170 
COUNTER-IRRITATION. 
presently subsided, and the case recovered. I have no hesi¬ 
tation whatever in saying, had the former treatment been 
continued a little longer, the horse must inevitably have 
succumbed. 
I am not for one moment questioning the fact that there 
are some unhealthy subjects with bad stamina in them, or 
some chronic disease on them. When they become attacked 
the disease will go on from bad to worse until they die, 
whether we use counter-irritation or not; nor need we be 
surprised at this, for are we not told that “Two men shall 
be labouring in the field—one shall be taken and the other 
left; two women shall be grinding at the mill—one shall be 
taken and the other leftbut what I maintain is this, that 
we give nature a much better chance to weather the storm 
and recruit her shattered energies if we save her the torture 
of adding to her suffering, which must inevitably accompany 
severe and extensive counter-irritation, never forgetting this 
great truth, that, in our struggle for life, the practitioner 
who has the least per centage of recoveries is likely to go to 
the wall, and vice versa . 
Cool Air or Warm Air for Pneumonia or Congestion 
of the Lungs .—Mr. Hopkins ably advocated warm, dry air 
in cases of pneumonia in the horse. No man living has 
greater reason to believe in warm, dry air than I have ; it 
has saved my life over and over again in sudden attacks of 
extreme difficulty of breathing. When I could scarcely inhale 
a thimbleful of air into my lungs —when I have had to place 
my mouth close to the fire, so as to inhale the heated rare¬ 
fied air—in a few minutes my lungs would relax, and in half 
an hour I could breathe with ease and freedom. I have 
thought, by parity of reasoning, that my horse patient must 
be benefited in like manner. I have, on more than one 
occasion, taken my patient, when suffering from an attack 
of congestion of the lungs in its earliest stage, into a saddle 
house, in which was a fire, and in which place a fire had 
been burning for weeks, day and night. The air, as dry as 
it could possibly be. I have tied my patient's head within 
three and a half yards from the fire for three days and nights. 
I carefully noted the number of respirations and pulsations 
before he went in, and several times a day while in this 
place; but he did not experience the slightest benefit from 
it. I have placed other patients suffering from confirmed 
pneumonia in the same place with the like results. The 
conclusion I have come to is that warm air is not suited to 
the constitution of the horse when affected with either con¬ 
gestion of the lungs, pneumonia, or bronchitis. I am in 
