257 
ON THE DANGER OF BLEEDING, AND THE AD¬ 
VANTAGE OF ADMINISTERING EMETIC TAR¬ 
TAR IN STAGGERS (VERTIGO) IN THE HORSE. 
Bi/ M. Philippe, ilf. F. , Milita ire. 
The frequent occurrence of vertigo (staggers) in the horse, 
and (whether from the serious character of the disease, or the 
nature of the treatment which is employed, or the difference of 
opinion which exists as to what that treatment ought to be) the 
frequency with which it bids defiance to all the resources of art, 
induce me to relate some facts that have occurred in my practice. 
At the commencement of my career, fully imbued with the 
doctrines which I had learned in the schools, I employed vene¬ 
section, emetic tartar and aloes, setons or vesicatories, and 
lotions of cold water on the head. From the absolute failure 
of success in the cases in which I had seen this mode of treat¬ 
ment adopted, I ought to have foreseen that such means could 
have little good effect; but, seduced by the brilliant illusions of 
theory, 1 persisted in the employment of them, and in the space 
of ten years I thus treated twenty-three horses, twenty of which 
died, and the three others remained in a comatose, debilitated 
state, to which farcy or glanders soon succeeded. 
It was not until 1833 that I changed my plan of treatment. 
A mare named La Fortune, belonging to the 11th regiment of 
artillery, eight years old, and exceedingly fat, was, on the 13th 
of May, attacked with vertigo. She was continually in motion, 
knocking and pressing her head forcibly against the wall, and 
had thus already wounded her head in various places. She was 
led with difficulty to the infirmary, which was only a little way 
from the place in which she had been standing. The pulse was 
full, hard, and slow—the conjunctiva highly injected—the pupils 
dilated—the dorso-lumbar portion of the spine inflexible, and she 
was perfectly unconscious of surrounding objects. I was about 
to bleed her, when, reflecting upon my former experience of the 
inadequacy of this measure, I determined to adopt other means. 
A few days before I had been talking of this disease with my 
intimate and valued friend M. Crepin, and he had informed 
me of the success which had attended his adoption of the plan 
first recommended by M. Gilbert—abstaining from bleeding, and 
giving emetic tartar. Encouraged by his advice, I gave La For¬ 
tune an ounce of emetic dissolved in a pound and a half of the 
infusion of the flowers of the Linden tree. After having cast 
the animal, and inserted a seton on each side of the chest, an 
injection of an ounce and a half of aloes was thrown up, and 
VOL. VIII. N n 
