168 DROPSY. 



one side, to ensure a ready closing of the cavity against the entrance 

 of the external air. Carefully introduce a small trochar, rather 

 upward and backward, so far only as just to penetrate the plein*a, 

 which will be known by a gush of fluid : now withdraw the trochar 

 and push the canula a little forward, to evacuate the fluid efl^ectu- 

 ally. If both cavities are found dropsical, open the other side also; 

 which done, close the opening or openings with adhesive plaister, 

 and bandage over it. 



DROPSY OF THE BELLY (ASCITES). 



This is not an uncommon disease with dogs ; and a prodigious 

 quantity of water is sometimes accumulated within the abdomen. 

 The causes of the disease are various. Among the most common 

 are long continued asthma ; a diseased state, of either the liver or 

 spleen ; tabies mesentericus ; and old, virulent, and wholly neglect- 

 ed skin affections, particularly mange. The serous accumulation 

 is sometimes slow, at others very rapid ; and the symptoms that 

 precede the attack are, of course, as various as the causes that 

 produce it. In some cases the forerunner is a harsh cough ; in 

 other instances nothing is observed but a ravenous appetite^ ; and 

 the dog, although he may eat an additional quantity, yet he will 

 waste" in flesh. Gradually, however, his belly begins to swell, and 

 grows round, hard, and shining. The breathing becomes quick 

 and laborious, and he lies down with difficulty ; he drinks much ; 

 and, though in the early stages he may eat heartily, yet, as the 

 disease advances, his appetite fails, and, sooner or later, he be- 

 comes suffocated from the impediment to the free action of the 

 lungs. 



Dropsy cf the belly may be distinguished, from fat by the par- 

 ticular tumour that the belly forms, which, in dropsy, hangs pen- 

 dulous, while, at the same time, the back bone sticks up, and the 



8 In these cases it is more than probable that the mesenteric glands have 

 taken on disease: when dropsy is the consequence of diseased liver, the appe- 

 tite is not usually so ravenous. 



