536 IKIN ON THE MINERAL SPRINGS OF GERMANY. 
But, badinage apart, how is it that none of our veterinary 
writers have taken up the subject of warm and cold baths as 
remedial measures occasionally proper to be adopted in certain 
diseases of the quadruped. We should, perhaps, hesitate not a 
little before we had recourse to the cold bath. We should ask, is 
there that degree of power in the system to withstand the sud- 
denness and violence with which the blood is thrown on the 
internal organs? Is there sufficient freedom from internal inflam- 
matory disease to withstand this revulsion ? And is there suffi- 
cient vital power to repel it speedily, and to resist any bad con- 
sequence from the re-action of the system which usually follows. 
As to the warm bath, we do not yet know half its virtues. The 
manner in which it equalizes the circulation, and soothes local or 
general irritability, and restores the action of the skin, and thus, 
by removing oppression, affords a moderate but salutary stimulus 
to the frame — the veterinarian has yet scarcely thought of this. 
He values the local application of steam in more cases than one ; 
but he has not sufficiently considered the general, and salutary, 
and permanent impression which might be. effected. He wants 
to see, some half dozen times, the sudden, the almost magical 
change produced in the circulation and respiration of the bitch 
over-dragged by a large litter of puppies — the change from 
hurried breathing, and death momentarily threatening, to quiet- 
ness and comfort, and that effected in the space of one quarter 
of an hour ; he wants to see this some half dozen times, in order to 
compel him to inquire seriously whether greater advantages' may 
not be derived from these applications. In our patients, it is the 
difference of temperature in the water which alone can do good 
or harm : the mineral ingredients which the water may contain 
can be of little consequence, considering their thick skin, and 
that skin covered with hair. But we do not mean to enter, in 
good earnest, into the subject ; we are merely throwing out some 
loose hints. There was a vapour and a cold bath erected some 
time ago at the Royal Veterinary College. To what extent have 
they been tried ? What has been the effect ? A private prac- 
titioner had something of the same kind. Did he succeed ? 
Y. 
ON THE EXPANSION OF THE FOOT OF THE HORSE. 
Bij Mr. C. Clark, London. 
Considering the very high importance of the subject of 
shoeing, and the great number of books and divers opinions 
which were published about it at various times since the esta- 
blishment of the Veterinary College, I think you must have ob- 
