VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
711 
is so much irritation on the skin, will there not be irritation every 
where ? and must not this be speedily followed by prostration of 
strength ? It is not at all necessary to look for organic disease, 
or to the suspended influence of the brain, in order to account 
for the extreme prostration of strength which attends every 
case. 
With regard to the duration of the disease : — the crisis will 
generally occur about the fourth or fifth day, if the animal has 
not been injudiciously treated, i. e. if purgatives have not been 
administered, and he has not been too largely bled. Until we 
get the natural serous effusion into the skin ; until the skin be- 
comes softened, relaxed from the state of tension produced by 
the inflammation, we cannot get rid of the disease. 
What are the causes of this disease ? I confess that I am not sa- 
tisfied about this matter. I am inclined to believe that they are 
some miasma, and atmospheric influence, acting conjointly. The 
exciting cause may be wound and irritation ; but I know not 
what to say satisfactorily of the predisposing causes. 
I come now to the treatment of the disease. Our duty con- 
sists in placing the skin in an opposite state or condition. If 
there is great inflammation and tension of the skin, and no par- 
ticular local tumour, how shall we obtain relaxation of the skin, 
and thus remove the pain ? We soak the legs in tepid water — 
we use repeated warm fomentations, and thus endeavour to re- 
store the obstructed perspiration ; and in this state of fever, 
exposure to the air has a great but most beneficial influence in 
abating the pain and reducing the temperature of the skin. 
Although these two modes of treatment appear so different, they 
effect the same salutary object. 
What shall I say of medical treatment? If there be such an 
utter prostration of strength, surely I cannot advocate the cause 
of bleeding? In the cases in which I have not bled, my pa- 
tients have become convalescent much sooner than where I have 
had recourse to venesection ; and when bleeding has been em- 
ployed largely, from the supposed extremity of suffering, col- 
lapse has taken place about the fourth day, and the animal has 
sunk. As regards other means, the use of diuretics almost to 
any extent is allowable. 
As regards the stimulating plan, it is decidedly the best. The 
nitrous ether is an admirable remedy ; it is a stimulant and a dia- 
phoretic. We want to excite again the action of the skin that 
has been suspended, and, according to the order of the symptoms 
and the nature of the case, warm applications, and cool and 
fresh air, and the spirit of nitrous ether, are our best and most 
effectual means. 
