DISEASES OF THE HEART AND ITS MEMBRANES. 663 



The treatment of idiopathic pericarditis must be directed to 

 allay pain and undue irritability. For this end aconite is re- 

 commended ; if pain be great, repeated doses of opium are to be 

 administered ; the bowels are to be kept regular by moderate 

 doses of oil, and the absorption of the effusion promoted by 

 diuretics. It was supposed at one time that calomel had the 

 power of causing the removal of the exudate, and it was conse- 

 quently largely employed; but its administration is now generally 

 condemned, and Sir Thomas Watson confesses, in the following 

 remarkable words, that the hope which he once cherished that 

 the inflammation could be controlled by the constitutional 

 influence of mercury has faded away. He says — " Pericarditis 

 has been known, not seldom, to spring up while the patient was 

 already under mercurial salivation. I am obliged therefore to 

 recant the advice which I \vas formerly in the habit of giving 

 in respect of mercury as a remedy for acute pericardial inflam- 

 mation." If debility be present, the weakened heart must be 

 supported and invigorated by moderate doses of stimulants in 

 combination with opium. Bleeding, except to relieve urgent 

 symptoms in the earlier stages of the disease, had better be 

 withheld, as there is a strong tendency to an early diminution 

 of the cardiac energy. Blisters are not called for in the earlier 

 stages of the disease, but their application may, in some rare 

 instances, be necessary to promote the absorption of the effusion. 

 Tonics, more especially the salts of iron, prove useful in pro- 

 moting the absorption of the effused fluids, and are to be given 

 alternately or in combination with diuretics or the iodide of 

 potassium. In the rheumatic form colchicum is indicated. 

 Digitalis, so highly recommended by some authors, appears to 

 me to act injuriously ; it destroys the appetite, is uncertain in its 

 action on the heart, and, if persevered in, its toxic, cumulative 

 effects are apt to cause serious derangement. 



To sum up, it may be stated that warm fomentations to the 

 the side, warm clothing, bandages to the legs, with careful 

 administration of remedies calculated to relieve such urgent 

 symptoms as may arise during the progress of the disease, and 

 allowing the animal a plentiful but not over-abundant supply 

 of easily digestible nutritious food, are the general principles of 

 safe treatment. If there be danger of death from hydrops 

 pericardii manifested by orthopnoea, obstruction to tlie venous 



