690 IRISH CEx\TRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
bronchitis, after death, and I consider that nature alone can work a 
cure by causing the suppurative process round it; in all probability, 
as in phthisis, a small abscess is the result, and it is some time after 
coughed up. 
The treatment of bronchitis .—To be successful in treating this 
disease (like all others) we must first come to a conclusion as to the 
exact form which it presents, and this requires a most careful ex¬ 
amination with the stethoscope. After first using it I generally 
ride the horse a little and examine again, so as to fully satisfy 
myself. 
I will divide my course of treatment into dietary and medicinal; 
the former I look on as the most important, and requires the aid of 
a careful attendant. After I am convinced that all the acute symp¬ 
toms of the disease have disappeared, our object should be to get 
the digestive apparatus into as perfect a state as possible, and to 
give then only such food as can be easily digested, and which will 
occupy as small a space as possible. I have made my patient live 
almost completely on oats and water, and with the most marked 
benefit. I give, say, four small feeds in the day, or even the same 
quantity divided into five, and as often giving a small drink of 
water, but never allowing the horse to gorge himself in any way, 
but more particularly with fluids ; the hay in small portions, and I 
have found it, cut when good and sweet, to answer well. If horses 
eat their bed, turf mould or sawdust may be used, or a muzzle kept 
on when not feeding. 
Medicinal agents in general have not those satisfactory effects on 
the lungs as on other special organs. I usually commence my 
treatment by administering a purgative, and during its action give 
plenty of linseed gruel to assist it, and immediately after a strong 
cantharides blister to each side, and in some cases along the course 
of the trachea. 1 have tried four different courses of medicine, 
namely, calomel, iodide of potassium, linseed-oil and Carrigean 
moss ; the last I look on as the most successful, and, in some cases, 
almost a specific. I claim it as a remedy of my own, as its use 
originated with myself in this way:—Knowing that it had a bene¬ 
ficial effect in some lung diseases in the human subject, about three 
years ago I thought of trying it in my practice. Since then I have 
almost constantly used it, and with the most marked benefit, in re¬ 
lieving not only the cough, but changing its tone and frequency, 
and if continued with other treatment, almost removing all the 
symptoms. I will not go so far as to say that it is a cure—I have 
not been convinced of that myself; but this I will affirm, that at 
present 1 have two or three horses which I have treated with it, 
suffering from chronic bronchitis, and which their owners con¬ 
sidered broken-winded, now doing ordinary work, and compara¬ 
tively speaking sound. I use it in the liquid state, as a drink or 
over a mash to moisten it, by boiling down about one pound of the 
common moss to a gallon of water, until it sinks to the bottom, 
when it should be strained and allowed to cool, and given in some 
time after. At first horses wull not partake of it freely, but I use a 
