PXEU.MONIA. 117 



■cases all the other parts, when we have to deal with pleuro-pneu- 

 monia. To attempt, in such a work as ours, to explain all the 

 varieties of morbid action arising out of a study of these three 

 forms of pneumonic inflammation would not result in any useful 

 purpose, as it w^ould necessitate a dissertation that after all would 

 not assist the layman to treat and cure his animals, but would 

 probably serve only to perplex and confound; moreover, th^ 

 beauty of the homoeopathic system lies in its simplicity, and in 

 the fact that the various phases of this disease are each discern- 

 ible by the outward manifestations in the form ot symptoms 

 and these, when compared with the drug symptomatology here- 

 after indicated, will prove far more efficacious and effectual for 

 good to the practical horseman than the most profound stud}- of 

 all the intricate pathological developments which ma}^ be observed 

 -during the period this disease, in its varying forms, is making in- 

 road upon the animal system. It is a recognized fact that under 

 ordinary treatment the disease occupies an approximately fixed 

 period of time from incubation to defervescence, and we believe 

 that three weeks is the shortest time this process is recognized as 

 occupying; the questions then that arise are, can the disease be 

 ■entirely aborted if successfuly treated during the initiation 

 period; or failing that, can the subsequent periods of its develop- 

 ment be materially lessened and the cure effected in a shorter 

 time ? From our own experience we believe that both these con- 

 tingencies are capable of realization under suitable homoeopathic 

 treatment; at the same time we distinctly recognize that there are 

 under our own, as under any other treatment, distinctly recogniz- 

 able phases through which the patient has to pass when once the 

 disease has got that hold upon the system that the period has gone 

 by when it might have been aborted during the incubative stage; 

 to the allopath ist the bare suggestion of the possibility that such 

 a disease can be aborted wdien once it has invaded the system will 

 •doubtless sound as puerile in the extreme; at the same time we 

 are satisfied, that though very exceptional from the difficulty aris- 

 ing out of uncertain timely recognition it is quite within the 

 range of possibility or even probability. It is not necessary to 

 refer again to the fact, that inflammation of these organs is gener- 

 ally preceded b_v a chill that declares itself in the form of a com- 

 mon cold any further than as a mere reminder; we shall there- 



