610 
EFFECTS OF DIGITALIS. 
body is expended upon the circulatory apparatus, and in such a 
way as to diminish its power—to curtail or interrupt its nervous 
supply. If the power of the heart be so much decreased that 
its pulsations are not more than one-half the natural number, 
and perhaps the energy or force of those pulsations not more 
than one-half so great as in a state of health, we should most 
certainly expect to find symptoms and post-mortem appearances 
resembling those detailed above : the sinuses of the brain would 
be filled with blood, because the vis a tergo, or the derivative 
power of the heart (whichever be the active agent) is so dimi¬ 
nished, that it cannot force or draw the fluid from those reser¬ 
voirs, and the arterial blood would assume a dark and venous 
tint, because its circulation is impeded, and it traverses its vessels 
in a sluggish manner. Now, since such is the action of digita¬ 
lis—since its chief and primary effect is upon the heart, lessening 
its power, and subtracting from the number of its strokes, and 
since it does not appear to produce any inconvenient results upon 
other organs, except as a consequence of its first action, I not 
only see no plausible reason to deter us from administering the 
drug in the early stages of pneumonia, &c., but, on the con¬ 
trary, I do see many and cogent reasons to induce us to use and 
to rely upon its agency at the very commencement of inflamma¬ 
tory diseases, and more especially of inflammatory diseases of 
the lungs. By way of illustration, let us suppose that inflam¬ 
mation exists in the pulmonary mass; that the increased action 
of the arterial capillaries has induced the flow of such a quantity 
of blood, that the extremely minute vessels which ramify over 
the membrane of the air-cells are in danger of extension beyond 
their tone, and consequent congestion, or rupture ; is it not pro¬ 
per that, if we have a drug whose action will, in some degree, 
arrest the stream, we ought to resort to it ? Certainly it is; and 
that digitalis has this desirable effect, every day’s experience 
tells us; and I am convinced that, wherever it receives an im¬ 
partial trial, its great utility will be acknowledged. 
It is much to be lamented that we have no record of any 
series of experiments performed with the intent of determining 
the action of medicines upon the horse, and our other patients : 
our very limited, and imperfect and superficial, knowledge in 
that respect is a stigma upon the profession at large, but chiefly 
upon the Veterinary College ; and from facts which have recently 
come to my knowledge, there appears to be a systematic deter¬ 
mination on the part of those in power to stifle every attempt at 
improvement on that highly important subject. 
