TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD IN THE IIORSE. 263 
eastern coast than on the western, or in the midland Counties. 
In Dublin it was very fatal, and in most of the cases which I 
was called on to see I found intense debility, which in some 
instances had come on within a few hours after the disease 
had first manifested itself. Horses were seen to eat their food 
in the morning with every appearance of health and good 
spirits, and before evening they were found resting against 
the side of their stables for support ; so rapidly had debility 
followed the first symptoms of the disease. 
With all these cases the principal difficulty was to support 
the strength, watching at the same time closely the symptoms 
which manifested themselves as the case progressed. Some- 
times the urinary organs became affected, and repeated eva- 
cuations caused the patient to sink rapidly. In others the 
bowels were involved, and to such an extent as to resemble 
bad cases of cholera in the human subject; but the worst 
forms of this disease that I witnessed were those in which the 
animals had been bled previously to my having seen them. 
With those cases which had not been bled, I had, in treating 
them^ an average amount of success ; but in most of those 
that had, I am bound to admit, I was by no means so fortu- 
nate. I found that everything I could do to restore the vital 
powers was, in the majority of cases, useless, and, save in the 
instance of some young, vigorous horses, collapse set in within 
a few hours after the abstraction of the blood. 
I gave a fair trial to all the usual remedies. In cases where 
influenza had assumed a typhoid form, and in which the lead- 
ing symptoms were a feeble^ thready pulse, quick and la- 
boured breathing, cold extremities, clammy mouth, drooping 
eyelids, utter prostration of strength, and, in short, the usual 
symptoms of collapse, especially such as had been reduced to 
this state by loss of blood, or by excessive purgation, I was 
generally unsuccessful. Discouraged by repeated failures, I 
determined to try the effect of “ transfusion,” believing it to 
be a not unnatural restorative, especially in cases where the 
improper abstraction of blood had superinduced the symptoms 
above alluded to. 
To enable me, therefore, to give this operation a fair trial, 
I commenced a series of experiments, so as to discover the 
simplest, safest, and most effectual method of conveying 
blood from one animal into another : I first tried the trans- 
fusion syringe, which has been used by medical practitioners 
for this purpose ; but, whether from want of skill in its use, 
or from some defect in the instrument (which had been 
recommended to me as one of the best), or from some other 
cause, I cannot tell, but certain it is I was in no case so sue- 
