176 LOW FEVER — AND TYPHUS. [BOOK II. 



of either ; nor do we see any good cause for de- 

 viating from this practice upon the present occasion, 

 after the slight distinction just drawn. 



One other general observation may be aptly 

 made in this place, which may stand instead of 

 much discussion hereafter. As fever is a necessary 

 consequence of any inflammation whatever, so with- 

 out fever there would be no inflammation. Every 

 run you give a horse heats or inflames his blood, 

 quickens his pulse, and he sustains temporary 

 fever. Whilst in this state, if any viscus, or organ, 

 that constitutes a vital part of his system, receive 

 such a check or damper as we have described, ob- 

 struction of the finer blood-vessels ensues — as, of 

 the lungs, by their drinking cold water, or mere 

 affusion of it on the chest, and inflammation is its 

 name : if the whole body of an animal or its entire 

 surface be so affected, the evil consequences are 

 similar, and fever is the name by which we de- 

 signate it. Horses out of condition, or already in 

 a low state, though feverish, with quickened pulse, 

 do not require further reduction ; since this is evi- 

 dently "low fever," which we have treated of under 

 a separate head ; as we have also " Typhus fever," 

 or that affection of the whole system which arises 

 from a vitiated or very corrupt state of the blood. 

 But, in all cases, the best guides to the practitioner 

 for his prescriptions, and indeed all his operations, 

 are the causes, the symptoms, general health and 

 peculiarity of constitution of the animal ; when it so 

 happens that such particulars can be extracted from 



