The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

212 The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
should be immediate and ample ; and after bleeding,
purgative medicine must next be administered, because
the mucous membrane of the bowels and coating
o± the stomach are in most instances affected sym-
pathetically by a deranged action in any other
part of the system. Should this not be the case
they may be otherwise irregular, which invariably
increases all kinds of inflammation, and fever is
induced more especially when there is much
retention. In any case purging has the effect of
lessening the quantity of blood, by removing from it the
serous or watery portion, and by determinating the blood
to the bowels. The pressure is necessarily removed from
the inflamed vessels, as it is a law of the animal economy
that where the circulation is directed to one set of vessels
it proportionately diminishes the flow in other parts of
the system. Purging, by producing languor and sickness,
lessens the general excitement, and hence the pressure
upon the circulation is circumscribed. In administering
medicine in cases of internal inflammation much caution
and consideration is required, because what would be
beneficial in some cases may be prejudicial in others.
Thus in inflammation of the lungs aloes may be given as a
purgative, but in inflammation of the bowels it would be
decidedly wrong, from its tendency to gripe, and even in
inflammation of the lungs purgative medicine should not
be given until after the inflammatory symptoms have
abated. In external inflammation, great difference of
opinion prevails as to the treatment ; some recommend
cold embrocations as the most proper mode of treatment,
being most likely to allay the heat in the part, and there