COSTIVENESS. 205 



This disease has sometimes been fatally misunderstood. A great deal 

 of irritation exists in the intestinal membrane generally, and in the lower 

 part of the rectum particularly. The faeces passing over this denuded 

 surface causes a considerable degree of pain, and there is much straining, 

 and a very small bit or portion of faeces is evacuated. This has often been 

 seen by the careless observer ; and, as he has taken it as an indication of 

 costiveness, some drastic purgative has been administered, and the animal 

 quickly killed. 



No one that had ascertained the real nature of the disease would ad- 

 minister calomel in any form or combination ; but the anodyne mixture 

 as an enema, and also administered by the mouth, is the only medicine from 

 which benefit can be expected. 



COSTIVENESS 



is a disease when it becomes habitual. It is connected with disease of the 

 intestinal canal. Many dogs have a dry constipated habit, often greatly 

 increased by the bones on which they are too frequently fed. This favours 

 the disposition to mange and to many diseases depending on morbid secre- 

 tions. It produces indigestion, encourages worms, blackens the teeth, and 

 causes fetid breath. The food often accumulates in the intestines, and the 

 consequence is inflammation of these organs. A dog should never be 

 suffered to remain costive more than a couple of days. An aloetic ball or 

 some Epsom salts should then be administered ; and this failing to produce 

 the desired effect, the castor-oil mixture, with spirits of buckthorn and 

 white poppies, should be administered, and the use of the clyster-pipe re- 

 sorted to. It may be necessary to introduce the finger or the handle of a 

 spoon when the faecal matter is more than usually hard, and it is with diffi- 

 culty broken down : small doses of castor-oil should be afterwards resorted 

 to, and recourse be occasionally had to boiled liver, which the dog will 

 rarely refuse. The best means, however, of preventing costiveness in dogs, 

 as well as in men, is regular exercise. A dog who is kept chained up in 

 a kennel should be taken out and have a certain quantity of exercise once 

 in the twenty-four hours. When this cannot be done, the food should con- 

 sist chiefly of well-boiled farinaceous matter. 



DROPSY. 



Another disease, which is not confined to the abdominal cavity, is 

 dropsy : but, as in the dog it most commonly assumes that form which is 

 termed ascites, or dropsy of the abdomen, it may be noticed in this place. 

 It is seldom an idiopathic or primary affection, but is generally the con- 

 sequence of some other disease, most commonly of an inflammatory 

 kind. 



Dropsy is a collection of fluid in some part of the frame, either from 

 increased exhalation, or from diminished absorption, the consequence of 

 inflammation. The divisions of dropsy are into active and passive, or 

 acute and chronic. The causes are also very properly arranged as pre- 

 disposing and exciting. The diseases on which dropsy most frequently 

 supervenes are fevers and visceral inflammations and obstructions. The 

 dog is peculiarly subject to ascites or dropsy of the belly, and the quantity 

 of fluid contained in the abdomen is sometimes almost incredible. It is 



