240 MK. YOUATt’s VKTERINARY LECTURES. 
bable that, if my stimulus is not powerful enough to abate the 
first inflammation, it may do more harm than good, by increasing 
or even producing general irritation. Therefore I do not blister 
immediately. I see what will be the effect of my first bleeding, 
and my sedative medicines ; and if I am making some progress, I 
call in the blister to my aid : I prevent the foe from rallying, and 
perfectly accomplish his subjection. Therefore, also, it is that 
our blisters do not sometimes rise. The original inflammation 
has not been weakened. It is more powerful than any stimulus 
we can apply ; and we augur badly when this is the case. 
The way being prepared for the action of a counter-irritant, 
we have recourse to a blister in preference to a seton; and de¬ 
cidedly so, for our stimulus can be spread over a larger surface,— 
there is more chance of its being applied to the immediate neigh¬ 
bourhood of the original inflammation—and, most assuredly, from 
the extent of surface which I can inflame, I can ^pply a quan¬ 
tity of stimulus beyond comparison greater than a seton would 
permit me to do. I might insert a seton in an obscure case; but 
I should be justly deemed an unscientific practitioner if I had 
recourse to one in preference to a blister, in a plain case of 
acute pneumonia. Rowels are frequently excellent adjuvants to 
the blister, but should not be depended upon alone. In the latter 
stage of disease the blister will not act, because the powers of 
nature are exhausted. We must repeat it,—we must rub more of 
the ointment well in,—we must rouse the sinking energies of 
the frame, if we can : the effort, however, will generally be fruit¬ 
less, and the not rising of a blister, in the latter stage of the dis¬ 
ease, may generally be regarded as the precursor of death, and 
especially if it is accompanied by the livid or brown colour of the 
membrane of the nose. 
Care and Attention. —Pneumonia, like bronchitis, requires 
anxious watching. The first object is to subdue the inflamma¬ 
tion, and your measures should be prompt and decisive. If the 
mouth continues hot, and the extremities cold, and the nose red, 
bleed again and again, and that in rapid succession. The good 
which you can do must be done at first, or not at all. When you 
have got a little returning warmth to the extremities, you will 
continue to give your sedative medicines, and without one grain 
of a carminative or a tonic ; and the return of the deathy-cold 
foot will be a signal for further depletion. The commencement 
of the state of convalescence requires the same guarded practice 
as in bronchitis. As many horses are lost by impatience now, as 
by want of decision at first. If you have subdued the disease, let 
well alone : guard against the return of the foe by the continued 
administration of your sedatives in smaller quantities ; but give 
