CATTLE. 



The chance of success in the treatment of such a disease must be 

 little. The first object is to relieve the sad oppression under which 

 the animal labors, and that must be effected by puncturing the belly, 

 and suffering the fluid to escape. There is neither art nor danger 

 about the operation. The beast should be tied up close, and a side 

 line put on ; a puncture should be made with a lancet or trochar 

 under the belly, six or eight inches from the udder, and half as much 

 from the middle line of the belly, and on the right side — the milk 

 vein and the artery which accompanies it being carefully avoided. 

 The opening should not be larger than would admit the little finger ; 

 and if it be made with the trochar, the tube may be left in the wound 

 until the fluid has quite run out. 



The wound being thus small, there is no need for the often fruitless 

 care to close it again with adhesive plaster when the purpose for 

 which it was made has been effected. There will not only be no 

 danger, but manifest advantage, in a small drain of this kind being 

 left open ; for the fluid which may continue to be secreted will drib- 

 ble away during two or three days, and thus permit the peritoneal 

 membrane and the abdominal viscera (freed from the oppression 

 around them) to recover their healthy tone ; whereas, if the wound 

 be immediately closed, the fluid of dropsy will begin at once to 

 accumulate again, and there will be far less chance of effecting per- 

 manent benefit. The quantity of fluid that is sometimes got rid of 

 by means of this operation is very great. It is by no means uncom- 

 mon for twenty gallons to escape, and there are records of thirty-two 

 gallons having been drawn at once. There is little chance of perma- 

 nent cure in cases like these, for there must have been great disease 

 and disorganization in order to produce effusion to this extent, and 

 that disease must have been of long standing, and therefore not easy 

 to be removed. In addition to this, all the viscera of the abdomen 

 must have been debilitated, and have lost their natural tone and 

 function by the continued pressure and maceration. Still a cure is 

 worth attempting, for the practitioner has done little by the mere 

 temporary relief which the operation has afforded. 



In order to prevent the refilling of the belly, two objects must be 

 accomplished, namely, the determination of this fluid to some other 

 part where it shall be regularly discharged, and the restoration of the 

 general health of the animal, and, with this, the proper balance 

 between the exhalent and absorbent vessels. It is therefore usual to 

 give a dose of physic immediately after the operation, that the fluid 

 which might otherwise begin again to fill in the belly may be carried 

 off by the discharge thus established ; the physic is repeated as fre- 

 quently as the strength of the animal will permit. This is a way of 

 proceeding, however, not very favorable to the re-establishment of 

 uealth and strength, and therefore much greater reliance is placed 

 ill a course of di iretic medicine, with which tonics can be com- 



