COUNTER-IRRITATION. 
169 
In some cases I do use a little stimulating liniment to 
the sides early in the complaint. I use it as the late Mr. 
John Lawson did, as a diffusible stimulant, to rouse the 
dormant vital powers into action, cause the horse to move 
about, and disperse the congestion which seemed to be 
threatening the lungs. I am a full believer in this treat¬ 
ment, administering, at the same time, a diffusible stimulant 
internally, and applying rugs wrung out of half-scalding 
water over the thorax. 
I am of opinion—and I give this opinion deliberately as 
the result of pretty long and large experience—that where 
we have enormously swollen lobes of the lungs, heavy and 
consolidated, that counter-irritation, however severe and how¬ 
ever often applied, cannot possibly have any beneficial effect 
whatever upon the disease, and in those cases where engorge¬ 
ment has not taken place, where there is simply a loss of re¬ 
siliency in the lungs, counter-irritation is quite unnecessary; 
its tendency is to make a horse feel ill, and be ill, and cause 
an accelerated pulse, increase of fever, and prostration; it has 
a mysterious action on the nervous system, and through it 
disarranging the sensitive and delicate functions of every 
part of the organism. 
I look upon a horse suffering under a painful disease just 
as the late Mr. John Lawson did when he said “ The horse 
is a funky animal; he soon gives up; he cannot stand much 
suffering ; ,} and I believe severe extensive blistering pro¬ 
duces, in the first place, a shock to the whole system, 
especially to the nervous system ; then the pain, suffering, 
and torture he endures reduces his vitality ; it exhausts 
his physical energy and seems to rob him of his very life, 
and often contributes materially to increase the degree of 
fever and affect the whole system, produces a state of sinking, 
and often accelerates a fatal termination. I remember being 
called in by a friend of mine, a veterinary surgeon; he was 
laid up in bed with a severe cold ; he said, “ I have been up 
three days and nights with my horse; I do not think you 
can do him any good ; I think he is sure to die, but do what 
you can for him; he is a high-priced horse. ’ I found the 
counter-irritation had been employed extensively and 
severely ; skin and hair all sloughing off to a considerable 
extent, on both sides; setons over ribs, on both sides, and 
breast. The horse was blowing; pulse 96; loathing all food, 
&c. The opinion I formed was that there was greater 
disease externally than internally. I at once removed the 
setons, gently cleaned off as much as possible of the blister ; 
the patient was relieved, the pulse and every bad symptom 
