HYDROTHORAX, THE RESULT OF PLEURISY. 
139 
REMARKS BY ASSISTANT-PROEESSOR YARNELL. 
The above case is a very interesting one, and the recovery 
of the horse may be said to be in a great measure due to the 
correctness of the diagnosis, coupled with the energy evinced 
by Mr. Stephenson in his medical treatment of the animal, 
and the other means resorted to by him. I think, however, 
that this case too would have been more instructive if he had 
favoured us with a little more information—I am sure he 
will pardon me for this freedom—such, for instance, as the 
age of the horse, his condition, and the supposed cause which 
gave rise to the disease, for these, as well as other circum¬ 
stances, must always be taken into consideration in forming 
a prognosis. 
Pleurisy existing on one side only, arising from exposure 
to cold, in a young, healthy horse, is much more likely to yield 
to treatment than a case complicated with other diseases, 
such, for example, as influenza, especially should it have 
assumed a typhoid form. The former, if taken in time, gene¬ 
rally succumbs to rigid antiphlogistic treatment, while the 
latter requires the opposite course of procedure; and in a 
great many instances we lose our patients, even although 
everything be done that science can suggest. 
Mr. Stephenson seems to attach great importance to the 
use of mercury in this affection, and I think very properly 
so, it being guarded, as he says, by opium. But he does not 
say anything about bleeding, which, in the treatment of this 
disease, is the sheet-anchor of many practitioners, both 
human and veterinary. Perhaps this case was not of that 
sthenic nature as, in his opinion, demanded the withdrawal of 
blood, or possibly he may not see the necessity of bleeding 
under any circumstances. For my own part, although i have 
a great aversion to bloodletting, and believe that immense 
losses have been sustained by the practice, nevertheless there 
are cases in which 1 am fully persuaded that a timely with¬ 
drawal of blood tends very much to facilitate a cure. Pleurisy 
I consider one of them. Bleeding is borne better in inflam¬ 
mation of serous membranes than in any other tissues of the 
body, and is often found more beneficial, provided there is a 
tolerance in the animal to lose blood. But if pleurisy is, as 
before said, complicated with disease of an asthenic nature, 
such, for example, as typhoid influenza, in which there is 
always more or less prostration of the vital powers, then, in 
my opinion, venesection must not even be thought of, except 
to forbid it being resorted to. 
