i 
344 MR. YOUATT^S VETERINARY LECTURESi. 
bleed j but remember that you have not to do with an acute dis¬ 
ease, or with a constitution the strength of which is not sapped ; 
your chief dependence here will be on that mode of depletion 
which I reprobated when speaking of acute disease. The exa¬ 
cerbation of inflammation you must endeavour to subdue, but 
you must not exhaust a constitution already debilitated. Small 
bleedings of one or two quarts, cautiously regulated by the pulse 
and the nasal membrane, and omitted when the one is quieted 
and the other becomes pale, will be exceedingly useful. Counter- 
irritants can never do harm, and these should be in the form of 
blisters, and not of rowels or setons; for you probably are com¬ 
batting a disease or disorganization of the whole or the greater 
part of the lung, and the counter-irritant should spread as much 
as possible over the affected part. Sedative medicines should be 
perseveringly administered, and here, as in acute inflammation, 
our chief dependence will be placed on digitalis. Its action on 
the circulatory system in the horse cannot for a moment be dis¬ 
puted. It should be given in doses of one or two scruples, until 
a slightly intermittent pulse is produced, and that state of the 
circulation should be maintained by minuter doses. As a diuretic, 
nitre may be added, and the pulvis antimonialis as a diaphoretic. 
Any tonics here ? Yes, the tonic effect of mild and nutritious 
food—green meat of almost every kind—carrots particularly— 
mashes—now and then a malt-mash. Nothing further than 
this ? You may try, but very cautiously, those tonics w'hich 
stimulate the digestive S 3 "stem, yet comparatively little affect the 
circulatory one. Small doses of camomile and gentian may be 
given, but carefully watched and omitted if the flanks should 
heave more, or the cough be aggravated. Iron is not admissible 
in any stage of chest affection, or at least I can truly say that I 
have rarely given it without repenting that I had done so. 
Conclusion, —After all, the treatment of phthisis is a most un¬ 
satisfactory subject of consideration as it regards the practice of 
the veterinarian. If, after the human being has been subjected 
to medical treatment for a long course of time and at very con¬ 
siderable expense, he so far recovers that life is rendered tolerably 
comfortable to him, he and his connexions are thankful and sa¬ 
tisfied, and he will submit to many a privation to ward off the 
return of a disease, to which he is conscious there will ever be 
a strong predisposition : but the case is different with the horse ; 
and this, the scope and bound of the human practitioner’s hope, is 
worthless to the veterinarian. His patient must not only live, 
but must be sound again. Every energy, every capability must 
be restored. Can we cause the tubercles of the lungs to be ab¬ 
sorbed ? Can we disperse or dispel the hepatization ? Can 
