£6& LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
any difference in the types and characters of chest affections. In some 
cases of congestion, where the pulse at night might be 72 , and the animal 
blowing, he would administer a stimulant, and slightly irritate the sides, 
and not unfrequently the patient would be all right in the morning. 
Some cases might go on to broncho-pneumonia, and require further treat¬ 
ment. To these he would apply soothing remedies, coupled to good 
nursing. He believed that dabbling practitioners hurried their patients 
down hill. 
Mr. IV. A. Taylor said that he held a very strong opinion in favour of 
counter-irritation properly applied. In congestive pneumonia you have 
an arrest of the circulation of the blood, and a paralysed condition of 
the vessels; it is to act as a stimulus to these vessels that I apply a 
counter-irritant. In my own case, when suffering from an attack of 
bronchitis, associated with lung complications, the application of a blister 
gives me immediate relief from pain, and if we can relieve pain by the 
application of a blister we are certainly on the right track. But by 
repeated applications of counter-irritant you deplete your patients. 
Apply your counter-irritant during the crisis of the disease, when it will 
have some effect, and do not be fiddling at it when your patient is dying. 
In cases of laryngeal and bronchial congestion, amounting in some 
instances almost to suffocation, the application of mustard gives great 
relief. He said that in those cases referred to by Mr. Reynolds, where 
the animal is off his food, dull, and adynamic, such cases are sometimes 
allowed to slumber because they do not manifest equally acute symptoms 
as others; but if you insert the thermometer you will find the tempera¬ 
ture high, and then is the time to administer your stimulant and apply 
your counter-irritant. He related the history of three similar cases 
of infla mmation of the lungs, &c., which occurred at one place. The 
first one was treated on the soothing anti-irritant principle, viz. hot rugs, 
&c., and the administration of belladonna and ether ; it died however. 
The other two were treated by the application of mustard at once, and 
repeated in one of the cases twelve times ; both animals recovered. I am 
convinced, he added, that the repeated blistering saved the last one. 
Mr. Whittle said that he thoroughly endorsed the views on counter- 
irritation propounded by Mr. P. Taylor in his essay. Chest affections, 
he said, varied so ; in some you would have the mucous membranes prin¬ 
cipally affected, and in others the serous membranes would be the 
principal site of the disease, and as a consequence our mode of treatment 
would require to be adopted to the peculiar type of disease present in 
in each case. 
Mr. Woods said that he thoroughly agree' with the views of the essayist 
on this subject, and he had tried both modes of treatment. About a 
year ago he had a great many cases of inflammation of the lungs, and 
very bad cases they were too; he put mustard on them immediately, and 
in some cases repeated it. My assistant, he added, was an advocate of 
the soothing expectant treatment, and he declared that my patients 
would all die under such treatment as I was then adopting, but every 
one of them recovered; in one case, in the treatment of which I allowed 
my assistant to carry out his own plan for several days, the animal was 
getting so bad that I was afraid he would die, in which opinion my 
assistant concurred, and we at once applied a blister, repeating it every 
day for three days ; the animal ultimately recovered. In laryngitis he 
said he had great faith in the application of croton liniment; it acts like 
a specific, it produces a crop of pustules, but does not cause much 
external irritation. 
Mr. W. A. Taylor suggested that the further consideration of this 
