The American Reformed Cattle Doctor: Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy managementDadd, George H.
Science
The American Reformed Cattle Doctor: Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy management
Dadd, George H.
Veterinary medicine
These few examples of the treatment of fever will give the farmer an
idea of the author's manner of treating it, who can generally break up a
fever in a few hours, whereas the popular method of "smothering the
fire," as Mr. Youatt terms the blood-letting process, instead of curing,
will produce all forms of fever. Here is a specimen of the treatment, in
fever of a putrid type, recommended by Dr. Brocklesby. He says,
"Immediately upon refusing fodder, the beast should have three quarts of
blood taken away; and after twelve hours, two quarts more; after the
next twelve hours, about three pints may be let out; and after the
following twelve hours, diminish a pint of blood from the quantity taken
away at the preceding blood-letting; lastly, about a single pint should
be taken away in less than twelve hours after the former bleeding; so
that, when the beast has been blooded five times, in the manner here
proposed, the worst symptoms will, it is hoped, abate; but if the
difficulty and panting for breath continue very great, I see no reason
against repeated bleeding." (See Lawson's work on cattle, p. 312.) The
author has consulted several authorities on the treatment of typhus, and
finds that the use of the lancet is invariably recommended. We do not
expect to find, among our American farmers, any one so reckless, so lost
to the common feelings of humanity, and his own interest, as to follow
out the directions here given by Dr. B.; still blood-letting is
practised, to some extent, in every section of the Union, and will
continue to be the sheet-anchor of the cattle doctor just so long as the
influential and cattle-rearing community shall be kept in darkness to
its destructive tendency. Unfortunately for the poor dumb brute,
veterinary writers have from time immemorial been uncompromising
advocates for bleeding; and through the influence which their talents
and position confer, they have wielded the medical sceptre with a
despotism worthy of a better cause. It were a bootless task to attempt
to reform the disciples of allopathy; for, if you deprive them of the
lancet, and their _materia medica_ of poisons, they cannot practise.
They must be reformed through public opinion; and for this purpose we
publish our own experience, and that of others who have dared to assail
allopathy, with the moral certainty that they would expose themselves to
contempt, and be branded as "medical heretics."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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