422 DISEASES OF THE PERITONEUM. 



in a case where acute abdominal pain was all the while dis- 

 tressing the animal. 



After the first bloodletting, give ten drachms of aloes in 

 solution or decoction.^ Flannels wrung out from water as 

 hot as it is possible to bear the hand in, continually applied 

 to the belly, will contribute much to soothe and abate pain. 

 Steaming the belly by suspending bags of hay dipped in 

 boiling water underneath it, is practised by the French 

 veterinarians. I prefer, myself, the application of a blister 

 to any fomentation. Five or six hours after the exhibition 

 of the drench we may commence giving aloetic clysters : 

 raking, first of all, to remove any sybala, should such appear 

 necessary ; in fact, doing all we can to promote the operation 

 of the cathartic. Rowels and setons are of no use whatever. 

 From what has been said, it will be seen, there is no important 

 diff'erence between the treatment of peritonitis and that of 

 enteritis ; so that, for any further information that may be 

 required, the reader may confidently turn to the account of 

 the latter. 



Chronic Peritonitis may prove the sequel, or ter- 

 mination, as it is sometimes called, of the acute form of 

 the disease ; though, as far as my experience has gone, I 

 hold it to be much oftener an idiopathic disease — frequently 

 a concomitant of inflammation of other serous membranes, 

 in particular the pleura. The serous membranes all fall into 

 disease simultaneously, and exhibit a morbid sympathy for 

 each other — the peritoneum for the pleura, the pleura for the 

 peritoneum ; the membranes of the brain, internal as well as 

 external, for both. A horse, from his third to his fifth year, 

 " catches cold,^^ catarrh follows, bronchitis comes on, pleurisy 

 ensues, peritonitis and ascites prove consequent, and the mem- 

 branes of the brain probably participate. There is prevailing 

 in the system a di^opsical diathesis, a disposition in every 

 serous structure, cellular tissue as well, to eff'usion, and the 

 animal probably dies ^' of the dropsy ;" a disease which has 

 been very likely induced by debility, either constitutional with 



' The decoction should be kept in every pliarmacy ready for use. The formula 

 for preparing it will be found at page 321. 



