266 Vetermary Medicine. 



gas is abundant, prominence of the chest on that side ; 5th, There 

 are also more or less distress and anxiety, difficult breathing, quick, 

 weak, rapid pulse, and other signs of illness. 



Some cases of this kind recover spontaneously or with the 

 liquid effusion with which they are associated ; in traumatic cases 

 the wound is sometimes sealed up by a pleuritic exudation which 

 here becomes a curative process ; while in some examples of val- 

 vular wound of the lung or walls of the chest death may ensue 

 in a period varying from a few minutes and upwards to weeks. 



Treatment is limited to the prevention of the ingress of air 

 through an external wound where that exists ; the employment of 

 opiates and other agents to moderate attendant suffering ; to 

 measures calculated to moderate the intensity of resulting pleu- 

 risy, and, in cases where there is imminent danger from accumu- 

 lation of gas, to the puncture of the chest and the careful withdrawal 

 of the gas by aspiration. If necessary sterilized air may be 

 made to replace the aspirated gas. 



PYO-PNEUMOTHORAX, EMPYEMA. 



Causes, septic cocci entering through wound or blood. Symptoms, those 

 of hydrothorax, with prostration, fcetor, and it may be issue of pus. 

 Treatment by antiseptic injections. 



A purulent fluid in the pleural cavity may be found in ordinary 

 pleurisy, but is much more likely to supervene in traumatic forms, 

 in which the pus cocci reach the cavity through the wound of the 

 bronchia, alimentary canal, or chest walls. 



The symptoms are essentially those of pneumothorax, with 

 greater prostration, and in certain cases a distinct feverish smell 

 or fcetor of the breath, or the escape of pus through a wound. 

 In treatment the difference from pneumothorax is mainly in the 

 antiseptic character of the injections and the freer emploj^ment 

 of stimulants and tonics. Salt, salicylic acid, borax, peroxide 

 of hydrogen, aluminium acetate, or potassium permanganate so- 

 lutions may be used. Tonics (quinia) and antiseptics (sulphites, 

 salicylates, iron) may be given. 



