126 DISEASES or THE LUNGS. 



as Delafond affirms/^ asks D^Arboval : "we dare not assert so 

 much. What renders it so much to be dreaded, is the fact 

 of its so often spreading to the lungs, when, indeed, there is 

 too much chance of its proving mortal; at least, cases of 

 complete recovery are then very few indeed/^ 



The ordinary tendency of an attack of pleurisy is the 

 augmentation and accumulation of its natural serous or 

 watery secretion, with or without the accompaniment of 

 effusion of solid lymph or albuminous material. This is, 

 moreover, particularly to be looked for when the disease, 

 acute at the beginning, has moderated down in its violence, 

 and especially is to be expected in the sub-acute and chronic 

 stage of the disease. Both in the acute and chronic stages 

 we may have suppuration ; while in the former, when very 

 violent and quickly fatal, we may have once or twice found 

 the membrane in a gangrenous condition. When pus is 

 poured out, the matter is commonly seen in flaky masses 

 adhering to the surface of the membrane, or else floating 

 about in the effused water. Cases have occurred in which 

 it has collected and formed abscess in the side of the 

 thorax. 



Gangrene, though very rarely, is now and then occurring 

 as a termination of pleurisy. The cases I have met with 

 have been remarkable for intensity of inflammation and 

 severity of suff'ering. I will relate one. 



In 1830, a four-year-old horse was discovered at seven 

 o'clock in the morning, in his stable, sweating profusely; 

 heaving hard and quick at the flanks, and puffing at an 

 equal rate at the nostrils ; pulse but very indistinctly to be 

 felt; mouth hot and clammy; legs intensely cold; head 

 hanging down, and countenance betraying serious illness; 

 eyes and nose reddened, the latter moist with yellowish 

 sanious matter; breath fetid, as well as mouth. When 

 pressed upon the side, he flinched and turned his head, and 

 evinced much soreness. 



As soon as he was got dry and warm from the cold 

 sweat he was in, he was bled ; scarcely, however, had two 

 quarts of dark thick blood flowed before he began to reel. 



