418 VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
of fever, which Mr. Green had said he could subdue without 
bleeding. 
Mr. Green replied, that he should only use the lancet in the 
severer forms of the disease, and where the arterial action was 
very considerably increased. 
Mr. W. Percivall observed, that bleeding is the only means by 
which we can produce an immediate effect upon the system. A 
purgative will not produce its nauseating or depleting effect be¬ 
fore some hours have elapsed. If the first attack be severe, it is 
essential to bleed. Indeed, in every case, he would say that 
bleeding is proper: no harm can result from one moderate bleed¬ 
ing, and that local determination may be prevented which would 
otherwise take place ; at all events, our employer would suspect 
our judgment, if we did not have early recourse to bleeding in 
fever. 
Mr. King only meant to say, that it is not prudent to bleed 
largely at first. The powers of the constitution are sometimes bro¬ 
ken down by a sudden and excessive depletion. When the pulse 
be gan to rise, he would bleed as readily as any man. 
Mr. Spooner asked w hat was the state of the pulse at the com¬ 
mencement of fever ? 
Mr. King. —Very different in different cases ; generally small, 
hard, and often not much increased in quickness. 
Mr. Spooner had found it generally small, but always quicker 
than its natural standard. 
Mr. Hollingswortli asked what was the natural standard ? 
Mr. Green. —Thirty-six, or from thirty-six to forty. 
Mr. Henderson. —In the early stage of fever, we sometimes 
meet with a pulse very quick, but scarcely perceptible. In such 
case he did not usually bleed. A slight purgative medicine and 
w r arm clothing were sufficient. 
Mr. Spooner was not satisfied with this account of bleeding. 
Did it generally, at the beginning of fever, do good or harm ? In 
the case referred to by Mr. Henderson, he certainly should not 
bleed; but he wished to get at some general rule. Was Mr. 
Henderson's case an exception to a general rule ? Was bleeding 
at the beginning of fever good or bad practice ? 
Mr. I ouatt said, that the very definition of fever would indi¬ 
cate the propriety of bleeding in general cases. This inordinate 
action of the arterial system must be abated, and could by no 
means be done so speedily and effectually as by abstraction of 
blood. The cases in which an early and first bleeding, al¬ 
though copious, was repented of, were very rare in any one's prac¬ 
tice ; the cases in which the neglect of bleeding had led to a 
local determination of inflammation, and a fatal result, crowded 
