DISEASES OF THE EYE. 49 



the one case? and does not effusion follow in the other, in exactly 

 the same way as formerly ? But what should this asserted change 

 in tne nature and character of inflammation lead us to infer '? It 

 is said that inflammation and its results are entirely changed 

 within the last thirty years. It is, then, argued that horses, in iii 

 parts of the world, since the days of Blain, Youatt, and Per- 

 crvALL, have become so debilitated and deteriorated ; that their 

 constitutions have been so altered for the worse; that, attacked 

 by the same lesion, and to the same extent, there is no longer the 

 same reaction. If so, where is the evidence of this ? 



For my. own part, I have earnestly sought for but can not dis- 

 cover a shadow of evidence for such a belief. Moreover, I have 

 a most lively remembrance of all the facts and circumstances con- 

 nected with the bleeding of hundreds of patients, thirty years ago, 

 when I first commenced the study of veterinary medicine, and my 

 impression is, that not the slightest difference exists between the 

 character of inflammation now and what it was then. 



3d Prop. — That the principles on which blood-letting and anti- 

 phlogistic remedies have hitherto been practiced are fallacious and 

 opposed to pathology. 



Large and early bleeding have been practiced, under the idea 

 that, by diminishing the amount of circulating fluid, 1st, the 

 materus morbi in the blood would be diminished; 2d, less blood 

 would flow to the inflamed parts ; 3d, the increased quantity of 

 blood in the part would be lessened ; 4th, the character of the 

 pulse was the proper index to the amount of blood that ought to 

 be drawn. Let us examine a few of these principles of practice. 

 The increased throbbing and circulation of blood in an inflamed 

 part may be shown not to be the cause of inflammation, but the 

 result of it, and that the idea of so-called determination of blood 

 to inflamed parts is fallacious. Now, if we attend to what takes 

 place in the finger from a thorn entering the skin and remain- 

 ing unextracted, we find the irritating body first acts upon the 

 cellular constituents — the nerves and blood-vessels of the part; 

 then comes on the congestion and exudation, and, lastly, follows 

 the throbbing, which is the evidence of so-called determination, 

 and result of the inflammation, and not a cause of it. The blood, 

 in this case, instead of being sent by a vis a tergo, is, in fact, 

 drawn by a vis a fronte, and, as we shall endeavor to show, for 

 the most important purposes. But why should Nature, in eases 

 4 



