PRESENT STATE OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 667 
is one that absolutely requires it, and that the professional man 
would do it on his attendance, what are the consequences of per- 
forming it before his arrival? We will suppose, fora moment, 
that it was one of congestion of blood in some internal organ or 
surface, and that your bleeding has relieved that symptom of the 
complaint; you have then removed that which would have made 
the case perfectly intelligible to him if he had seen it previously 
to this venesection, and you leave it comparatively (it may hap- 
pen) a case of doubt and darkness. But if, on the other hand, 
your bleeding chances to be altogether improper as a remedial sys- 
tem of treatment, or there has been an impropriety in the measure 
as to deficiency or excess, you have then detracted materially from 
his chance of succeeding, though it is generally expected that 
he must take your misadventure into his own share of the respon- 
sibility. I would also urge on you the impropriety of pressing 
the veterinary surgeon in attendance to perform the operation, as 
is too commonly the case when he displays reluctance to do so. 
Every well-instructed practitioner will do this when his judg- 
ment directs it ought to be done. But there have been thousands 
of instances in which he has yielded to the prejudices of his em- 
ployers against his own better judgment, and where death has 
supervened as a consequence of it. I can painfully call to mind 
two or three instances in which I have done it from this reason, 
and when I as certainly caused the death of the animal by the 
operation, as if I had passed a bullet through his brain. I 
never allow myself to be persuaded now, though I am often cri- 
tically situated ; for so great has been the rage for bleeding, that 
nothing but complete success can always convince my employers 
that my practice is the correct one. Let us just glance at a case 
of inflamed lungs, where bleeding, bleeding, bleeding, has gene- 
rally been held to be the sheet-anchor. In the early part of the 
attack, where congestion is the leading symptom, the practical 
man will avail himself of the advantages of venesection to an ex- 
tent of which he, and he alone, will be able to appreciate the 
advantages. Probably, on his succeeding visits, he will find the 
inflammation extending to serous or mucous membranes, or it 
will present indications of having assumed a typhoid character, 
or it may be going on to effusion. It matters not; let the owner 
have been once convinced that the case is one of inflammation, 
and evidently not progressing to convalescence, and he will as 
assuredly urge you to bleed. You will be told, perhaps, that the 
horse has been blowing hard — that his pulse is too rapid. I would 
never bleed after the first, time for these reasons, without there 
were other indications sufficient to convince me of its absolute 
necessity. I have seen it in scores of instances, where, instead 
