400 PHLEBITIS. 
it with a fleam or puncture it with a lancet, and phlebitis will undoubt- 
edly be generated; none of the usual precautions can always prevent 
the misfortune. Such predisposition evidently depends on a determinate 
condition of system which science has hitherto failed to recognize. 
This fact, or eccentricity in the constitutions of isolated horses, ought 
to be generally known. Men have recovered heavy damages in courts 
of law, and blameless veterinary surgeons have been ruined, by circum- 
stances over which the utmost stretch of human precaution could possi- 
bly exercise no control. However, a more extended knowledge concern- 
ing the real origin of this disorder may do some good, since it will guard 
juries from delivering wrongful verdicts, and may tend to check that 
love of venous depletion which is still too prevalent with ignorant horse 
owners. 
There was formerly a great diversity of opinion concerning a supposed 
eccentricity in the facts observed during this disease. If a horse was 
bled in the neck, and subsequently exhibited phlebitis, the brain became 
affected. If an animal was depleted from the fore leg, and displayed 
the disease, the heart became involved. In one case, the disorder pro- 
ceeded from the center of circulation; and in the other, it mounted 
directly toward the organ. <A great many hynotheses were published to 
explain or to account for this imaginary peculiarity. Much nonsense 
was spoken, and more was written, to point out the real cause of an 
imaginary difference. Yet, calmly viewed, the seeming diversity appears 
to agree with the commonest law of nature. Phlebitis always closes the 
vessel at the seat of injury. The disease, therefore, in each case, is pre- 
vented from descending, and consequently ascends above the orifice— 
the only peculiarity being the relative situations of the structures in- 
volved. 
This affection is most common after blood has been taken from the 
neck. That seeming preference for a particular part may, however, be 
nothing more than a circumstance dependent upon the greater number 
of animals which have their jugulars opened. Were the brachial or the 
saphena veins punctured as frequently as the vessel which carries the 
blood from the brain, the apparent difference might appear in the oppo- 
site direction. However, from whichever vessel the depletion is effected, 
always tie the quadruped’s head up, and present no food. A stall is to 
be preferred to a loose box, as the confined space is more likely to pre- 
vent action. Motion is the source of all danger. This fact was aptly 
illustrated by an anecdote which used to be related by the late Mr. Lis- 
ton, the eminent surgeon. In his lecture, that gentleman surprised his 
class by stating that the last person whom he bled perished of phlebitis. 
Bleeding is the most simple operation in human surgery. Most surgeons 
