244 west or Scotland veterinary medical association. 
any of his cases he said he never found one that he would have con¬ 
sidered it safe to administer aloes. He dreaded this drug much from 
the predisposition this disease had to diarrhoea. He never had any diffi¬ 
culty in getting the bowels to his mind by the administration of 5j 
doses of calomel daily. He also gave Liq. Anion. Acet., and to induce 
diaphoresis he sponged the animal all over with cold water, enveloped 
the body with warm clothing, and bandaged the legs their entire length ; 
and in cases of purpura haemorrhagica, he had been singularly fortu¬ 
nate by this method of treatment. 
Professor Gamgee denied that there was any such disease as purpura 
haemorrhagica seen in the horse, and that the cases Mr. M‘Call referred 
to would in all probability be cases of typhus. 
Mr. M‘Cull said he was aware Professor Gamgee disputed the exist¬ 
ence of this disease in the horse, but he merely used that term as it was 
generally understood. 
Mr. Anderson related a few unfortunate cases that he had treated 
for this disease. His opinion was that its seat lay principally in the 
kidneys. In all the post-mortem examinations he had made he found 
these glands white, soft and flabby; and w^as also of opinion that the 
swellings produced in different parts of the body were caused by the 
urine becoming absorbed into the system, the kidneys ceasing to act. 
Professor Gamgee thought the whole secret to be a poison in the 
blood, and the reason of the appearances of the kidneys after death 
described by Mr. Anderson, in his opinion, w r as owing to their being 
excretory organs, and being partly their duty to relieve the blood of its 
poison, in doing which they became affected. 
Mr. Robinson related a case of influenza, in which metastasis took 
place, the peculiarity being that one foot only was affected; the horse 
appeared to be in great agony, holding up the foot and actually crying 
out. The shoe w T as immediately taken off, the animal freely bled from 
the toe, and the foot poulticed. On the following day he appeared a 
little easier, the bleeding from the toe was repeated, and the case other¬ 
wise treated for laminitis, and ultimately recovered. 
Mr. M'Call inquired of Professor Gamgee what the poison that he 
asserted to be the cause of influenza was. 
Professor Gamgee said, that perhaps this was one of the. most diffi¬ 
cult questions in the profession, as all researches had failed to distin¬ 
guish any difference in the poisons of different diseases ; but that it must 
he one analogous to the poison in typhus in the human subject. 
Mr. McCall could not agree with Professor Gamgee in attributing the 
cause of this disease to a blood poison, but thought it was an excited 
catarrh with derangement of the liver. 
Mr. Steele said, that as this was opening up a new field of discussion, 
and the hour being now late, he thought they had better adjourn this 
subject till next meeting. A vote of thanks was then awarded to Mr. 
Marshall for his valuable paper, and to the chairman. 
Mr. Dunlop proposed that the secretary report the proceedings of the 
meeting to the Veterinarian and to the Edinburgh Veterinary Review. 
Alexander Robinson, 
Sec. pro tem. 
The members then, accompanied by a few of the students now 
attending the classes at Edinburgh, adjourned to the dining-hall. Mr. 
Steele was called to the chair, and the evening w r as spent in a manner to 
aftord much satisfaction to all present. 
