38 DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS. 



Consumption. 



The term consumption, wasting of the body, strictly speaking, implies 

 pulmonary tuberculosis, an affection characterized by the presence in the 

 lungs of a morbid product called tubercle. This deposit eventually under- 

 goes softening, becomes liquefied, ulcerations follow, and destruction of 

 the lungs result. 



Causation. — Every influence which appears to affect the health has 

 been alleged to be a cause of consumption, by impairing the nourishment 

 of the body and inducing poverty of the blood. Bad air, deficiency and 

 poor quantity of food are prominent factors. Poor food injures the mucous 

 membrane of the stomach and intestines, and produces repeated attacks 

 of irritation in those parts. That the seeds of consumption are planted by 

 breeding in and in, is quite probable. 



Antecedent diseases of the respiratory organs may induce the affection 

 directly, and other serious derangements tend to its development. Jacobi 

 reports that a dog which ate the sputa of his master, ill with the disease, 

 died of consumption; an evidence of communicability. 



Some authors include asthma among the causes of consumption. This 

 is not the case however, as the presence of asthma seems to afford protec- 

 tion against pulmonary tuberculosis. 



Symptoms. — In many cases, latent symptoms exist without sufficient 

 prominence to excite suspicion, and a cough dates the beginning of the 

 disease. The number of respirations is somewhat increased, the heart's 

 action irritable, and the pulse accelerated. The loss of flesh is perceptible, 

 the appetite somewhat diminished, the coat becomes staring and the hair 

 falls out. Fever sets in and runs at intervals. The strength is obviously 

 impaired. Emaciation gradually becomes extreme, diarrhoea sets in, the 

 animal becomes exhausted and dies. The symptoms and course of the 

 disease are modified by complications, or as other organs are involved. 



Treatment. — In the earlier stages certain agents may be employed with 

 a hope of arresting the disease; the results will however in the majority of 

 cases prove negative. The compound syrup hypophosphites may be given 

 in teaspoonful doses before feeding, and cod liver oil in tablespoonful 

 doses two or three times daily with the food. The diet should be nutri- 

 tious and concentrated. Pain and distress demand the administration o'v 

 opiates. 



Apparent to all is the utter hopelessness of recovery after the lungs are 

 materially affected. When the disease is suspected, but the symptoms are 

 insufficiently pronounced to sustain a positive diagnosis, a radical change 

 of air should, if possible, be tried. If improvement does not follow then 

 an abrupt ending of the animal's sufferings is in mercy justified. 



