472 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



Treatment. — In all cases of this kind the treatment will succeed in 

 proportion to the injury done to the vessel, and the amount of obstruction 

 to the blood-flow resulting from the degree of dilatation, and the extent 

 to which the vessel has been narrowed by the coagulation of fibrine within 

 it. Very many cases are hopeless, and if they do not die it would be real 

 economy to have them destroyed at once. Some recover, only, however, 

 to be a future trouble to whoever may possess them. 



These facts should be present to the mind of all persons who are called 

 upon to treat cases of this kind. 



As we have already indicated, the treatment of this disease is very 

 uncertain. The afi"ected animal should be placed in a well -littered box, 

 and everything should be done to keep up the strength of the body. Food 

 easy of digestion is of the first importance here. Malt meal and linseed, 

 crushed oats and bran, with a very small quantity of sweet chaff', all well 

 scalded, will be found for the most part suitable. 



It is no use trying to destroy the parasites; they are beyond our reach, 

 and cannot be influenced by medicines; but they may sooner or later leave 

 the vessel of their own accord and pass into the intestine. 



When pain appears it must be combated and controlled by the 

 administration of repeated small doses of opium. A little bicarbonate of 

 potash with chloride of sodium may be administered with the food, and 

 repeated small doses of turpentine and aromatic spirits of ammonia should 

 be given in combination with tincture of cinchona as a stimulant and tonic. 



ATHEROMA (ENDARTERITIS DEFORMANS) 



This is a disease most commonly seen in the arch of the aorta, or at a 

 little distance posterior to that point. 



The early stages of the disease are marked l)y the appearance of small 

 greyish -white spots and patches which are noticed scattered over the 

 interior of the vessel, slightly raised above the surface, and somewhat 

 irregular in size and in form. 



The inner surface of the aorta is perfectly smooth, but somewhat 

 irregular over the seat of the patches. The endothelium lining the vessel 

 remains for the present quite intact, but the inflammatory new growth 

 situated beneath it raises the endothelium in the direction of the interior 

 of the vessel. 



In the second stage the cell proliferation, or growth, to which the 

 patches are due, undergoes a process of fatty change or degeneration, and 

 becomes soft, yellow, and cheese-like, or assumes what is known as an 

 atheromatous condition {aOt'iptj = meal). 



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