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COMPTE RENDU OF THE 
itself to the mind of the observer, that which he instinctively 
obeys, induced as it is by such palpable symptoms, is the necessity 
of bleeding ; and in an immense majority of cases the treatment is 
commenced by this operation, and continued by the employment of 
such medicinal agents as are supposed to be peculiarly efficacious 
in counteracting inflammation of the lungs. In these cases, which 
are those most commonly met with, the cure, if one be obtained, is 
produced by a conjunction of influences, amid which it is difficult 
to recognise the limits of the part played by each individual one. 
These reflections become necessary, to account for the hesi- 
tation we feel in pronouncing on the specific action of antimony in 
pneumonia in the horse, notwithstanding many years of study 
and experiment. We are now about to give a summary of the ob- 
servations we have made on this medicament. 
24. Emetic tartar, when administered internally, completely 
dissolved in fluid, is a drug which seems to be more tolerated by 
the animal economy of the horse than any other ; in fact, if the 
dose is moderate, scarcely any effect is manifested, by any appre- 
ciable signs, even to the most attentive observer ; and the effects 
which it produces when administered in very large doses are, in 
general, far from bearing any relation to the powerful influence 
which this tonic agent is known to exercise over the human 
economy. 
25. This normal unsusceptibility of the economy of the horse to 
preparations of antimony, and to the one most of all used, viz. emetic 
tartar, is one of the principal causes of the difficulty which pre- 
sents itself in endeavouring to appreciate their therapeutic in- 
fluence. How can we estimate the salutary action of a drug when 
the symptoms characteristic of its influence upon the organization 
are scarcely perceptible in a state of health; and in a morbid state, 
disguised by excessive derangements occasioned by the disease 1 
We shall endeavour to reply to this question by studying the ac- 
tion of tartarised antimony on a healthy and on a diseased animal, 
separately; and, in order to regard it under all its aspects, we shall 
successively examine all the modifications the various functions 
undergo while subject to the influence of the medicine. 
The Digestive Canal. 
26. Given in a moderate dose, that is to say, from two to eight 
or ten grammes*, emetic tartar, generally speaking, does not exercise 
any very sensible or appreciable influence upon the digestive ap- 
paratus, at least during the first days of its administration. The 
animal drinks the water which holds it in solution without mani- 
festing any disgust for the flavour communicated to it by the drug, 
* A French gramme is equivalent to 15*438 grains troy. 
