PUERPERAL FITS. 503 



labouring, it is because others are suddenly and perfectly ex- 

 hausted; and by abstraction of the vital current he reduces this 

 last hold of life to the helpless condition of the rest. "There is 

 not a more common or fatal error than this. 



" The veterinary practitioner is unable to apply the tepid bath 

 to his larger patients, in order to quiet the erethism of certain 

 parts of the system, and produce an equable diffusion of nervous 

 influence and action ; and he often forgets it when he has it in 

 his power to save the smaller ones. Let the bitch in a fit be put ' 

 into a bath, temperature 96° of Fahrenheit, and covered with 

 the water, her head excepted. It will be surprising to see how 

 soon the simple application of this equable temperament will 

 quiet down the erethism of the excited system. In ten minutes, 

 or a quarter of an hour, she may be taken out of the bath evi- 

 dently relieved, and then, a hasty and not very accurate drying 

 having taken place, she is wrapped in a blanket and placed in 

 some warm situation, a good dose of physic having been previ- 

 ously administered. She soon breaks out in a profuse perspira- 

 tion. Everything becomes gradually quiet, and she falls into a 

 deep and long sleep, and at length awakes somewhat weak, but to 

 a certain degree restored. 



" If, then, all her puppies except one or two are taken from her, 

 and her food is, for a day or two, somewhat restricted, and after 

 that given again of its usual quantity and kind, she will live and 

 do well ; but a bleeding at the time of her fit, or suffering all her 

 puppies to return to her, will inevitably destroy her. 



" A bitch that was often brought to my house was suckling a 

 litter of puppies. She was foolishly taken up and thrown into the 

 Serpentine in the month of April. The suppression of milk was 

 immediate and complete. There was also a determination to the 

 head, and attacks resembling epilepsy. The puppies that were 



