ON THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF DISEASE. 
455 
becomes quite secondary in the latter, pleurisy and low fever 
now being most predominant. Again; disease which required 
bold, decided treatment, recovered from it much more rapidly, 
and left less serious consequences, as sequelae. The reverse the 
case, during the latter period : disease slow in its progress, and 
consequently less active ; yielding less readily to treatment, and 
leaving more ill consequences as its results. 
From these remarks it will be apparent how great is the change 
that has taken place. But it is a change that can only be appre- 
ciated and understood by those who have practically witnessed the 
prevalence of the two general conditions ; hence , it is impossible 
to draw any thing like a comparison between them, because they 
were not under the same general conditions. What comparison 
can we make between a disease in which it was absolutely requi- 
site to abstract eight, ien, or even twenty quarts of blood to 
insure recovery, and that in which a state approaching to syn- 
cope is induced by the abstraction of two quarts'! Again; how 
are we to compare states so opposite, that digitalis, which so 
constantly acted as a sedative in the one condition, while in the 
other it almost as certainly acts as a diuretic'! That no greater 
claim to more successful treatment can be asserted is also equally 
plain ; for the average amount of deaths in the two periods I 
have found to be about equal, taking things generally, though it 
must be admitted that, in some instances a very much larger 
proportion of deaths has occurred during the latter than the former 
period. Farther, what comparison can be made between cases 
of which in the one period four-fifths, more or less, required the use 
of the lancet, while in the latter not one-tenth 1 
Every veterinarian of any observation, who has practised through 
the period I have taken, must bear out the truth of what I have 
advanced. And it must be distinctly borne in mind that I am not 
dealing with exceptions, or particular cases, but am taking a 
general view of the two periods, and upon the large scale, founded 
upon observations made in various localities, and at great distances 
apart. I may state, that they extended through the London dis- 
trict, Surrey, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, and Somersetshire. 
Not only upon one animal, but on many ; from man, downwards. 
