VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
159 
Mr. Sewell (the Assistant Professor) advocated the earliest 
recourse to paracentesis, and considered it of the utmost import¬ 
ance to be enabled immediately to detect it. It was an operation 
which, although too seldom successful, never could do harm. He 
had succeeded in two cases. In the first, nine gallons of fluid, 
almost transparent, were evacuated. The horse did well, and 
lived two years. The other horse became perfectly sound. In a 
third case, apparent relief was obtained, and the horse was dis¬ 
missed convalescent, but he soon afterwards died. He had ope¬ 
rated on some scores of horses, but these were the only successful 
cases. He attributed this partly to the late period of the opera¬ 
tion. It could never do harm, except adhesion had taken place. 
There was often very great collapse; the respiration became 
exceedingly laborious after the operation, and continued so for 
some time; therefore he seldom operated on both sides on the 
same day. 
Mr. Field observed, that if only one case in a hundred succeeded, 
the operation was justifiable; but he still thought that it should 
not be resorted to until a large quantity of fluid was accumulated, 
and the horse was threatened with suffocation. 
Mr. Youatt feared that the lungs would then be found in so 
collapsed a state as to be perfectly incapable of resuming their 
healthy functions. 
Mr. Field related a case of effusion in the pericardium, con¬ 
nected with pleurisy. No less than eight quarts of fluid were 
found. The pulse had not indicated this, for it had been only 40. 
Mr. Sewell had found two quarts of fluid in the pericardium, 
but the pulse had been 75, and intermittent. 
The comparative value of setons and blisters in pleurisy was 
then discussed. 
Mr. Sewell preferred the former. They were deeper seated, 
their action was more intense and permanent, and they never did 
harm. Blisters, and even extensive scalds, had sometimes pro¬ 
duced pneumonia. 
Mr. Field had seen a blister on the legs succeeded by inflam¬ 
mation of the laminae. The pneumonia he should attribute to 
another and too frequent cause, the exposure to cold during con¬ 
siderable excitement. The rigor and coldness of the skin indi¬ 
cated the use of blisters. The blood w^as too much diverted from 
the skin : a blister applied to an extensive surface roused the ex- 
halents of the skin to action, diverted the undue determination 
of blood once more' to the surface, and relieved the congestion 
within. 
Messrs. Goodwin and Henderson gave a decided preference 
to the blister in acute pleurisy : the effect was more speedy ; the 
