ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
355 
The influenza has not yet left us ; it is still prevalent among 
horses in and about the metropolis, affecting, in particular, horses 
with five-year- old mouths, and in many cases at the present time 
combining strangles in its attack. Further experience has con- 
firmed us in our opinion that, in general, those practitioners have 
been most successful who have seldomest had recourse to the 
phleme ; not that we in toto abstain from blood-letting, but that 
we practise it as rarely as possible. A case occurred to us the 
other day, however, in which we verily believe the phleme 
saved the animal’s life. A four-year-old horse was found looking 
dull and unwell at seven o’clock A.M. ; medicine, proper diet, &c., 
was ordered for him. By noon his complaint had so increased on 
him that his respiration had become disturbed and his pulse accele- 
rated, and there were other symptoms of the fever of influenza 
approaching. In the evening he was very ill indeed : breathing 
quick — pulse very quick — tremors — cold and hot fits, & c. Still 
we were unwilling to let blood : endeavouring to allay irritation 
by opium and aether and camphor, by the inhaling of aqueous 
vapour, by liniments and fomentations, poultices to the throat, 
by enemata, &c. Next morning, early, we were called to the pa- 
tient, with the report that he was “ worse” — in “ extreme danger.” 
And so we found him : — panting for breath, with quick and flut- 
tering pulse — mouth hot — skin warm — legs cold — mucous mem- 
branes highly injected. What was to be done I Every thing we 
could think of but one had been tried to allay the irritation and 
quiet the alarming state of the respiration and pulse, and all had 
failed ; that one, let the consequences be what they may, must 
now be put to the test. The jugular vein was opened; dark- 
coloured blood flowed in a moderate stream ; and while it was 
flowing the fingers were kept applied upon the pulse, and the 
countenance and demeanor of the patient most anxiously watched. 
Five pints of blood flowed before symptoms of exhaustion shewed 
themselves : instantly the vein was pinned up. The immediate 
effects of the abstraction were nowise remarkable. Towards noon 
the horse seemed not so uneasy as he had been. The same even- 
ing our impression was he was better. The following morning no 
one doubted of his having been relieved. And from that day he 
