WATER IX THE CHEST. 89 



water escapes. The stylet must be withdrawn as soon as 

 resistance to the introduction of the trocar is felt. If 

 the hole in the trocar should be stopped up with lymph 

 or other substance, clear it with a probe. When clear 

 and within the cavity, water will flow if there is any in 

 that particular part. The trocar must not be kept in 

 unnecessarily long, as air will penetrate the chest through 

 its orifice. The operation is sometimes repeated several 

 times in the course of treatment. In an unsuccessful case 

 Percivall withdrew ten gallons of water. After death, 

 four days after the operation., there were six gallons more 

 in the chest and a quart in the pericardium. 



Symptoms. — Eats daintily; looks disspirited; on the 

 approach of some one, rouses up for a moment only; 

 short, quick, labored respiration, becoming more and more 

 manifest as the chest fills with water. When the chest 

 is nearly full, the horse exerts its utmost power ; seldom 

 lies dowm, but when it does, lies on the side containing 

 the most water, and is soon up again. D'Arboval says 

 the spaces between the ribs are enlarged. The pulse, at 

 first small and quick, becomes accelerated and fainter as 

 the disease advances, till it cannot be felt at all. Horse 

 steps with fore legs wide apart and stiffened ; gait often 

 unsteady and reeling ; breast, belly and sheath show drop- 

 sical swellings, which by degrees fall into the legs. 



Auscultation and percussion reveal no sound, unless 

 there is gas or air in the chest, w T hich is rarely the case. 

 Percivall says that if an assistant taps one side of the 

 chest while the surgeon holds his ear to the other, the 

 presence of water may be ascertained. In a recorded and 

 successfully treated case, the sound of the water was com- 

 j:>arable to that of water in a rolling cask. 



Remedy. — Digitalis; powdered cantharides ; potassium 

 nitrate twice daily for a week. Then potassium iodide and 

 iron salts. Pilocarpine useful in human patients. Iodine 

 ointment and rubefacients externally, or insert under the 



