DISEASES OF RESPIRATORY PASSAGES AND ORGANS. I17 
ment, that the patient shall be placed in a comfortable shed or 
barn, where pure air abounds; for, under such circumstances, 
the cowperation of Nature in the cure of the malady is secured. 
Should the disease be of an acute character, it will be accom- 
panied by quick or labored respiration, and a strong, wiry pulse. 
In that event, I should give two drachms of the tincture of gel- 
seminum. The brisket and sides of the chest are to be rubbed 
occasionally with mustard and vinegar. This acts as a counter- 
irritant, and diverts the blood from the lungs to the surface. It 
wa: customary, in former years, to bleed and purge almost all 
animals when attacked with acute pneumonia; but as the mor- 
tality was then very great, and less under a more rational sys- 
tem, we are led to believe that bad treatment was the cause of 
our want of success. Two or three doses of gelseminum, given 
at intervals of six or eight hours, will, together with the elapsed 
time, have a tendency to modify the affection. Then active medi- 
cation is to be suspended, and we immediately give life-sustaining 
agents, which consist of pure air, water, proper food, tonics, and 
stimulants. The best tonics and stimulants that I know of 
are powdered golden seal and ginger, equal parts. Dose, half 
an ounce night and moruing, as a drench; or two ounces, night 
and morning, of the fluid extract of resin weed may be substituted. 
The animal should have one ounce of powdered chlorate of potass 
every twelve hours, until it is evident that convalescence is ap- 
proacning, or has actually set in, when it may be discontinued. 
The best way to administer the chlorate of potass, is to dissolve it 
in a few quarts of linseed tea, or an infusion of slippery «lm, 
which should be kept in a bucket before the animal until he has 
partaken of the whole of it. The chlorate of potass is also indi- 
cated as a valuable agent in the treatment of all lung affections, 
including pleuro-pneumonia and pleurisy ; its use is to be discon- 
tinued, however, when the urinary secretion becomes much aug- 
mented, or it may overwork the kidneys. Chlorate of potass acts 
18 a sedative to the nervous system and to the circulation, and is a 
ttirzulant to the digestive organs and kidneys. For all cases of 
‘ongestive pneumonia, or when the surface of the body is cold, as 
‘well as the lims and ears, warm stimulants are indicated—ginger 
und goiden seal; and, if possible, the body and limbs should be 
clothed, for the purpose of maintaining the natural heat of the skin, 
and of producing an equilibrium of the circulation; for woep au 
