WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY. Saturday, March 7, 1829.

749

eagle,

or a

tyrant’s

ertdeavours

to

accom-

with buff; whether young

j might

practitioners

not be led into very serious error by the destruction of a people, by pretending to the genius of a general, we na- depending on the appearance of the blood, turally smile , and cannot help applying the relying on the presence of the buffy coat iilustrafion to the frustrated malice of that in acute disease. In many severe diseases phantasmagoria, arising out of the bàmed there certainlv was no buff, while, in mild manifestations of evil disposition which we ones, there often was. There were many dishave quuted, like one of those thin, bodi- eases exhibiting the bun, in which a directly less, spectral appearances, sometimes seen opposite treatment to the antiphlogistic ascending out of the phosphorescent corrup- must be pursued. He spoke particularly of tion of the grave, and amusing the beholder’ puerperal complaints, in which depletion by its f-tful, gloomy, but innocuous trans,,’ would be a great error, for these did rct formations. arise out of inflammation. The blood drawn ERINENSIS. in these diseases would be buiiy, and the Dublin, Feb. 27, 1829. youngpractitioner actingon Dr. Gregory’s theory, would bleed again, and the blood being again buffy, he would bleed again and until the patient was bled almost to Too much reliance ought not to WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY.be placed on the appearance of huff. He had seen it stated in the renort of last evenSaturday, March 7, 1829. ing’s discussion, that Dr. Gregory thought some medicine should be employed in cases of buffiness, to reduce the action of the Mr. CÆSAR HAWKINS in the Chair. pulse. It was an old-fashioned medicine, but he (Mr. Jewell) thought, the nitrate of REPEATED BLEEDING BUFFY BLOOD potash was the best that could be employed BUFFINESS AT FIRST SIGHT—INDEX for this purpose ;he was accustomed to give PREGNANCY—RETENTION OF URINE. it in doses of fifteen grains or scrtiples three THE discussion this evening’ was, in great times a-day, and was seldom disappointed part, a repetition of the arguments ad- in its effects. Dr. Gni!GORY disputed altogether the vanced, at the last meeting, for and against had taken up, as to Dr. Gregory’s new theory, and, on the position which whole, more of the amusing than the seri- draining the body to death, in attempting to ous was elicited. Amongst the speakers draw o5’ the buffy blood, because it was imwas Dr. WEBSTER, who mentioned the case possible to drain the body to death. There of a lady whom he had lately attended in came a point in bleeding, after which not a pregnancy, who was liable to inflammation drop of blood could be drawn ; a hole might of the chest, but whose blood being drawn, be made in a vein large enough to drive a did not exhibit a buffy coat cart through—nay, a limb miht be reDr. GREGORY expressed his anxiety to moved, and yet the blood would not come bave the general opinion of the memberson away. He had a case last night in proof. the universality of huffiness in the blood of The patient had had buffy blood for six pregnant women. He called on Dr. J.ocock, ’, weeks, and was then sinking. Now he as a gentleman of great experience in these knew he should do no harm bythe experimatters ment, and he therefore, opened a vein to-see Dr. Locoes had so seldom hied pregnant if it was possible to drain the body. He was women, excepting for some disease attend- pretty sure beforehand that it would not give ing the pregnancy, that he did not wish to up its blood, and so it proved. (A laugh.) The CHAIRMAN asked if Dr. Gregory express an opinion as to the appearance of buff in health. In those few instances he alluded to bleeding from small veins only, had yielded to the prejudices of the patients, but Dr. Gregory did not seem to think it who said thev were accustomed to it, and mattered whether great or small. became alarmed if not bled. The blood exDr. MARSHALL HALL having been rehibited buff, but it was different in all its peatedly called on by Dr. Gregory for his characters from. thf buff of inflammation. opinions, stated that he did not consider With reference to arterial blood, the buffiness that bufr’y bleoi was, in many cases, a guide of which was disputc last evening, Dr. to the practitioner ; in many diseases, it he decidedly wrong to act upon it. Locock mentioned the case of a child of a medical man, which had excited great at- He differed wholly from the opinion, that tention, in consequence of the extreme huffi- the body could not be drained to death from. ness of blood which had been drawn from a vein ; for, in fact. the more the body was the temporal artery. drained, the more it would give up. If a Mr. JEWELL thought there was one ques- person in perfect health were bled day after tion of great practical importance connected a great reaction in the system would

plish

or

again,

death.

-

TO

—

gentlemen

would day,

750

placebut, by-and-by, there would be was worthy of notice also, that where the reaction, and the patient would be worn blood was drawn into a metallic, an earthen. out, and yield blood to death. He had seen ware, or a glass vessel, it would coagulate take

no

more readily in one case than the other. This threw the whole question into the Having detailed several diseases, in which dark. As there appeared some doubt as to the the presence or absence of buffy btood could be no guide to treatment, Dr. Hall referred real basis of’ Dr. Gregory’s theory, Dr. to the experiments of Mr. Vines, published Gregory stated it to be this, that he consi. in THE LANCET, on the blood of the horse ; dered the existence of buffy blood added to one conclusion to be drawn from them was, or increased the danger of inflammation, that there was no danger where buff that buff on the blood was rather associated with an increased circulation. With re- was not present. He could tell the exist. g’ard to arterial buff, he (Dr. Hall) con- ence of buff the very moment he opened a sidered that the only reason why it was not vein and saw the jet of blood. (A general " often seen, was, that blood was so seldom smile, and Dear, dear.") Any body drawn from the arteries. (Hear.) It was might know it. Dr. SHIEL. Did Dr. Gregory mean to only in diseases of the head, that an say, that so long as blood was buffy, deple. artery was opened. Alr. WADE stated a case, in which a man tion was to be continued, and eradication having enlargement of the heartwas bled ; attempted? buffy coat appeared, and obtaining relief Dr. GREGORY did mean it, but not by the from bleeding, it was repeatedly performed. lancet. Purgatives, diuretics, and diapho. He never recovered the last bleeding ; this retics, should be employed. Mr. THOMSON and Mr. HUNT wanted to was from a vein in the arm. He recollected a case of apoplexy, in which the blood from know the appearances of the buffy jet. Mr. Hunt thought both seniors and juniors the temporal arterv was buffy. Mr. THOMSON asked Dr. Gregory, if the would be instructed by Dr. Gregory’s let. pulse was distinct at the extremity of the ting’ them know how to detect buff so in. limb, when he could get no blood from the stantaneously ; much Mood might thereby be vein, which Dr. Gregory answered in the saved. Dr. GREGORY. It was difficult to be de. afiirmative. Dr. HAT.L. When there was any difficulty scribed. This was one of those tliingswliicil in obtaining blood from a vein, it was must be seen to be understood. The colour, owing to cutaneous stricture. indeed, un- for instance, was one proof; the buff was less the skin was cold, he never knew ofmarked by a bluish tint. The extremely If the foot was put into warm red blood in veins was seldom buffy. He a difficulty. water when blood was wanted, it would in- considered this as nothing at all uncommon of detection. In Edinburgh they would tell variahly bleed, and the same of the arm. Dr. GREGORY. Was not cutaneous stric- it in a moment by a wave of the lancet in ture an index that blood should not be the air, when a little blood was on the drawn ; that Nature was chary of her vital point. If any gentleman would attend him at the Small-Pox Hospital, where the phefluid, and bleeding improper’! Dr. HALL No. If a man fell down and nomena were strikingly manifested, he turned cold, he was not easily bled ; yet would at any time show him a jet, and tell were we to wait till the skin became warm, him at once if it were buffy. Dr. WEBSTER corroborated the ease with before bleeding him ? Dr. MACLEOD. How did Dr. Gregory which Dr. Gregory could detect the buffy reconcile his statement, that blood would jet. Mr. Mr. MARLEY MARLEY could often tell the bufoften cease to flow, with his theory, that buffiness should be eradicated by abstrac- finess by the dark colour of the jet. He tion of blood. He (Dr. Macleod) thought never knew of pregnancy Without buffiness, the size and consistence of the coagulum, and instaiiced the following proof of Jns saand the proportion it bore to the serum, of tisfaetiou on this head. A lady had come far more importance than any other qtles- to town by the coach a week since, and ap. tion which had been started. There cer- plied to him two or three days after, to tainlv was no rule in the buff. Its connex- know if he, Mr. Marley, thought she was ion with the formative process was worthy pregnant, as she was extremely anxious to of attention. When a part had to be built learn. He thought she was, but the lady up, or when the body was wasting’, as in said she should like to know positively. pulmonary consumption and scurvy, buff Having the discussion of last evening in his was mind, lie bled her, and had then no hesita. always shown. I 1B fr. THOMSON. How was it possible to tion in saying, that she was pregnant. check or measure the amount of the relative (Much merriment. ’ Dr. JOHNSTONE, after a practice of *roportions of coagulum and serum ? -It

such

a

case ;

whole qu(stion

he

was

thought, however, the one of great difficulty.

and

’

’

thirty

751

years, could not tell

a buffy jet from any other. Dr. STEWART thought huftiness a very capricious and accidental index to the state of the body. Dr. GRANVILLE and Mr. JEWELL said, that pregnant women did not always yield bnffv blood.

Dr. JOHNSTONE

thought

that the grand of bleeding was not the buffiness of blood, but the relief which it afforded the patient. At the close of the debate, Dr. Gregory made an inquiry relative to the quantity of mine which would sometimes remain in the female bladder in pregnancy, in consequence of pressure on the neck by the impregnated womb. A case had lately occurred to Mr. Robert Clark, of Farnham, in which the retention had amounted to seven pints ; the bladder had not vet recovered its tone. Dr. GRANVILLE did not consider this impossible ; he had known retention for 24, 36, and even 48 hours ; but he had never liimself known seven pints to be retained but such cases were on record.

criterion

to

a

repetition

where

we

have been in the habit of

ave-

raging from eighty to a hundred horses per day, and often a much higher number, for some years past. I therefore hope that I shall not be deemed presumptuous in not subscribing to the fashionable theories of those who thin/, themselves our oracles on these points. The shoe, its form, or application by interrupting the natural functions and economy of’ the foot, either by suspending the se parts intended to carry or by throwing the weight on the parts which cannot bear it, is the primary cuuse of the majority nf lame horses. For in spite of all that has been said of the natural mal-conformation of the foot, I maintain thatit is equal to all the purposes required of it, and if pi-opeily shod, will last as long as any other part of the animal. And that the defect lies not in the foot, or the wisdom which so admirably adapted it to the end designed, but iti the theorising, meddling interference of man; with his improperly applied, and badly formed shoes. This, I repeat again, is the cause of so many defective feet, and lame

weight,

horses. I take my stand on this basis, backed, as it is, by the feet of numbers of horses I myself to produce, that have been ON FOOT LAMENESS IN HORSES, shod for years with the shoe we use, and whose feet are as now, and in the same By Mr. C. MORGAN, VETERINARY SURGEON. form, as ever theygood were ; but these horses MUCH has been said and written on that have not been shod by inexperienced apuniversal complaint with all horsemen," foot prentices, but by good men, and the teim lameness." Yet, after all, there is a cir- good is of some import, or all the respectable cumstance which has not had sufficient at- farriers are sadly mistaken to pay the price tention paid to it, but which I am convinced they do for them, if a set of inexperienced is the primary cause of lameness, in the and uninitiated mechanics would do as well. is laid on the "pace, the telling majority of lame horses. We have had Great stress and it is asserted to be above all lectures and letters pace," quartos written, given, ad libitum, to prove that it arises from con- others most conducive to foot-lameness; and traction, concussion, navicular disease, mal- among other supports prop this conformation, high keep ! and, above all, the theory, Nimrod adduces his own cart horses ; pace, the telling pace ! ! And as the gen- this happens unluckily, for to the cart horse tleman who styles himself "Nimrod," in I appeal for the complete refutatioa of the the Sporting Magazine, has anticipated my whole theory, and I am amply borne out remarks on most of those who have favoured by the feet of the London cart hoises; with the world with their luminous ideas, on this, them the pace cannot be adduced, and yet much agitated question, 1 leave them in hiswe find them obnoxious to every disease to hands. Jt was a most just observation ofwhich the foot of the horse is liable. Those the late Dr. Fordyce, that "theory is the practically acquainted with it, know very well bane of medicine," and had he lved till it is cheap bad shoeing which fills the marshes 4ow, he might have added with great truth, in the vicinity of London, every spring, with of horse-shoeing too. To take Nimrod’s so many hundreds of horses ; the same causes letters seriatim, would occupy more of yourpioduce the same efft2cts on their feet as valuable space, than either your politenesson the best bied hunters, or hacks—pressure or the subject will warrant, believing, ason the vein, or to be more scienufic, that 1 do, that short and few are the sentences, portion of the sensible sole immediate)y that need be said on this subject, to detail covering the sharp edge of the coffin bone. all that is practically useful. I will state This is the primary cause of the inflam.natcry only the facts I have witnessed, and the re- action, the source of those effects, which, sults they have produced in my mind, during from having been christened with such fb;e, some years of close and devoted attention high-sounding names, have led to much theto this particular branch of my profession, ory and confusion ; not but what other causes

pledge

to

"

pace"