LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. .265 
such as ammonia carb., apply warm clothing to the skin, and give as much 
pure air as possible to breathe. In the space of some hours afterwards 
the hot stage succeeds the cold, and after a certain space of time my 
patient has a painful expression, dirty mouth, quick breathing, pulse 
hard and quick, exalted temperature, and sore cough. I immediately 
apply a thick mustard cataplasm over all the walls of the chest and 
breast. Over this I place thick paper, and repeat in ten or twelve hours, 
according to the symptoms of relief produced, or continue to reapply 
if the vital and delicate organs within are not relieved in fifteen 
minutes after the second mustard application. I often apply a hot-water 
blanket around the chest and a mackintosh over the blanket on the 
second, third, and perchance the fourth day. I may, in severe cases, 
apply thin mustard cataplasm morning and evening. 
Gentlemen, the medicine I most chiefly rely upon is a draught com¬ 
posed of Belladonna, Spt. Eth., Nit., or Chloric Ether, with Liq. 
Ammonia Acetatis, twice or three times a day, according to the urgency 
of the symptoms, &c., and I continue my treatment until the tempera¬ 
ture is down to 101°, pulse lower, mouth cleaner, secretions and excretions 
more normal, and the appetite and countenance restored to a natural 
condition. 
Fourthly, When should counter-irritation be abstained from ? When 
the powers of life are ebbing, or when you have a weak pulse, blanched 
membranes, as in all cases of hemorrhages; or when a mulberry- 
coloured discharge comes from the nostrils, denoting disintegration of 
the pulmonary tissues. Counter-irritation should also be refrained from 
in eruptive fevers, or when you have an eruption of any kind on the skin. 
In acute laryngitis, when danger of Isuffoeation is imminent, counter* 
irritation on the throat and breast, with belladonna gargles and inhala¬ 
tions, are your sheet-anchors and your safe curative agents. 
Gentlemen, we have yet much to investigate, much to learn, in order 
to overcome morbid action, and if I have awakened your attention and 
interest in reference to this important pathological and practical subject, 
I shall have given an impulse to the advance of our clinical observation. 
I have one request to make to you : receive what I have said in the tone 
of truth. Seek not to dispute, but to prove, to confirm, or correct my 
statements. It has taken some years of close observation and inquiry 
to give the advice upon counter-irritation that I have done to you 
this evening, and much, very much, remains to be done. I trust that I 
shall be assisted by you in the further prosecution of this important 
subject. Be careful how you observe in your clinical practice, and let 
those instructions be engraved upon your minds. Fulness, accuracy, 
and probity should be the eligible characters written upon every case. 
Gentlemen, our sick boxes, our laboratories, are always open—our 
resources are abundant and great. We, the scientific workmen, are never 
at rest. Day and night our brains are endeavouring to unravel hidden 
problems; therefore, in closing, I would say, Continue faithfully to do 
your duty, and our profession will surely be advanced. 
Mr. Storrar said that he agreed in the main with the views so ably pro¬ 
pounded by Mr. P. Taylor in his essay. He said that he had himself 
experienced much benefit from the application of a mustard cataplasm in 
attacks of bronchitis, to which he was somewhat liable; and it was his 
general practice to apply a counter-irritant to the sides and chest in 
pneumonia-bronchitis and laryngitis; he preferred mustard, and did not 
approve of several applications of cantharides blister in such cases. 
Mr. Dacre said that he was once a great advocate of countei -lrntation 
in the treatment of chest affections, but he was now as stiongly anta- 
