750 
ROSCOE R. BELL. 
though not necessarily fatal, as the tainted breath may arise 
from an infarct which may not be of sufficient magnitude to- 
preclude recovery. Whether absorption of such septic material 
may not be a prolific cause of death, I am not prepared to say, 
and I direct your attention to that portion of the treatment 
recommended in this paper as being directed against this very 
condition. 
I have found fault with the treatment recommended by 
modern authors, and I have done so because it seemed to me to 
be irrational ; that they have not caused their therapy to keep, 
abreast of their theories. If it be conceded that the disease has 
for its origin a microbe, efforts to combat it should be anti-mi- 
crobian, while the effects produced upon the system by the 
ptomaines of the germ can be best antagonized by appropriate 
stimulant treatment. I have never seen a case of this disease 
where I have conceived the idea that sedative treatment was 
indicated, whether in the operation of venesection or medicinal 
substances. I have not seen the “ bounding pulse,” even in 
plethoric animals, that would indicate a sthenic disease, and I 
dare say that any subject that could withstand blood-letting, 
doses of aconite, veratrum veride, antimony, mercury, iodine, 
purging, and mustard to the sides, belly, and legs, would recover 
much more rapidly if it received more humane and rational 
curative treatment. 
At the outset, when the pulse is rapid, the temperature high, 
the animal listless, the appetite destroyed, when no local lesion 
has yet made itself manifest, the indications, in my judgment, 
are to fortify the system against the tendencies of the disease, 
and to attack the cause which is producing it, thus encouraging 
the localization to take place upon the lesser vital and fatal or¬ 
gans. With this idea in view, the animal’s chest is placed in 
an oiled-silk jacket, which produces a copious perspiration upon 
the sides and undoubtedly causes a determination of blood to 
this external surface ; the legs are thickly bandaged with warm , 
woolen bandages, which in turn stimulates the circulation in ! 
the extremities, keeps up an equalization of circulation and 
