OBSERVATIONS ON LIEUT. JAMES’S BOOK. 
449 
produce every variety of effect with either , from the slightest 
stimulus to the most active vesication, by merely lessening the 
quantity used, I have had no inducement to try any new appli- 
cation. If I apply only a slight blister I never think of tying 
up the horse’s head, or restraining him in any degree; but if a 
greater quantity of the ung. cantharid. is applied so as to pro- 
duce a severe effect, or ever to raise the cuticle, no argument or 
assertion of Lieut. James will induce me to give the animal his 
liberty, and expose him to the irritation the litter would produce, 
or (to say nothing of the danger of knawing) to the injuries that 
would probably be sustained by the friction produced by the 
horse’s lying down. But, however, as I have not tried the oint- 
ment, I have little to say on the matter. It may, for aught I 
know to the contrary, possess all the remarkable virtues attri- 
buted to it, converting a pain into a pleasure, and, perhaps, by 
its aid, instead of considering the operation of blistering as a 
punishment, it will in future be regarded as a source of gratifi- 
cation and delight*. 
If, however, its effects are so remarkable on the quadruped, 
would it not be proper, humane, and profitable too, to introduce 
the wonderful discovery into human practice. Who is there that 
has ever been tortured by a blister but would hail with de- 
light this new vesicatory, by means of which he can ease himself 
of a pleurisy with such little inconvenience and such great de- 
light. If one fortune has been obtained by the application of 
* Since writing 1 the above I have witnessed a case of the operation of 
Lieut. James’s Blister. A mare belonging to a gentleman was sent to the 
stables of another gentleman (for the sake of convenience) to be blistered 
by the groom on both fore legs, and a pot of James’s blister was sent with 
her. I saw the ointment applied agreeably to the directions. About an 
hour, or a little more, afterwards, being still at the house, I was asked by the 
groom to see the mare, as, to use his own words, she was pretty near mad. 
On going into the stable, the mare appeared suffering the most acute pain, 
such as I have seldom witnessed from the effects of a blister : she was 
scraping the pavement most furiously, and tried repeatedly to bite her fore 
legs, which she was prevented from doing by a double halter ; and I have no 
doubt, if the dangerous experiment had been permitted of letting down her 
head, she would have blemished herself materially. A pony, belonging to 
the gentleman of the house had been blistered with my own ointment the 
same day, and, although of an irritable disposition, he evinced little or 
no signs of irritation ; but the blister afterwards produced considerably 
more vesication than that of Lieut. James. 
I have stated the above circumstance simply as it occurred, “ nothing ex- 
tenuating, nor setting down aught in malice.” I do not wish the point to 
be strained too far. I do not mean to infer that such is the uniform and 
necessary effect of Lieut. James’s blister; but I do mean to state, that in this 
case, which came under my own eye, the assertion contained in his nume- 
rous advertisements was entirely contradicted. 
