PURPURA H^^iMORRHAGICA. 93 



trickling from the nostrils and the swellings about the body. As 

 an evidence that purpura is a constitutional disorder it may be 

 mentioned that the temperature, pulse and respiration certainly 

 undergo a change from the normal, though not to such a marked 

 extent as is observed in many diseases of a more pronounced 

 febrile type. The thermometer will, perhaps register 102 or 103 

 degrees; the pulse beats number 60 to 65 and the respirations 25 

 to 30. The appetite is almost invariably considerably impaired 

 and the powers of digestion very weak, while constipation is fre- 

 quently . observed . 



It is a notable and rather remarkable fact that this disease is 

 apt to recur after apparent convalescence, a condition of things 

 more frequently observed in purpura than any other disease we 

 know of; this may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that the 

 blood having undergone such evident change in constitution takes 

 longer to recover its normal condition than practitioners have been 

 disposed to allow, also that there has been a want of a suitable 

 remedy and that hence while nature had been struggling to gain 

 the ascendency she has been blanked in the effort by reason of 

 unsanitary surroundings and the lack of that assistance which 

 can only be secured through the aid of some remedies only 

 recognized by avowed and conscientious homoeopathists. If 

 the disease is not arrested and does not progress to its final 

 termination, the skin over the large swellings on the body becomes 

 cold and hard and ultimately drops -off in dead- looking shreds, 

 sometimes exposing a raw, unhealthy-looking patch; the sheath of 

 the penis is usually swollen to an enormous size, the urine is high 

 colored and smells very offensively, and the breathing is difficult, 

 of a muffling character and is sometimes so oppressed that the 

 horse seems as though he would choke; the difficulty in breathino- 

 is produced by the swollen condition of the membrane lining the 

 nose and air passages, the fact being that the internal organs are 

 affected in a manner quite similar to the external portions of the 

 body; should this condition of affairs continue to get worse and 

 the horse give evidence of suffocation, the only method of relief 

 for the time being is to perform the operation of tracheotomy 

 which consists in making an opening into the windpipe and insert- 

 ing a tube made for the purpose; this of necessity demands the 

 aid of a qualified surgeon. 



