INTKODUCTION. 



25 



When it is thought necessary to employ it, blood enough should be 

 taken to produce a marked alteration in the character of the pulse. The 

 blood should be drawn in a full stream, so as to produce the effect as 

 quickly as possible. If bleeding is resorted to at all, it should be in the 

 very early stage of disease, before the strength fails. 



Bleeding, however, is not a safe remedy. As a general rule it should 

 be avoided; aad if there is any doubt as to its advisability, it is always 

 safer not to bleed. Far more horses are killed than saved by this rem- 

 edy. 



General blood-letting in horses is commonly performed by opening 

 the jugular vein. For this purpose a fleam, Fig. 17, is preferable to a 



Fia. 17. 

 Fleams for blood-letting. 



lancet, for reasons that need not be discussed here. Five to seven quart 

 is a full bleeding, and one such blood-letting from a strong and previously 

 healthy horse is sufficient in nearly all cases. A recent writer on ailments 

 of the horse gives the following detailed directions for bleeding, viz. : 



'' The instruments usually preferred are the fleam and blood-stick, on 

 account of the certainty of tapping the vein to the proper extent, and 

 thus making an opening with mechanical precision — neither too small 

 nor too large. A less scientific substitute is the lancet, which in the 

 eyes of some looks more 'elegant' and 'gentlemanly;' but the days of 

 elegance at the expense of precision and certainty have gone by. 



There are three important points to be observed in the operation. 

 First, it is essential to bear in mind that the skin over the vein is very 

 freely movable, and readily forms a valve at any time between tapping 

 the vein and the final pinning up. Second, the use of a rusty instrument. 



