108 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
of the patient, and finally restore him to health. As will be seen, I 
have left this portion of my subject to be considered last, not be- 
cause it is least in importance, for it is only second to the dia- 
gnosis ; we must first diagnose a disease and then treat it. I wish 
it to be understood that I do not advance any medicine or parti- 
cular mode of treatment as a panacea, but simply wish my remarks 
to refer to the disease generally. 
This beiug a malady of an inflammatory nature and due to ple- 
thora, some of our ancient practitioners advocated depletion upon a 
scale which I think was, or at any rate is now unnecessary. Having 
decided the case to be one of “ humour in the leg,” peremptory 
orders were given to bleed and physic ; the quantity of the blood 
withdrawn and the amount of the latter administered would, I 
opine, be quite enough to drive away the plethora, if it did not do 
anything worse. Really horses in those days must have had con- 
stitutions the simile of iron, for such depletive treatment (whieh 
was sometimes repeated) would almost possess properties solvent 
enough to render that metal malleable if not liquid. I do not 
refute in toto the advantages to be derived from depletion, but I do 
decry it where its use is indulged in to an unnecessary extent ; let 
it be consistent with the circumstances surrounding the patient and 
then it is of the utmost value. 
In some cases we are warranted in the abstraction of blood, and 
in the election of this operation we should be careful in determining 
the circumstances in which our patient is placed. If it be an old 
horse, and there be no particular constitutional disturbance, it would 
be unwise to bleed, and even where such disturbance is considerable 
I should not always advocate bloodletting, as I think it unnecessary, 
more particularly as in very old animals there is a necessity for pre- 
serving the vital fluid for the support of the system, to enable it to 
combat the disease. But this is not the case in younger animals, 
where the tissues and organs are in a better state of tonicity ; there- 
fore their systems are in a more fit condition to withstand snch de- 
pletionary measures. It is in cases where there is a great amount 
of symptomatic fever accompanied by urgent local symptoms, and 
the pulse corded, that I would bleed, and then it should be indulged 
in during the early stages of the disease. 
Whether local or general bloodletting exerts the greatest benefit 
is a disputed point amongst veterinary surgeons ; each mode has 
its supporters, and some even recommend both. I am most cer- 
tainly in favour of general venesection, as, looking upon it as a con- 
stitutional malady, I urge that it is most consistent to attack the 
great bulk of the fluid rather than abstract a small quantity, and 
that slowly, from the locality to which the disease confines itself. I 
should, therefore, select the jugular vein, open it, and allow of such 
a quantity of blood to flow as would alter the character of the pulse 
and the quality of the circulating fluid ; but the question might be 
mooted, why bleed at all ; could not similar conditions be brought 
about by the use of medicines ? Certainly they could, but not in all 
cases, and then not in so short a space of time. In a case of great 
