270 PNEUMONIA. INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 



haggard countenance of bronchitis ; and in bronchitis the horse rarely or never 

 gazes at his flanks. His is a dread of suffocation more than a feeling of pain. 

 The head is protruded, and the nostrils distended, and the mouth and the breath 

 intensely hot. The nose is injected from the earliest period ; and soon after- 

 wards there is not merely injection, but the membrane is uniformly and 

 intensely red. The variation in this intensity is anxiously marked by the 

 observant practitioner ; and he regards with fear and with despair the livid or 

 dirty brownish hue that gradually creeps on. 



The unfavourable symptoms are, increased coldness of the ears and feet, if 

 that be possible ; partial sweats, grinding of the teeth, evident weakness, stag- 

 gering, the animal not lying down. The pulse becomes quicker, and weak and 

 fluttering ; the membrane of the nose paler, but of a dirty hue ; the animal 

 growing stupid, comatose. At length he falls, but he gets up immediately. 

 For awhile he is up and down almost every minute, until he is no longer able 

 to rise ; he struggles severely ; he piteously groans ; the pulse becomes more 

 rapid, fainter, and he dies of suffocation. The disease sometimes runs its 

 course with strange rapidity. A horse has been destroyed by pure pneu- 

 monia in twelve hours. The vessels ramifying over the cells have yielded 

 to the fearful impulse of the blood, and the lungs have presented one mass of 

 congestion. 



The favourable symptoms are, the return of a little warmth to the extremities 

 the circulation beginning again to assume its natural character, and, next to 

 this, the lying down quietly and without uneasiness ; showing us that he is 

 beginning to do without the auxiliary muscles. These are good symptoms, and 

 they will rarely deceive. 



Congestion is a frequent termination of pneumonia. Not only are the vessels 

 gorged the congestion which accompanies common inflammation but their 

 parietes are necessarily so thin, in order that the change in the blood may take 

 place although they are interposed, that they are easily ruptured, and the cells 

 are filled with blood. This effused blood soon coagulates, and the lung, when 

 cut into, presents a black, softened, pulpy kind of appearance, termed, by the 

 farrier and the groom, rottenness^ and being supposed by them to indicate an old 

 disease. It proves only the violence of the disease, the rupture of many a vessel 

 surcharged with blood ; and it also proves that the disease is of recent date, for 

 in no great length of time, the serous portion of the blood becomes absorbed, the 

 more solid one becomes organized, the cells are obliterated, and the lung is 

 hepatized, or bears considerable resemblance to liver. 



In every case of pneumonia early and anxious recourse should be had to aus- 

 cultation. Here, again, is the advantage of being perfectly acquainted with the 

 deep distant murmur presented by the healthy lung. This sound is most 

 distinct in the young horse, and especially if he is a little out of condition. On 

 such a horse the tyro should commence his study of the exploration of the 

 chest. There he will make himself best acquainted with the respiratory mur- 

 mur in its full state of development. He should next take an older and some- 

 what fatter horse ; he will there recognize the same sound, but fainter, more 

 distant. In still older animals, there will sometimes be a little difficulty in 

 detecting it at all. Repeated experiments of this kind will gradually teach the 

 examiner what kind of healthy murmur he should expect from every horse that 

 is presented to him, and thus he will be better enabled to appreciate the different 

 sounds exhibited under disease. 



If pneumonia exists to any considerable degree, this murmur is soon changed 

 for, or mingled with, a curious crepitating sound, which, having been once 

 heard, cannot afterwards be mistaken. It is caused by the infiltration of blood 

 into the air-cells. Its loudness and perfect character will characterize the inten- 



