THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 77 



of the disease. The author has made several post mortem exami- 

 nations of pleuritic cases, and has always found the substance of 

 the lungs more or less involved, and a question has arisen in his 

 mind whether or not the pleuritic affection was antecedent to the 

 pulmonary. Some physicians, and among them Mr. Percivall, 

 doubt if " inflammation is ever fully developed in the pleura with- 

 out extending to the lung, or vice versa. It is not a question I 

 shall trouble myself to solve ; all that is necessary for us to know, 

 in my opinion, is the fact, that, when inflammation is invading 

 these parts, it is sufficiently predominant in one to induce us to 

 regard that as the chief or principal seat of disease, and to treat 

 the ;ase in accordance with such views ; and that it is, compara- 

 tively, rarely so equal in its attack of the two parts as to lead us 

 to believe that one is quite as much the object of our care as the 

 other. There are cases enough of pleuro-pneumonia, perhaps 

 more than of any other description ; still I contend, that in almost 

 all of them we shall find either the lungs or the pleura to be the 

 part primarily and principally affected, and as such, as I before 

 observed, to be the especial object of treatment." 



Symptoms of Pleurisy. — Like most forms of acute and febrile 

 diseases, pleurisy commences with uneasiness, puffing and blowing, 

 and pain. One feature about this disease, which distinguishes it 

 from all others, is, that the patient is very unwilling to turn in a cir- 

 cular direction ; he will turn his head and gaze anxiously at the 

 sides, expressive of pain in that region ; but if you attempt to 

 move his body round, he utters something like a grunt, or sup- 

 pressed groan, indicative of the pain excited by the movement. 

 The surface of the body has a hot, dry feel, showing beyond a 

 doubt that the insensible perspiration is suppressed. Still, how- 

 ever, we must bear in mind that the insensible perspiration may 

 be quite profuse without becoming sensible; for if the atmosphere 

 be warm and dry, and thus able to carry off, in the form of vapor, 

 the fluid which is poured out on the skin, it cannot be perceived, 

 and we may be deceived in our diagnosis.* Every one knows 



* Although no evaporation from the skin can take place when the surround- 

 ing atmosphere is loaded with vapor, the secretion of the perspiratory glands 

 continues ; and does so even when the skin is immersed in fluid, provided tho 

 fluid be of high temperature. Hence we see that the conditions under which it 



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