INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 575 



and on cutting into it we would find it spongy and filled with a reddish frothy serum, and 

 where, as in the first stage, by putting the ear to the animaPs side, we should merely hear 

 slightly roughened breathing, you will now in the second stage be able to hear distinct 

 crepitation a sound somewhat similar to that produced by placing your tongue between the 

 front teeth and drawing the air gently in over it, or the sound produced by rubbing a lock of 

 hair between the finger and thumb close to the ear. Percussion, too, at first will elicit the 

 usually resonant sound, but as the air-cells get engorged this will, of course, give place to dulness. 



The third stage is called the stage of hepatisation or solidification. The lung is no 

 longer spongy, neither will you any longer hear moist crepitation, but, instead of this, tubular 

 breathing that is, the sound of the air passing through the larger bronchi, and conveyed 

 to your ear through the media of the solid parts of the inflamed lung. If the disease gets 

 on to the fourth stage it will be that of purulent infiltration, where the tissue of the lung 

 suppurates. 



These, then, are the commonest physical signs in one of the worst cases. If, however, as 

 generally happens under sensible treatment, the disease should not go on to the last stage, 

 we shall find, along with a gradual abatement of fever and all bad symptoms, signs that the 

 solidification of the lung is being absorbed, the air thus once more getting into it, and we, there- 

 fore, again hear the moist crepitation of the second stage.' 



Symptoms. The disease is ushered in by restlessness, thirst, and some degree of rigor, which 

 often escapes observation. It is seldom, therefore, until the animal is really ill, that any notice 

 is taken of him. There is evidence of pain now, and the breathing is quickened and laborious. 

 " The extended head," Youatt graphically tells us, " the protruded tongue, the anxious blood- 

 shot eye, the painful heaving of the hot breath, the obstinacy with which the animal sits up 

 hour after hour until his feet slip from under him, and the eye closes, and the head droops 

 through extreme fatigue, yet in a moment being aroused again by the feeling of instant suffoca- 

 tion, are symptoms that cannot be mistaken." The italics are ours. 



Add to these symptoms a disagreeable short cough, dry at first, but soon accompanied by 

 the hacking up of pellets of rusty-coloured mucus. Extensive lung inflammation may go on 

 to death without any cough at all. Unlike the breathing of pleurisy, where inspiration is 

 short, painful, and interrupted, that in pneumonia has expiration longer, if anything, than 

 inspiration. We generally have, in addition, constipation of the bowels, high-coloured urine, and 

 perspiration on the internal parts of the thighs. 



Pneumonia may often be complicated with pleurisy, or with bronchitis, or inflammation of 

 the pericardium, the liver, or even the peritoneum itself, which latter is more rare. Again, fits 

 are not infrequent in pneumonia, especially if it is occasioned by distemper. These fits are 

 adynamic in their character, and depend on the anaemic condition of the blood, and should 

 therefore never be treated by setons and such rough remedies. 



Treatment. Such heroic treatment as that by bleeding, mercurials, and antimony, cannot, 

 in our opinion, be too highly condemned. A simple mode of treatment is better, and trusting 

 largely to Nature unencumbered. Remove the patient, first and foremost, to a well-ventilated 

 place, where he may be kept quiet, cool, and comfortable, and at the same time have plenty 

 of fresh air. If a short-haired dog, he had better be dressed in an old blanket, and placed 

 upon an ample bed of shavings or soft straw. 



Let him have a dose of castor oil and buckthorn to open his bowels. Blisters will be of 

 great benefit, the hair first being removed from the chest* 



* Cantharides oil, or glacial acetic acid. 



