380 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



Treatment — However much practitioners may differ on 

 the questions of the origin, specific nature, and organic seat 

 of this disease, there exists httle variation of opinion con- 

 cerning the most efficient mode of treatment. Gorged with 

 blood, distended — to bursting even — by internal effusion, 

 hot, tense, and tender as the limb evidently is when first 

 attacked, nobody can hesitate for a moment to draw blood ; 

 and this ought to be done to an amount that will sensibly 

 impress the system. Abstract two gallons from a horse in 

 condition; one even from a subject not so; and follow the 

 bleeding up by the immediate administration of the 

 following ball: 



Take of Purging mass . . .9 drachms. 

 „ Calomel .... 1 drachm. 



Mix and make into a ball. 



ABSCESS. 



As connected with the skin, we here consider abscess 

 generally. Its particular treatment will be found under 

 Poll Evil, Strangles, and other diseases wherein it occurs. 



By abscess, in its most extensive sense, we mean any 

 collection of fluid which interposes between parts in a kind 

 of sac. In its limited sense, the word represents a collection 

 of pus formed by a quick process of suppuration, and con- 

 tained within a closed sac. When a purulent abscess forms, 

 the following process takes place : An injury, generally a 

 bruise, is received ; part of the vital body is crushed or dies, 

 and nature is desirous to repair the loss, and to cast off the 

 dead substance. The minute vessels of the part are stimu- 

 lated to effuse coagulable lymph within the cellular tissue, 

 the consequence of which is distension or swelling, that 

 here, as elsewhere, produces tenderness and heat, and, when 

 the hair allows us to detect it, a reddened blush. The 

 effusion around the immediate part which is dead thickens, 

 grows vascular, and ultimately forms a closed sac. Arrived 

 at this state, the tumour may take on various changes by 

 peculiar processes within it. The suppurative one is sup- 

 posed to ensue all over the internal sides of the sac, where, 

 by a change in the action of the inflamed vessels, pus begins 

 to be secreted. It then presses against the adjacent 



