DISEASES OF THE PLEURA. 3(jl 



1 to 1| drachms, and bromide of potassium in doses of 1 drachm to 

 guard against reflex excitabiUty of the pneumo-gastric. This treatment, 

 however, should not be followed for more than five or six days, and 

 should then be replaced by the administration of arsenious acid in doses 

 of 15 grains per day, ground horse-chestnuts in doses of 3 ounces per 

 day, etc., etc. 



DISEASES OF THE PLEURA. 



Primary inflammation of the pleura is very rare in animals of the 

 bovine species, but secondary diseases of this membrane, on the other 

 hand, are frequent. 



ACUTE PLEURISY. 



Cruzel, Fabry, and a number of practitioners have described the 

 occurrence in working animals of acute pleurisy a fric/ore or sero- 

 fibrinous pleurisy in consequence of severe, sudden, variations in tem- 

 perature or prolonged chills. At the present day it seems fairly well 

 established that pneumonia, and not pleurisy, is commonest under such 

 conditions, and Moussu disclaims ever having seen primary pleurisy. 

 On the other hand, pleuritic effusions are very common in contagious 

 pleuro-pneumonia, secondary pleurisy due to pericarditis produced by 

 foreign bodies, septic broncho-pneumonia or broncho-pneumonia due to 

 foreign bodies, and the pleurisy which accompanies septicaemia con- 

 sequent on parturition, etc. These forms of disease, however, are not 

 simple sero-fibrinous pleurisy, but septic or suppurative pleurisy, still 

 little understood in veterinary surgery. 



Tuberculosis of the pleura, although very frequent, is rarely accom- 

 panied by marked exudation. Like secondary disseminated pleural 

 carcinoma, it usually assumes the vegetative and adhesive form, with 

 adhesions of greater or less extent between the lung and wall of the chest. 



Symptoms. In all these morbid conditions the symptoms vary 

 greatly, and it would be difficult to give an accurate general descrip- 

 tion of them. 



In acute pleurisy a frigore shivering attacks, moderate fever, dulness, 

 loss of appetite, interference with rumination, dryness of the skin, rapid 

 wasting and intercostal pain, first indicated by dull colic, constitute the 

 usual symptoms. 



The respiration is short and irregular, interrupted when the exuda- 

 tion is abundant. Pressure over the intercostal spaces produces pain, as 

 does strong percussion. Percussion reveals an area of dulness bounded 

 above by a horizontal line. 



Auscultation shows the respiratory murmur to have disappeared 

 throughout the zone of dulness, and reveals the presence of a soft 



