584 POPULAR LECTURE ON THE PREVAILING EPIZOOTIC 
plainly indicate when to stop, and when to let the stream flow on. 
Small and often-repeated bleedings only injure: they undermine 
the vital powers without producing a commensurate effect. 
Repetition of Blood-letting. — When an amelioration of the 
symptoms does not take place after the first twenty-four hours, 
blood should be again abstracted ; and on the same principle, with 
respect to quantity, as guided in the first blood-letting. 
Counter -irritation . — Blistering the sides is decidedly in every 
case beneficial. By establishing an inflammatory action on the 
external surface, and that, too, so near the seat of disease, the 
intensity of the original inflammation becomes diminished. The 
late John Hunter stated, that “ no two inflammations could exist 
in the system at the same time.” This is the principle on which 
he described the salutary effects of “ counter-irritation.” To a 
certain extent he was right, but only to a certain extent. Arti- 
ficial inflammation set up in one place has, certainly, a tendency 
to diminish inflammatory action elsewhere; but cases present 
themselves daily, where acute inflammation is found to exist in 
different organs and structures at the same time, although even 
the functional sympathy between them seems to be but slight. 
The ordinary horse-blister is ineffectual for neat cattle, in conse- 
quence of the great thickness of their skins. The following formula 
is excellent: — 
Bin-iodide of Mercury four drachms 
Croton Oil eighty drops 
Prepared Lard four ounces 
Blend well into an ointment. 
Previous to applying the blister the sides should be divested 
of hair, by means of the clipping scissors or a razor. The oint- 
ment should then be well rubbed in for at least fifteen minutes. 
State of the Bowels. — Generally, there exists a great degree of 
costiveness. The mucous membrane of the fourth stomach and 
intestines cease to throw out their usual secretions ; the faeces 
accumulate in the rectum, are voided in small, hard masses, 
coated with slime, and of a most offensive odour. From rumi- 
nation being checked, fermentation, frequently after the first two 
or three days, takes place in the paunch, which becomes dis- 
tended with the gases elemented from the accumulated vegetable 
matter during the fermentative process. Eructation is frequent 
in such cases. Many have thought, from the appearances often 
presented by the stomachs and intestines after death, that in 
these organs rested the principal seat of disease. The indigestion 
is merely an effect, and not a cause of the disease. In some few 
instances there is quite a contrary state of the digestive organs, the 
disease being accompanied by severe dysentery. With respect 
to the costive state of the bowels, where calomel is used it is in- 
