IN VERTIGO. 
259 
of great antiquity; it was contained in every popular work, 
whether original or borrowed from the famous medico-physiology 
of the Greeks ; it was supported by every mode of reasoning and 
illustration, more or less plausible, which that system could 
offer to the partizans of the ancient mode of treating vertigo; 
and the detractors of the method prescribed by Gilbert, the pro¬ 
fessor of Alfort, who, in a treatise full of new and profound views, 
has deprecated not only the abuse but even the most moderate 
use of bleeding in vertigo. Let it be remembered also, that far 
from admitting many varieties of this malady, he recognized ver¬ 
tigo as dependent solely on some morbid state of the digestive 
organs. 
The following are cases that have occurred in my practice :— 
CASE I. 
On the 3d of May 1816, at eight o’clock at night, a horse 
belonging to the first Grenadier Regiment of the Guards was 
suddenly attacked with vertigo, with many of the characters be¬ 
longing to the variety then termed stomach staggers {indigestion 
vertigineuse). He was bled largely at first by amputation of 
the tail, and afterwards from the jugular. Four setons were 
inserted in the neck—cold water was thrown on the head—many 
purgative drinks and injections were administered—but all with¬ 
out avail. The horse died at the expiration of thirty-six hours. 
CASE 11. 
May 27th .—Another horse in the same stable was attacked 
by vertigo, and died in three days after being bled, and treated 
in the same way as the other. 
CASE III. 
From the Ist to the 10th of May 1817, I had a horse under 
treatment that had been violently attacked with vertigo. I bled 
him largely, and administered two drachms of emetic tartar and 
an ounce of aloes. There was a marked remission of all the 
symptoms, which continued until the 4th, when the disease re¬ 
turned with its former violence. The horse was bled again, 
and led to the watering-place and bathed, at the somewhat im¬ 
perative suggestion of an influential amateur. He was scarcely 
in the water when he was seized with a fit more dreadful than 
any of the preceding, and he would infallibly have been drowned, 
had we not dragged him out by force of ropes and arms. The 
emeto-cathartic given at the commencement of the attack was 
again administered. He was calm for three days, when he again 
relapsed, and died on the 10th. 
