714 
VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
pulse was firm, or if it indicated great irritability, surely bleed- 
ing, cautiously applied, could not be injurious ; he never found 
it so. The pulse alone would decide whether it was or was not 
warrantable. As to purgatives, he was of the same opinion as 
Mr. Field. Where they are given, nine times out of ten the 
animal will sink. They should be avoided, and, generally speak- 
ing, all depletive measures. He was surprised to hear Mr. 
Cheethamsay that he should be cautious how he gave any thing 
to lower the system, and afterwards acknowledge that he gave 
such immense doses of nitre. Where but little medicine has 
been given, and the patient has been turned into a loose and 
open box, he has usually done well ; and with regard to bleeding 
he must acknowledge that, where he did bleed, his patients were 
longer in getting well than some others were from whom he had 
not abstracted any blood. 
Mr. Cheetham . — By means of all the doses of nitre which he 
had given, he had never increased the discharge of urine beyond 
what he wished ; and where he has given it, there has been, and 
it is of frequent occurrence in this complaint, a tendency to 
suppression of urine. He considers it to be a disease of the ca- 
pillary vessels, and, if you dispose of the effused fluid through 
the medium of the kidneys, you contribute to and hasten the cure. 
Mr. Spooner had no doubt as to the accuracy of Mr. Cheet- 
ham’s statements, but he only argued on the broad principle of 
the thing. He was afraid of the debilitating effect of too 
great urinary discharge. There was another point that he wished 
to mention : Inflammation of the vein — integumental inflammation 
- — had it not been far more frequent since the appearance of this 
disease? More horses than usual had been sent to the College 
with phlebitis. 
Mr. Field . — In his experience, there had been very few in- 
flamed veins, because there had been very little bleeding. Even 
pneumonia had frequently been treated without any bleeding at all. 
The disease required a modified antiphlogistic treatment at the 
commencement, and, where there was no prostration of strength, 
he might be induced to take a little blood from the eye-vein, but 
always cautiously, and regarding with terror the collapse that 
might follow. 
Mr. Braby . — All depends upon the indication of the pulse and 
the kind of horse : more blood, and with less danger, can be 
taken from a light than from a heavy horse. He has thought 
that the danger of purgation depended on the nature of the 
drug that was used. He regarded aloes as a very dangerous 
purgative in this case. Even three drachms of aloes (equal 
parts of Cape and Barbadoes) destroyed a horse. 
