302 MR. YOUATT’s veterinary LECTURES. 
here; but in tetanus there cannot be a doubt about the matter. 
You take away the pabulum of the nervous and the muscular 
systems—the life of both—the capability of acting in the one, 
and of being acted upon in the other. Therefore, my advice 
would be—founded both on theory and experience—on the 
first access of tetanus, bleed ; and bleed until the horse falters 
or falls. 
The different Degree of Resistance to the Effect of the Loss of 
Blood. —I have often, gentlemen, endeavoured to impress on your 
minds the change which different diseases produce, temporarily at 
least, in the constitution, as it regards the power of bearing the 
abstraction of blood; and I may add, the perfect change in different 
stages of the same disease, and in the same animal at different times. 
I have had for my object in this, to put an end to the idle and mis¬ 
chievous practice of directing specific quantities of blood to be 
taken, and leaving to an assistant the abstraction of that blood; and 
also to impress deeply on your minds this golden rule—this rule 
without exception—that your bleedings must be regulated by 
the effect which they produce on the circulation. Bleed until 
the pulse falters : if I ever allowed you to go beyond that, it 
would be here. In acute inflammation, and particularly local 
inflammation, and more of a serous than a mucous membrane, 
there is a resistance to the effect of the loss of blood, obstinate 
beyond what you would think possible. I have more than once 
taken away 201hs. of blood, before I could accomplish my object; 
but I have uniformly persisted, and sometimes to the great 
terror of the owner. I have never had occasion to repent of 
having done so. I take this resistance to the loss of blood as one 
of the strongest proofs I can have of the intensity of the inflam¬ 
mation, or the extreme degree of irritability; and as one of the 
plainest indications of the necessity of bleeding, and also an im¬ 
portant guide in my prognosis. Forgive repetition here, for this 
is the corner-stone of all good practice. 
Objections answered. —But do I not diminish that general 
strength which the animal will by-and-by need in order to enable 
him to support the protracted and violent spasm?-—Do I ulti¬ 
mately w^eaken the horse when I bleed him until he drops, in 
order to lessen, or possibly knock down at once, inflammation 
of some vital organ? I should weaken him by suffering the 
disease to prey upon his frame. I should weaken him by small 
and repeated bleedings which sapped his vital power, but 
diminished not in the slightest degree the power of the enemy. 
This is an argument of the old school, and unworthy of the pre¬ 
sent state of veterinary science. The grand principle of veteri¬ 
nary practice—which I shall not have laboured in vain if I can 
