ts at most only a few hours, and if it did
all these, it could not much matter. Quitman says, that it
constricts the capillaries. If this is true, a thing of which I am
not certain, is it not reasonable to suppose that as with other
vaso-constrictors, e.g., digitalis, there is a selective action on
the part of the capillaries (not of the drug) and those that need
it most, i.e., those of the affected feet in laminitis, are
constricted most? All body cells exert this selective action in the
assimilation of food, the tissue needing most any particular kind
of food circulating in the blood, gets it.

Our first consideration in laminitis should be to remove the
cause--to stop the absorption of the toxin in the intestinal tract
that is producing the condition. This we accomplish by partially
unloading it by the use of the active hypodermic cathartics and
stopping absorption by the surest and most harmless of intestinal
astringents. Whether the astonishingly prompt and certain action of
alum in this case is due wholly to its astringent action or whether
alum combines with the harmful bacterial products chemically and
forms an innocuous combination, I can only surmise, and it is
unimportant. At any rate, when alum is administered, the onslaught
of the disease is promptly stopped. Irreparable damage may already
have been done if the case is a neglected one, but whether
administered early or late in acute attacks, the progress of the
disease is stopped immediately.

The same authority may be profitably quoted in the matter of handling
all cases wherein the revulsive effect of agents which diminish vascular
tension are chiefly indicated or necessary as adjuvants. In this
connection, Campbell says:

The early and vigorous administration of aconitin in laminitis to
its full physiological effect, is more logical. Assuming that
laminitis is due to absorption of harmful products from the
intestinal tract permitted through the deranged functioning of the
organs of digestion, or assuming that it is due to an extension of
the inflammation from the mucosa to the sensitive lamina, or that
it is a reflex from a sudden chilling of the skin, we have in any
of these conditions a disturbed circulation, and aconitin is the
first and foremost of circulation "equalizers." Furthermore, in