Chapter II (2)

Moreover, there is a maxim, first made known by John Hunter, and subsequently recognized by the profession of which he was the ornament. This maxim declares that “two great inflammations cannot exist in the same body at the same time.” Upon the truth of this discovery, the practice of counter-irritation is based. Then to fire and to blister simultaneously may increase the torture of the poor existence thus barbarously treated; but, according to the doctrine largely accepted by the medical profession of this country, the double process accomplishes nothing surgical or curative, since the blister must destroy the action of the fire; and the man who is greedy to obtain the benefits of both operations, secures the advantages of neither measure.

To blister, however, is a very antique custom; so, also, is the application of fire, which was first performed upon the human body. Old medicine does not bear a very good character, and only exemplifies the much which suffering can endure, or the little which cruelty can accomplish. So far as horses are concerned, little would be sacrificed were the entire list of vesicatories lost to the knowledge of mankind. The blister is, according to present veterinary practice, employed more often to gratify the passing whim of some wayward proprietor than with any medical intention or with the remotest regard for the quadruped. A man, while lounging through the stable of an evening, a prey to lassitude and the victim of idle thoughts, but without the slightest pretense to medical knowledge, may conceive he will have the entire stable blistered “right through,” and few veterinary surgeons will presume to expostulate with so wild a notion.

The compliance of the professional attendant is, however, in strict keeping with opinions implied by the expressions commonly employed by “horsemen.” Thus, it is very general to hear these persons speak of--“a good horse with battered legs”--“a beautiful animal, but with legs that have done their work”--“an excellent frame, but not having a leg to stand upon,” etc. Such phrases are sheer nonsense! But they serve to countenance the equine superstition which regards the legs as distinct from the body. The stable-man cannot conceive a want of liveliness in the motions to be one of the indications of failing health. Yet this symptom pervades all nature. It is exhibited by beasts, by birds, by fishes, and by insects; nay, the very vegetables, when disease attacks them, no longer spread their branches to the breeze, but droop their heads and incline their bodies earthward.

To propagate such opinions, however, must destroy much of the power so dearly loved by the vulgar horse owner, and abolish much of the pleasure such a person experiences when surveying his long rows of miserable dependents! These men are always corrupt! It is astonishing how unfitted human frailty is to possess absolute authority in any shape! The men who live and think in stables are never so happy as when exercising their despotic power. The next illustration is an example of this fact. An omnibus proprietor has entered to speak with a veterinary surgeon, who is witnessing the man’s orders fulfilled on the forelegs of a wretched stud. Let the reader contemplate this engraving, and he will soon perceive the animals stand in need of something far less costly than any mixture which can proceed from the cheapest pharmacy.

It will be remarked that the creatures represented are separated by “bales,” or long poles, suspended by chains from the ceiling. This kind of arrangement permits more horses to be packed into a limited apartment, and is, therefore, adopted whenever the expense of lodging becomes a primary consideration. It will also have occurred to the spectator that the roof is depicted as very low, and the gangway or free thoroughfare behind the animals is exhibited as exceedingly narrow.

Now, creatures imprisoned in such a building are actually perishing of starvation! The food, the water, and the medical attendance may each of its kind be unexceptionable; but the animals housed in such a locality soon droop from positive inanition. To breathe, is the primary necessity of existence. There is no living thing that can thrive where air is excluded. The quadrupeds represented below have to pass twenty-two out of every twenty-four hours in a locality barely lofty enough for each to stand upright in. Let the reader, knowing the duration of captivity, conjecture how long it will be ere the huge lungs of a horse have inhaled and contaminated the limited amount of atmosphere which the place can contain, even were such an abode contemplated as the dwelling of a single subject.

It is true, such sheds are seldom air tight. Were all draughts excluded, the prisoners would speedily be released from their captivity; but the wind holes, though large enough to prolong misery, are too small to render such places the abodes of health. The wretched inmates cannot be tortured into a show of activity. When will the legislature, in its wisdom, notice these hot-beds of contagion? When will it empower the police officer to enter any stable and authorize him to destroy the animals therein, hopelessly diseased and purposely concealed? Who can, viewing the stables where the hardest worked of the equine race are stowed away, wonder that glanders is rarely absent from such nurseries for contamination?

Horses have thus been housed, and have been physicked, fired, and blistered, for ages. The folly of such practices is continued even to the present hour. However, let the gentleman who keeps his stable filled take warning from the errors of his inferiors; and when the groom informs him that “Blossom” is getting stale upon her legs, refuse to have the creature tortured. A blister incapacitates a horse for six weeks. The cessation of toil for such a period may do good; but let the man who pretends to judge in this matter grant the holiday which the measures, if adopted, would occupy, and employ the time in looking jealously around his premises to ascertain wherefore his dumb servant flags!

Let no man blister a horse’s legs. There is no motor agent situated in or near to those parts. The shin, foot, and pastern are almost without muscles. There is nothing, therefore, which could be freshened or rendered more brisk. But these parts are susceptible of the acutest agony. They are largely supplied with purely sensitive nerves. Consequently, let all gentlemen discharge the veterinary surgeon who proposes to blister the legs of their horses. He does so merely to gain time: the professional man is totally unworthy of confidence who can play with his employers’ ignorance and tamper with his patients’ sensations, merely from reasons of policy or the chance of pecuniary benefit to himself! The author has beheld hundreds of blisters applied to the legs, but he cannot remember the instance in which such applications were productive of the slightest good.

Blisters are seldom required, and are only beneficial as counter-irritants. Equine medicines are generally too coarse, and much too powerful. Some practitioners mingle euphorbium, corrosive sublimate, aqua fortis, etc. with the blistering agent, to increase its potency. Therefore, never procure the oil of cantharides from a veterinarian. Never use blistering ointment of any description. Stuffs of this last kind are, for the most part, made of the refuse flies, exhausted by having been used to form the oil of cantharides. Buy the oil of some respectable chemist. Add to this four times its bulk of olive oil; should it not blister after it has been once used, it may be rubbed in a second or a third time. Counter-irritation is certain to be thus secured, and vesication is only a sign which pleases the uneducated eye rather than benefits the animal.

Never employ any oil that is not perfectly clear. It should be filtered after it is made, and the slightest opacity is proof that some impurity is present. This direction is imperative; for, though the ingredients which compose the oil are not expensive, there is scarcely an article in the pharmacopœia more liable to adulteration. Let, therefore, the liquid seem as transparent as that which is represented in the accompanying illustration.

It is a common custom with most veterinarians to purge the horse before they blister its legs. The intention is to remove any lurking irritability out of the animal’s system; but such irritability will most probably be provoked by their coarse and potent blistering agents; therefore, a purgative, by increasing the debility, is only likely to render the quadruped more sensitive to outward impressions. A nice “freshener” is embodied, to the eye of reason, in a drastic purgative, followed by an active irritant applied to a most sensitive part of the body!

Whenever a blister is adopted, rather too little than too much oil should be used. Enough to permeate the hair and reach the skin is imperative; but the action rather depends on the amount of friction which accompanies the agent than on the quantity of the vesicatory that may be employed. The friction should be regulated by the condition of the surface on which the oil has to act, and all adjacent tender places, as the points of flexion in joints, parts where the skin is thin or is thrown into crevices, should be previously covered with a layer of simple cerate, after the method exemplified in the left-hand illustration on the next page, wherein the back of the pastern is exhibited as thus protected.

After the part has been rubbed for ten minutes in summer, and a quarter of an hour during winter, all oil may be wiped off the hair. Its presence there can do no good; but as oil becomes more liquid with the continuance of warmth, the heat of the body may cause the blistering agent to run on to parts which it is not desirable to subject to its action.

After the horse has been blistered, it is customary to tie up the head and put around the animal’s neck a kind of rude apparatus denominated, but wherefore the author cannot tell, “a cradle.” This last instrument is designed to prevent the creature from gnawing the blistered surface. No such act will, however, be indulged where the agent employed is proportioned to the sensitiveness of the quadruped; but it is the agony produced by the effect of undue stimulation which generates the madness that induces the wretched creature to use its formidable teeth in tearing its own flesh.

About three days after the application of the blister, the surface will have become dry and incrusted with a solid exudation. It is well, at this period, to soften the part with some emollient liquid, and one can hardly be found better suited to this purpose than that known as =lead liniment=. It is made by mingling together one part of Goulard’s lotion and two parts of olive oil, whereby is formed a thick creamy compound. The oil soothes the harshness of the exudation, while the lead serves to mitigate any pain which may reside in the part. This mixture, being well shaken, is applied to the surface by means of what cooks call “a paste brush.”

The liniment usually causes the “crusts” to fall off; but the hair generally comes off at the same time, testifying the severe irritation to which the skin has been subjected.

The most pliant medical individual--the pedantic man who always acknowledges everything emanating from the schools to be correct--would, the author imagines, be puzzled to discover any necessary connection between the processes of =balling=, =blistering=, =firing=, and =bleeding=; yet somehow the four operations are associated in veterinary practice. A ball reduces the bodily activity; a bleeding lowers the action of vitality; irritants are thought to stimulate organs to which they are applied, but to lessen the general tonicity. An animal subjected to the first action appears fitted to dispense with the second; while the last two seem somewhat similar to the first. But there is no accounting for incongruities when men, deserting reason, consent to adopt routine as a guide in the treatment of so capricious a development as disease.

=Bleeding.=--To lose blood was once deemed a healthful custom by the human race. Then, horses were regularly depleted every rise and fall. An old practitioner can remember the period when, on a Sunday morning, he beheld long sheds full of agricultural quadrupeds waiting to be bled. The fleam used to be struck into the first horse; then the entire row were, in succession, similarly treated. The operator afterward returned, and, pinning up the wound which had been made in the neck of the first animal, again moved down the line, pinning as he went. No account was taken of the amount lost by each patient, nor was any pains thought needful to control the current that flowed upon the ground; but the creatures did not all suffer an equal depletion. The fleam was soon struck; to pin up, however, took a comparatively long time for its performance. The first horse of the group, therefore, lost but little blood; while the last of the line bled for a considerable period before its turn to be attended to arrived.

The foregoing anecdote will show how nice our fathers were in their operations; but it is sad when we reflect that all this carnage was a sacrifice made to a mistaken idea. Human medicine has abandoned the antiquated custom. Veterinary physic, however, is not quite so versatile; still many quiet spots in the country may be found where old physic is in force, both with the employers and the practitioner. Dogs, even in the metropolis, are sometimes bled; and there still exist persons who esteem the use of the lancet upon these animals to be a laudatory accomplishment. Cats were, formerly, operated upon; and the author knows an aged lady whose medical practice was confined to depleting grimalkins. There exist, even at the present enlightened period, few of the equine species which do not bear several scars, each testifying to a separate operation. Raise the jugular vein in the neck of any animal, by simply stopping the downward current that flows through the vessel; it is ten to one but numerous circular prominences will bulge forth, to denote the medical activity which has been lavished on the quadruped.

No matter what may be the age, the condition, or the occupation of the horse, certain practitioners always discover that the mute drudge requires depletion; thus, an unscrupulous man may at most times earn a ready shilling by performing an easy operation. Every kind of animal is liable to be so treated or so abused; and there are very few stables throughout this kingdom in which the sight of the fleam, blood stick, and can do not create the groom’s delight. The strangest fact is, that most rural proprietors love to see the purple life drained from the necks of their possessions; and bitter are the reproaches usually lavished on the veterinarian should a horse perish of any disease without the fatal termination having been hastened by the favorite measure. Indeed so fully are several country practitioners aware of this probability, that it is customary with them, when alone, to strike the vein and to pin up the orifice immediately. The necessary sign can then be adduced, should death end the case; and a professional reputation be thereby saved from the assaults of aggravated stupidity.

To show the necessity of venesection in most forms of disease, the author must be pardoned if he intrudes upon the reader a portion of his own experience. Some years ago a medical man, then residing in Westbourne Terrace, kept a well-stocked stable. The family going out of town during the autumn, some of the animals, much against the author’s opinion, were allowed a few weeks’ “run at grass.”

When the horses were taken up, none were found to have been benefited; but one was discovered to be much worse for its period of liberty. It was very weak, and its constitution evidently was shaken, for nothing seemed capable of invigorating it. If put into harness and driven merely round to the street door, the body was sure to be white with perspiration, and the poor quadruped exhibited signs of exhaustion. If permitted to remain in the stable, the creature would generally be found with the head depressed, the corn untouched, the breathing audible, and the body leaning for support against the trevise.

The animal was in this state when the family again left London for a few weeks; the horse was taken with them by railroad. Before they quitted town, the author found occasion to speak with the proprietor. The writer said that, during the sojourn of the family in the country, it was probable the urgency of the symptoms would necessitate the calling in of a local veterinary surgeon; therefore the proprietor was warned that the ailing quadruped was on no account to be bled; for to deplete a life in so exhausted a condition was positive slaughter.

As the author had conjectured, so events literally happened. The symptoms suddenly became alarming. The attendance of the nearest veterinarian was requested. To him the warning given to the proprietor was repeated. The gentleman replied that the author had not seen the animal in its then serious state, or he could not have tendered such advice. Medical etiquette forbade positive injunctions. The operation was performed, and the family returned to town leaving a carcass behind them!

It is very seldom that the system of a horse, when doing full work, can endure depletion. The labor =is= exhausting, and the toil is sufficiently severe to employ it all had the animal twice its normal energy. Many observant stable-men are of opinion that, nurture as they may, the provender consumed cannot be equal to the work. There are, however, too many persons who study to underfeed, and who nevertheless are morally convinced that every quadruped in their keeping not only possesses a sufficiency of vigor, but can part with a gallon or two of blood, twice in every year, with positive advantage.

Here are two opposite convictions; and the cost of horse flesh to each party, could we inspect the private accounts, would certainly best settle the dispute. But as men mostly object to laying open their books to public investigation, we must, therefore, endeavor to decide this point by drawing inferences, after having submitted the lives of most quadrupeds to review. None, except the wealthy, keep horses, save for use. The feelings of men are seldom gratified by feeding idle animals. Two horses very commonly have to perform extra duty, while the master is looking about him and in no haste to purchase a third laborer. Rarely do we find three animals are kept where the owner has full employment only for two of his slaves.

The horse, therefore, is generally worked to the limits of its strength. That there may be no doubt upon this matter, the person who has to judge of its capabilities is he who has an interest in the amount of an animal’s exertions. The fact is, however, proved by the wonder excited when a quadruped is recorded to have reached the natural period of its existence. The great majority of horses in this country perish of exhaustion before their maturity has been attained. The sad reality, that of the numbers reared in England the great majority of humanity’s humble, obedient, and willing slaves are goaded to early graves, before all their second teeth are up, and before the consolidation of their bones fits them to endure the strain of fatigue, too fearfully establishes the fate which beauty and submission receives at the hands of avarice.

Man is a hard task-master! He was so when the pyramids were raised; he is so still in the Southern States of America. There is something wrong in the creature who can thus abuse all that serve him. Had the horse twenty times its present strength, it would still be below the point of human requirement. It is a very painful occupation to look into a London street, and, having an understanding which can interpret equine significances, to observe the lame, the deformed, the starved, the overloaded, and the weary animals staggering along the thoroughfare, but to perceive none without the goad, to enforce exertion, flourished by its side. Yet the creatures thus used, unconscious of a holiday and worked through sickness or through suffering, are thought by some persons to possess such a redundancy of health that they can support or be benefited by the life’s blood being drained, at stated periods, out of their wretched bodies!

A BLOOD CAN, WHICH IS MARKED TO INDICATE WHEN A QUART OF FLUID HAS BEEN EXTRACTED. ]

Nevertheless it is possible a timely depletion may, upon certain occasions, save life. Neither the present reader nor the writer may witness so rare an occurrence; yet because of the possibility, every horseman should be equal to such an emergency. For the performance of so trivial an operation certain tools are imperatively necessary. The first among these is a =blood can= or a tin pail, which is generally divided, by indented lines, into eight equal sections. The receptacle being made to contain two gallons, each compartment, when filled, indicates a quart to have been withdrawn. Wretched horses have been drained to a greater extent even than two gallons; but should the reader possess a blood can, it is hoped that it will be indeed an extreme case in which he would behold the vessel once filled.

One or two quarts should be the limits of an ordinary venesection; but even that quantity may be of much more service, when aiding the circulation, than when withdrawn and permitted to coagulate apart from the body. Many practitioners, however, deplete without either excuse or justification. Having opened a vessel, they will allow the stream to flow until the poor horse staggers. Some are proud not to possess a blood can; but they hold up the stable-pail to catch the vital current, and are quite content that the most ample drain of the system, conducted under their supervision, cannot be otherwise than restorative.

The next instrument requisite is a =fleam=. This article is much preferable to the lancet, though there exists a species of foppery among veterinary surgeons which tempts them to employ human implements. For that reason they flourish a lancet as the more scientific indicator. A lancet is, certainly, necessary to puncture the eye vein, which is visible upon the cheek of the horse; but as regards a vessel which is as large as a cart rope, for such is the dimensions of the animal’s jugular, this last cannot demand the exhibition of vast scientific attainment to pierce it, or admit of the display of nice manipulation in him who operates on such a structure. For this reason the old-fashioned fleam is very much to be preferred. Assuredly it does not appear so pretty as the lancet; but it always cuts with certainty and leaves a limited orifice; whereas the more genteel blade has inflicted awkward gashes upon living flesh when the creature proved restless under its infliction.

The instrument with which the veterinarian extracts blood has been represented having the blade bared and having it closed. It is readily admitted not to be of an inviting aspect; but it is not in reality quite so barbarous as it appears to the beholder. The point which projects from one side of the blade marks the extent of its cutting surface, and indicates the size of that puncture which the fleam can leave behind. It is more safe than the lancet, which, though of a more innocent aspect, has inflicted wounds of awful dimensions. For the last reason, the employment of the lancet by veterinary surgeons is not to be commended.

Above the cutting point of the fleam, and upon the opposite side of the blade, is seen what is intended to represent a bulging piece of metal. That indicates the place which the operator occasionally strikes with the side of his hand; its intention is to afford a blunt surface for delivery of the blow. It is advantageous to possess a fleam of the above form, because, under rare circumstances, the possibility for which it provides may be encountered; but for general use a blood stick is more instantaneous, and is more certain in its result; wherefore it is to be preferred to the human hand, as giving the smarter impetus to the blade.

A =blood stick= is merely a hard piece of wood, six or eight inches long, and turned in a lathe till it has assumed the above form. The larger end is then hollowed; the cavity is loaded with lead. Such a tool, though very diminutive, can be made to deal a heavy blow, and it is quite powerful enough to send the point of the fleam through the skin and thin layer of muscular fiber which externally cover the jugular vein.

However, before any attempt is made to bleed the horse, the animal’s eyes should be bandaged. This should invariably be done before the fleam or blood stick are produced; as some quadrupeds show their intelligence by dreading the operation which most veterinary surgeons regard with complacency. Many persons doubt whether beasts are gifted with imagination; but it is not rare to encounter a steed which will stagger at the sight of a fleam, and when the blood stick and can are produced, will give every indication of approaching syncope. Consequently, if the reader is determined to have his horse depleted, let the eyes be disabled before any instrument is produced, more especially before the stick is attempted to be employed. Most animals, from natural timidity, shrink if they can discern when the blow is about to be delivered, and the point of the fleam is thereby frequently displaced.

The sight should first be obscured; then the vessel raised; afterward the fleam arranged upon the huge pipe thus brought into view; when a sudden blow being dealt with the blood stick will cause the current to spurt forth. Should any accident prevent the first attempt from being successful, the operator should not strike twice in the same place. Repeated blows upon the same spot are likely to bruise the part, or to cause a ragged wound; neither of which circumstances are favorable to the healing process. Leave the slight incision to nature, for it very rarely requires any treatment, and choosing a fresh mark, repeat the process with better success.

Blood being obtained by the operator, the groom approaches bearing the blood can. This the man presses against the horse’s neck, thereby impeding the downward stream within the vessel and causing the vital current to gush forth.

Whatever may be the urgency of the business which may demand your presence elsewhere, never quit at this stage of the proceeding. However experienced or meritorious the servant may be, always remain until the operation is concluded. These poor men invariably possess opinions of their own that are stronger because of the ignorance upon which such notions repose. The groom may have seen a gallon, or even two gallons extracted, when in his last situation. Such people delight in strong measures; and he will sneer at the one or two quarts you may desire should be withdrawn. Be absent only for a brief space, and you may be certain your directions have been violated, although on your return the most solemn of faces should protest to the contrary.

When the quantity has been extracted, remove the pressure below the orifice and the outward stream will cease. Then proceed to pin up. Having rendered the point of a pin somewhat angular, by cutting off the tip, the wire will pierce the integument the more readily. Drive it through each side of the wound, and, being in this situation, twist, after the fashion of a figure of ∞, some tow or thread, or a hair pulled from the horse’s tail, round its either extremity. Subsequently remove so much of the pin as may protrude, and the orifice will be closed by what surgeons denominate a =twisted suture=.

When performing this, a few precautions are imperative. In the first instance, the surfaces should not be brought immediately together. The wound should be left open until the lips become sticky, as when in that condition they unite the more readily. Next, when closing the orifice, all hairs should be removed, which is sometimes difficult should the integument have been torn asunder with a blunt fleam. The skin then is twisted and forced from its integrity; but if a sharp or proper instrument has been used, the presence of hair is never annoying; indeed it seldom requires attention.

The sides of the incision should be adjusted with all nicety, because, subsequently to bleeding, healing by the first intention, or by the speediest natural process, is desirable. Hairs, when present, prevent that union from being perfected. They irritate the part and act as minute setons, which provoke suppuration. The advent of the last action is always to be feared after a vein has been opened. The pus gravitates into the vessel and the blood becomes vitiated. The consequences frequently are fatal, and are always much to be lamented.

When the wound has been properly secured, all has not been accomplished. The rack and manger must be cleared. Food or drink must be withheld for twenty-four hours. The halter must be fastened up to the bars of the hay rack; for the animal which has just been rendered faint by having its blood extracted must, for the tedious space of one entire day and night, neither feed, allay its thirst, nor repose its tottering limbs. Some certain benefit, substantiated by very potent proofs, are necessary to justify the measure which must be followed by such deprivation; for if lack of nutriment and want of rest can generate debility, what must be the effect of enforced abstinence, when ensuing upon a sickening depletion?