LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 267 
relief, and in adynamic paralysis I would rouse my patient by a counter- 
irritant, but I consider it useless in pneumonia or pleurisy. He did not 
rely much on the readings of the thermometer in such cases, unless it 
conformed with the other symptoms. 
Mr. Hopkins said that the old practice of bleed , purge , and blister , was 
fast dying out. He, however, disagreed with Mr. Greaves in the opinion 
that a cold atmosphere was more beneficial than a warm one in the 
treatment of chest affections in the horse. Of course there were varying 
degrees and stages of congestion, and in such cases as Mr. Greaves had 
referred to, when taken in their first stages they all got well. But, as 
a general principle in the treatment of congestion or inflammation of 
the lungs, a mean dry temperature was, in his opinion, by far the best, 
as the circulation of the blood goes on more readily in hot air than in 
cold. As to the thermometer not being reliable in such cases, the tem¬ 
perature indicated the fever, but the fever stage may pass, and the 
patient still die. You must distinguish between the fever and the 
inflammatory process. He believed that counter-irritation was beneficial 
in bronchitis when the larger tubes only were affected, as in laryngitis and 
strangles, but not in pneumonia or pleurisy. His own practice, in the 
latter cases, was to apply hot water and hot rugs, with the internal 
administration of aconite, placing the animal in a warm box, with pure 
air. 
Mr. A. Lawson expressed himself in favour of counter-irritation being 
applied in chest affections, although he did not believe in the beneficial 
effects of repeating it three or four times in one day, until the sides 
were raw, as was sometimes recommended. In laryngitis he would apply 
a counter-irritant once, twice, or thrice, with discretion, and when the 
animal commences to feed you may then come in with your soothing 
applications. At one time during an epidemic he tried both modes of 
treatment among the omnibus horses of Manchester. A certain number 
he treated by the internal administration of carbonate of ammonia and 
the application of hot cloths, and the same number he treated 
by the internal administration of earbonate of ammonia, and 
applied counter-irritants externally. By the former treatment he lost 
a large percentage of his cases, but by the latter treatment he did not 
lose one. He therefore considered it both good policy and sound 
reasoning to follow a practice that was successful. 
Mr. H. Leather said that he preferred hot cloths to irritants in the 
acute stages of chest affections; they gave a .more uniform heat, &c. 
He put cloths around the body, and rubbed some mustard on to the 
front of the chest. In cases of acute congestion he gave a stimulant 
and opened the box door. He was of opinion that the rising of the 
thermometer was sometimes affected when inserted in the rectum if the 
latter was full of fseces. 
M. T. Taylor declared that he was completely in a fog; it would 
appear that the patients got better under any kind of treatment, and 
some died, even under Mr. Greaves’s mode of treatment. He contended 
that a great many animals must be killed by severe and repeated appli¬ 
cations of counter-irritants to the chest in cases of pneumonia, and 
nothing was more to be deprecated than the practice of trying to em¬ 
blazon your coat of arms on a horse’s sides. He agreed with others 
that the essayist had been much more modified in his ideas of counter- 
irritation than he had expected. 
Mr. E. Faulkner , after complimenting the essayist on the modified views 
expressed in his paper, said that he would like to know from Mr. P. 
Taylor if, during his long and extensive experience, he had observed 
