PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 253 
1st. The Origin of the Pus. 
2d. The Cause of the General Phlebitis. 
3d The Cause of the Enteritis. 
4th. The Cause of the Pleuritis; and, 
5th. The peculiar Characters presented by the Pleuritis. 
Such are the principal questions which present themselves for our 
consideration ; others might be enumerated, but, as they would be of 
a subordinate character, it is unnecessary to specify them. With 
reference to the Origin of the Pus: In answering this question, 
two or three modes of solution present themselves, which I will 
state seriatim, and afterwards fully consider. First, Is it to be 
accounted for on the supposition that, when the animal was suffer¬ 
ing from strangles, a large quantity of pus was secreted in the 
submaxillary space, and that portions were absorbed from thence, 
and deposited where found] or, secondly, was a small portion of 
pus first absorbed from the maxillary tumour, and by its presence 
in the veins excited a consecutive inflammation within its tissues, 
which terminated by the production of more pus, and of its conse¬ 
quent deposition ] or, thirdly, was it the product of inflammation 
generated within the tissues of those parts around which it was 
principally confined I In resolving to which of the above queries 
the origin of the pus is to be ascribed, some difficulty may occur, 
from the fact of its being possible that any one of the three, under 
certain circumstances, might be sufficient to account for it. The 
old physicians held the opinion, that pus could be absorbed from 
one locality and carried to another, and there deposited; which 
opinion, from the following quotation, is still admitted. Dr. 
Watson, in his excellent “ Lectures on the Principles and Practice 
of Physic,” when speaking of phlebitis in the human subject, 
page 308, vol. ii, says, “ Foreign substances entering the blood, 
and failing to pass out of it again through the natural emunctories 
of the body, are liable to be stopped when they arrive at the first 
network of capillary vessels that lies in their course. Now, the 
blood circulating in the veins reaches (much of it, at least) in each 
of its great circuits two such great networks, the hepatic and the 
pulmonary. Through the pulmonary network all the blood must 
pass; through the hepatic, some of it; and it is there, in the ca¬ 
pillary tissue of these organs, that particles of pus, and other ma¬ 
terial substances foreign to the blood and incapable of eliminating 
with the customary excretions, are apt to stick, or be entangled, 
and to excite inflammation. Some of them, however, in general 
pass on, and, arriving at the left side of the heart, are transmitted, 
with the arterial blood, to various parts of the body, there to exer¬ 
cise a similar deleterious influence.” Thus, according to the above 
quotation, we perceive the possibility of pus being conveyed from 
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