Inflammation, Fever, Treatment. 63 



(wheat bran or oil meal in warm, sloppy mash, carrots, turnips, 

 beets, potatoes, apples, pumpkins ; fresh, tender, green grass or 

 in winter a little scalded hay, may be taken as examples) . Rumi- 

 nants should have no food necessitating chewing of the cud ; 

 thus the roots, etc., should be pulped or boiled, and hay and 

 even grass must be interdicted until rumination is re-established. 

 When food is absolutely refused for days in succession well-boiled 

 gruels of oat-meal, barley-meal, linseed-meal, bran, etc., may be 

 given from a bottle or by injection. Dogs and cats should have 

 only vegetable mush (unbolted flour, barley, or oat-meal) with 

 just enough beef- juice to tempt the animal to eat a little. Milk 

 with an admixture of oxide of magnesia, or even lime-water is 

 often at once palatable and cooling. Drink should be pure water, 

 cool, if kept constantly fresh before the animal, but warmed to 

 something less than tepid if supplied .only at long intervals, so 

 that the thirsty patient is not tempted to drink to excess and chill 

 himself. Rest in a clean, well-aired building, free from draughts 

 of cold air and with a southern exposure, is desirable, especially 

 in winter. The best temperature is usually sixty degrees to sev- 

 enty degrees, especially in inflammations in the chest, and ex- 

 tremes of temperature are to be avoided. Clothing will depend 

 on the weather. In warm weather it may be often discarded, 

 while in winter it should always be sufficient to obviate the access 

 of chill and consequent aggravation of the disease. Whenever 

 the atmosphere can be kept warm only at the expense of impurity 

 it is better to secure the comfort of the patient by the requisite 

 clothing than to subject him to impure air. As the extremities 

 are the first to suffer from cold, loose flannel bandages to the 

 limbs are often imperative. 



Remedies. General bleeding, a great resort of our fore-fathers, 

 has been long all but discarded from modern practice. To-day it 

 is rarely resorted to, except to save from an urgent and extreme 

 danger, as in the plethoric cow merging into parturient apoplexy, 

 or the fat and overdriven horse, gasping for breath and life, in 

 general acute congestion of the lungs. There are other cases of 

 extensive acute and dangerous congestions, especially in a strong, 

 vigorous, and plethoric patient, in which general bleeding is ben- 

 eficial in warding off threatened death ; but sound, discriminating 

 judgment is necessary to its safe employment. When resorted to 



