562 FLEAM AND LANCET, CONTROVERSY; [BOOK IV. 



goes on, the animal loses appetite, and he makes no 

 more new blood; the blood then becomes thinner 

 in consequence of the deposit of lymph made in its 

 circulation , and the red part predominates. On the 

 contrary, in low f ever and all languishing disorders 

 of a tardy circulation, in cases of edematous tumour, 

 the watery part is found in the greatest proportion, 

 and the red part is then almost extinct ; in inflam- 

 matory fever the red particles predominate, the 

 water is nearly dried up, and the lymph greatly 

 decreases. 



Instruments. The fleam and blood stick have 

 been attacked as remnants of the old school, but 

 were unjustly stigmatized as a rude method of ob- 

 taining blood. In the hands of judicious persons, 

 the fleam has been found equal to every purpose 

 that was required, and when used adroitly no other 

 means of blood-letting, probably, ever will super- 

 sede it. But during the rage for improvements 

 and new inventions, that prevailed a few years 

 since, they sought to avoid a certain clumsiness of 

 its application by introducing the lancet to general 

 use. True it is, that the awkward method of 

 making two or three aims with the stick, before 

 striking at the fleam, occasions the horse to shy, 

 especially whilst every vessel of the head was swell- 

 ing with blood, in consequence of the application 

 of the ligature round the neck ; and equally true, 

 that careless operators frequently cut through the 

 vein, so as to cause subsequent disorders ; whilst 

 others, again, dangerously wounded the carotid 



