good 

 bleeding from a strong and previously healthy patient is suflfi-. 

 cient in nearly all cases. 



Epizootic influences are opposed to blood-letting, and in 

 epizootics of all kinds, even if the temperature indicates high 

 fever, above 10-i° F., we should not hastily have recourse to the 

 ilcam, but should remember that the disease depends on a mor- 

 bid poison, has a course to run, and is not an>enable to the mere 

 abstraction of blood. "When the inflammatory fever has been 

 insidious, so that the first stage has passed over unchecked, o^ 

 modified by previously existing constitutional disease, or com- 

 plicated with organic local disease ; or when they denote debility, 

 exhaustion, or the so-called typhoid state, they generally prove 

 improper cases for blood-letting, even when seen witliiij tliQ. 

 fu-st few days." — (AlTKEN.) 



The next important class of antiphlogistic agents in the 

 treatment of many inflammations consists of purgatives, more 

 espociaUy the aloetic in the horse, saline in the ox and sheep, 

 and of jalap or castor oil in the dog. (1.) They act by remov- 

 ing from and freeing the intestinal canal of accumulated food 

 and {voces, or other irritating and acrid matters. (2.) They sub-' 

 due the inflammatory tendency by causing a discharge of a large 

 quantity of serous fluid charged with albumen. They direct 

 large quantities of blood to the intestinal mucous membrane, 

 juid they determine to the same- surfaces a large amount of 

 nervous influence, and thus act on the principle of derivation,' 

 iThey diminish effusion, and check the force of the heart's' 

 action. Aloes, in virtue of its nauseating properties, is most; 

 valuable. 



Tho use of purgatives is indicated in inflammatory fever 

 arising from all external injuries, unless thev be of su3h graWty 



