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

In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 93
a day ; pour cold water with great force upon its feet,
every hour day and night. Bleeding : In inflammation
there is a diminished action, that is, diminished con-
tractility of the small arteries, with increased action of
the heart, and the Wo together keep up that dilated
condition of the small vessels which is the essence of
inflammation. It is obvious that there are two ways
by which these small vessels may be restored to their
healthy degree of contraction, the first is by lessening the
quantity of blood to the part and the second by increasing
the contractility. In acute inflammation both these
remedies are required. If the inflammation be recent,
the small vessels may recover themselves if at once
relieved from the undue quantity of blood sent from the
heart. In this case the abstraction of blood and using
depressing remedies will suffice ; but if the inflammation
be chronic, the small vessels may have so lost their
contractility as not to recover themselves, though the
blood circulates through them in diminished quantity,
and in this case such remedies must be used as will
restore the lost contractility ; precisely the same treat-
ment is required as in congestion. The treatment of
inflammation is two-fold. It consists in diminishing
the quantity of blood sent out by the heart on the one
hand, and restoring the lost contractility on the other,
As increased action of the heart occurs only in acute
inflammation, it is in that form alone that general
remedies are required ; these are blood-letting, active
purgatives, and depressants. Bleeding alone, though
often repeated, will not suffice to subdue inflammation,
for each bleeding is followed by reaction, and that re-