DISEASES OF THE EYE. 49 
the one case ? and does not effusion follow in the other, in exactly 
the same way as formerly? But what should this asserted change 
in the nature and character of inflammation lead us to infer? It 
is said that inflammation and its results are entirely changed 
within the last thirty years. Itis, then, argued that horses, in all 
parts of the world, since the days of Bain, Youarr, and PER- 
CIVALL, have become so debilitated and deteriorated ; that their 
constitutions have been so altered for the worse ; that, attacked 
by the same lesion, and to the same extent, there is no longer the 
same reaction. If so, where is the evidence of this? 
For my own part, I have earnestly sought for but can not dis- 
cover a shadow of evidence for such a belief. Moreover, I have 
a most lively remembrance of all the facts and circumstances con- 
nected with the bleeding of hundreds of patients, thirty years ago, 
when I first commenced the study of veterinary medicine, and my 
impression is, that not the slightest difference exists between the 
character of inflammation now and what it was then. 
3p Prop.—That the principles on which blood-letting and anti- 
phlogistic remedies have hitherto been practiced are fallacious and 
opposed to pathology. 
Large and early bleeding have been practiced, under the idea 
that, by diminishing the amount of circulating fluid, 1st, the 
materus morbi in the blood would be diminished ; 2d, less blood 
would flow to the inflamed parts ; 3d, the increased quantity of 
blood in the part would be lessened ; 4th, the character of the 
pulse was the proper index to the amount of blood that ought to 
be drawn. Let us examine a few of these principles of practice. 
The increased throbbing and circulation of blood in an inflamed 
part may be shown not to be the cause of inflammation, but the 
result of it, and that the idea of so-called determination of blood 
to inflamed parts is fallacious. Now, if we attend to what takes 
place in the finger from a thorn entering the skin and remain- 
ing unextracted, we find the irritating body first acts upon the 
cellular constitutents—the nerves and blood-vessels of the part ; 
then comes on the congestion and exudation, and, lastly, follows 
the throbbing, which is the evidence of so-called determination, 
and result of the inflammation, and not a cause of it. The blood, 
in this case, instead of being sent by a vis a tergo, is, in fack 
drawn by a vis a fronte, and, as we shall endeavor to show, for 
the most important purposes. But why should Nature, in cases 
4 
