varicocele should
wear suspensory bags when they are exercised. Piles may often be reduced
by astringent washes--tea made from white-oak bark or a saturated
solution of alum. The bowels should be kept loose with bran mashes and
the animal kept quiet in the stable. When varicose veins exist
superficially and threaten to produce inconvenience, they may be ligated
above and below and thus obliterated. Sometimes absorption may be
induced by constant bandages.

AIR IN VEINS, OR AIR EMBOLISM.

It was formerly supposed that the entrance of air into a vein at the
time of the infliction of a wound or in blood-letting was extremely
dangerous and very often produced sudden death by interfering with the
circulation of the blood through the heart and lungs. Danger from air
embolism is exceedingly doubtful, unless great quantities were forced
into a large vein by artificial means.

PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA.

Purpura hemorrhagica usually occurs as a sequel to debilitating
diseases, such as strangles, influenza, etc. It may, however, arise in
the absence of any previous disease in badly ventilated stables, among
poorly fed horses, and in animals subject to exhausting work and extreme
temperatures. The disease is probably due to some as yet undiscovered
infectious principle. Its gravity does not depend so much upon the
amount of blood extravasated as it does upon the disturbance or
diminished action of the vasomotor centers.

_Symptoms._--This disease becomes manifested by the occurrence of sudden
swellings on various parts of the body, on the head or lips, limbs,
abdomen, etc. These swellings may be diffused or very markedly
circumscribed, though in the advanced stages they cover large areas.
They pit on pressure and are but slightly painful to the touch. The
limbs may swell to a very large size, the nostrils may become almost
closed, and the head and throat may swell to the point of suffocation.
The swellings not infrequently disappear from one portion of the body
and develop on another, or may recede from the surface and invade the
intestinal mucous membrane. The mucous lining of the nostrils and mouth
show more or less dark-red or purple spots. There may be a discharge of
blood-colored serum from the nostrils; the tongue may be swollen so as
to prevent eating or closing of the jaws. In the most intense cases,
within from twenty-four to forty-eight hours bloody serum may exude
through the skin over the swollen parts, and finall