578 USE OF THE LANCET IN BLEEDING THE HORSE. 
The first thing to be done is to make the horse cough. Press 
the larynx till he coughs repeatedly. If nothing come from the 
mouth or nostrils, he is in no great danger; he has got so little 
in the lungs that he may require no treatment. But if much— 
say three or four ounces of a colic mixture—be coughed up, you 
must bleed the horse till he staggers. Put him into the nearest 
stable. He must not travel a mile. Give him fresh and cold 
air to breathe. Give a gentle laxative, and let him have no food 
but a very little bran mash and hay. Grass is too good. It is 
of importance to keep the horse very low and very quiet. If the 
pulse gets full, hard, and quick, bleed again. Give sedatives and 
diuretics. Let him have no corn till he has lain down two nights, 
and no exercise till he has lain down four nights. Let him 
have tepid water, but no gruel; keep the bowels in order, and 
bandage the legs. Give very strict orders about diet and venti¬ 
lation : the groom is very apt to err in regard to both, and an 
error in either may cost the horse’s life. See your patient every 
day, oroftener, till he begins to lie down. 
ON THE USE OF THE LANCET IN BLEEDING THE 
HORSE. 
By Mr. J. Horsburgh, Dalkeith., N. B. 
I WAS glad to see in the September Veterinarian an Essay 
by Mr. Gibson on Bleeding with the Lancet. I had often been 
thinking of writing myself to you on this subject; and I have 
frequently recommended its use to those in my neighbourhood, 
but without effect. 
Last week I was at Mr. Dick’s establishment, when one of the 
students had to bleed a horse. He was left-handed, and I stood 
to see how he came on. After fumbling about it a good while, 
he hit such a stroke at the fleam that out sprung the blood wdth 
a vengeance, and away went the head of a new, clean, varnished 
beetle— vulgo, bloodstick. He stood glowering at the handle in 
his hand, and wondering where the head had gone, while the 
bystanders were all laughing; when he exclaimed I would not 
have cared but its-’s.” I advised him never to use the 
fleam again, and he would never more break his beetle’s neck. 
The introduction of the lancet was a great improvement; it was 
more convenient to carry than the fleam and the bloodstick ; it had 
a far more respectable appearance, and the person who was a little 
used to it could make as large or small an orifice as he pleased. 
Mr. Dick, however, like Mr. Coleman, recommends the fleam. 
