76 VETERINARY SURGICAL OPERATIONS 



passing into oblivion as did phlebotomy. We are now living 

 in the day of stimulants, tonics, nourishment, hygiene, opso- 

 nins and antitoxins. What will be next? While passing ad- 

 verse judgment on phlebotomy as it was practiced in past and 

 almost forgotten epochs, the operation deserves to be cred- 

 ited with its victories, which were legion. The evil was found 

 in its wholesale application, in its application to enfeebled 

 patients, and the prevailing practice of frequent repetitions 

 as the strength waned. To have discarded it entirely was 

 also an evil, for, in veterinary subjects at least, it is often 

 highly and promptly potent in dispatching certain conditions 

 of a sthenic character. 



It is well known that the abstraction of a limited amount 

 of blood, or even a very large amount, has no harmful effects 

 upon a healthy animal. Instead it improves the general 

 health by exciting the vital forces to renewed activity to re- 

 plenish the loss. In disease, it has various missions, but is 

 especially active in equalizing or regulating the general 

 blood-pressure. When blood flows toward the side of the 

 veins at the expense of the arterial volume and to the embar- 

 rassment of the right side of the heart, the abstraction of a 

 limited amount of blood will often set matters right more 

 promptly than any known drug. If the arteries are too full 

 and the pressure high, venesection acts as a prompt correc- 

 tive. This especially is the case in the first stage of the acute 

 organic inflammations, pleurisy, laminitis, croupous pneumo- 

 nia, hepatitis, enteritis, etc. It is probably a pity that blood- 

 letting has been discarded entirely from the treatment of 

 these diseases, because they often present features in their 

 first stages that certainly call for an action that venesection 

 alone can supply. In congestions and apoplexies, the ab- 

 straction of a liberal quantity of blood will always decrease 

 the impending damage and limit the subsequent changes in 

 the affected tissues. Acute cerebral hyperaemia, acute pul- 

 monary hyperaemia, acute hepatic hyperaemia, intestinal apo- 

 plexy and similar conditions, lack a modern treatment as 

 manifestly effectual. 



Recently phlebotomy has been recommended in the last 

 stages of pneumonia when death from a failing heart be- 

 comes imminent. Here its action in part, is that of reducing 

 the heart's labors by diminishing the volume of blood. The 

 operation is defended on the hypothesis that the capacity of 

 the lungs being greatly reduced by the hepatization, only a 

 limited quantity of blood can be oxidized, and hence the heart 

 handles much blood unnecessarily. Besides, the heart being 



