242 TREATMENT OF PLEURISY AND H i'DROTHORAX. 
of ultimate success ; but if disease previously exists there, I have 
invariably found death to be the consequence. Nitre cannot be 
depended upon as an effective diuretic; and as a febrifuge it is of 
incomparably less value than a medicine that wdll speedily and 
powerfully effect a formation of urine. Tartar emetic is, I think, 
unable to afford us that prompt relief which the urgency of the 
case requires, for I have given it both in small doses continued 
some time, and, for experiment, in the large quantity of 4 oz. at 
once, without producing any effect of which I could avail myself 
at a critical moment; and its combination with nitre will prove of 
little service where the employment of efficient agents is indicated. 
Mr. Black very justly lays great stress on the free administra¬ 
tion of tonics after the operation ; but I must differ from him as 
to the medicines employed. Capsicum and ginger afford a very 
necessary stimulus to the stomach; but to that their effect is 
limited. Gentian and cascarilla may be considered tonics, but 
of far inferior power to the carbonate or sulphate of iron, or the 
sulphate of copper, either of which I prefer. Modern chemistry, 
however, has furnished us with the ioduret of iron, which, in 
doses of from one to tw'O scruples two or three times a-day, with 
of ginger, is the best tonic I have yet met with. 
I have made these observations not with the intention of re¬ 
presenting my treatment as the better of the two, but merely to 
place before the reader a course of procedure which, during four¬ 
teen years’ practice, I have pursued with almost uniform success. 
Occasionally, from a complication of disease, or too long delay 
(for the country practitioner has generally to contend with a 
disease of three or four days’ standing), I have been unable to 
prevent hydrothorax. 
With the full assurance that this will be read with the same 
good feeling as that in which it is written, I remain, 
Your’s truly, F. C. 
ON THE EXPANSION OF HORSES’ FEET, IN REPLY 
TO MR. MORGAN. 
By Mr. C. Clark, London, 
Sir,— It appears that Mr. Caleb Morgan is unwilling to rest 
satisfied with the answer I made to his former communication in 
The Lancet; but, after a six weeks’ silence, when the arguments 
I adduced are in some measure forgotten, he comes forward 
again, to maintain the non-expansion of the horse’s foot, to 
complain of my inexperience, and the sharpness with which I 
have used him ; and to state, in his defence, that he did not seek 
