SWELLED BELLY, SHEATH, BREAST, ETC. 303 



with aqueous fluid, the result being diffused, puffy swellings, 

 with no defined limits, but most prominent where dependent. 

 These swellings have a soft feel, and pit on pressure. 



The Symptoms of an attack of anasarca are — Tumour of 

 the belly, &c., and upon the loose skin between the arms 

 and on the breast. These, with some others, are the ordinary 

 situations of anasarca ; though it does not always happen that 

 these parts are simultaneously affected. In general, for 

 instance, the legs are only secondarily attacked; or the 

 tumour first appears on the body, the arms, and thighs, and 

 thence gravitates to the legs. At times the tumefaction is 

 rapid : I have known it spread in a few hours to an extent 

 which rendered the animal incapable of locomotion. Although 

 the horse, 'when first attacked, evinces no pain, and seems 

 unconscious of what is going forward, yet — as though the 

 presence of the fluid begat inflammation — the pulse and 

 respiration become accelerated as the dropsy proceeds. A 

 common accompaniment of the irritation now excited is a 

 sympathetic inflammation of the air-passages : the animal 

 coughs up a straw-coloured fluid; at the same time there is, 

 probably, a bloody froth issuing from the nostrils. Where 

 anasarca takes this turn, unless an immediate check be put 

 to the disorder, it is likely to end in farcy or glanders. 

 Now and then it happens that the serous, to the exclusion 

 of the mucous membranes, will partake of this dropsical 

 disposition ; and the animal consequently be in great danger 

 of perishing from water in the chest, or belly, or head. 



Causes. — Horses that are turned out to strawyard are 

 the frequent subjects of anasarca : they leave a warm 

 atmosphere for a cold and humid one ; a generous diet for 

 poor food ; and they, drink ad libitum of water which may 

 not be of a wholesome description. 



The Treatment, early in the disorder, is of the anti- 

 phlogistic character, however it may be necessary to modify it 

 afterwards. I take away from four to six quarts of blood, 

 and repeat the evacuation, to half that quantity, if required. 

 After the bloodletting, I give an ounce of purging mass, 

 combined with a drachm of calomel. I then insert rowels 



