DROPSY OF THE BELLY. 169 



hips appear prominent through the skin : the hair stares also, and 

 the feel of the coat is peculiarly harsh. It may be distinguished 

 from pregnancy by the teats, which always enlarge as gestation 

 advances ; neither has the impregnated belly, however full, that 

 tight tense feel, nor the shining appearance, observed in dropsy : 

 there may be also foetal inequalities distinguished in it ; and when 

 pregnancy is at all advanced, the young may be felt to move. 

 The most unequivocal mode, however, of detecting the presence 

 of water is by the touch. If the right hand be laid on one side 

 of the belly, and the other side is gently struck with the left, an 

 undulating motion will be perceived, exactly similar to what would 

 be felt by placing one hand on a bladder of water, and striking it 

 with the other. 



Treatment of ascites, or dropsy of the helly. — The medical 

 treatment, in these cases, is seldom attended with success, because 

 the complaint itself is seldom primary, but the consequence of 

 some other destructive chronic affection, which has probably already 

 committed fatal ravages on the constitution. Now and then, how- 

 ever, I have seen attacks of ascites apparently not preceded by 

 either of these affections ; and in these I have sometimes succeeded 

 in obtaining an evacuation of the water, and in preventing a re- 

 currence of it also. But such instances are so inferior in point of 

 number to the others, th^t, in general terms, ventral dropsy may 

 be described as a most fatal disease. 



Paracentesis abdominis, or tapping, holds out the most rational 

 hope. I have repeatedly tapped dogs ; from some of which I have 

 drawn off many quarts of fluid, sometimes of a gelatinous consist- 

 ence, at others simply serous and thin. In some cases I have re- 

 peated the operation two or three times, which has tended to 

 prolong life; but eventually the same fate awaited the greater 

 number. The operation of tapping a dog does not differ in any 

 respect from the same process in the human. A trochar is the 

 most proper instrument for the purpose, but the operation may be 

 performed by a lancet, and the puncture should be made directly 

 in the linea alba, or median line of the belly, about midway be- 



