278 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



were, by magic, almost all at once restored to his senses. 

 Mr. Rickwood has likewise related a case which tells 

 eminently in favour of preferring blood-letting from the 

 temples. Mr. R. was sent for to attend a mare, who had 

 just come in with the Leeds coach, and was seized with 

 staggers. She was wandering about, with dilated pupils 

 and laborious respiration, and symptoms of palsy of the 

 hind extremities. She was bled to twelve pounds from the 

 jugular vein, and had administered an aloetic drink and 

 frequent clysters. The symptoms increasing, both temporal 

 arteries were opened, from which she was bleeding rapidly 

 when Mr. R. was compelled to leave her. The bleeding 

 continued until she became so exhausted as to begin to 

 make a noise in breathing ' as a roarer would make in his 

 gallop.' At length she fell ; after which the symptoms 

 began to subside, and in a few days she was sent home." 



A black mare, who was attacked with phrenitis after 

 concussion of tlie brain, bad been bled copiously twice or 

 thrice from the jugulars without any very apparent 

 beneht. When Mr. Percivall visited her she was lying 

 upon her side, flinging herself about in a state of frenzy, 

 surrounded by spectators, who were betting any odds she 

 could never rise again. He promptly plunged his lancet 

 obliquely into one of her temporal arteries, from which 

 instantly issued such a stream of blood that it seemed 

 quite unnecessary to endeavour to turn her to puncture the 

 other temple. She lay, rapidly and profusely bleeding, for 

 gome minutes, when, to the astonishment of all beholders 

 and despairers, she suddenly sprang upon her feet, gave 

 herself a rustling shake or two, and immediately com- 

 menced eating some hay which happened to be in her 

 manger. In fine, from that hour she was a recovered 

 mare. 



Puro^ation for this disease has ever stood in such high 

 repute with farriers that a common saying among them is : 

 " purge a horse with staggers, and you cure him " ; and 

 this, like many other veterinary adages, appears to have been 

 founded on sound observation. In fact, it is a practice pur- 

 sued by every surgeon in brain affections, with the two-fold 

 view of removing any source of irritation or cause for the 

 head-affection that may exist within the bowels, and of 

 indirectly abstracting blood by derivation and discharge 

 No surer or more effectual cathartic is known than aloes, 



