] 14 PLEURISY. 



stitch will start up, and he will again begin to paw 

 his litter. He will prepare to lie down in order to 

 try whether change of posture will give him a little • 

 ease ; he will put himself in the position for it again 

 and again : but he is afraid ; he shifts, crouches, bends, 

 trembles, sweats, sometimes groans, and then all at 

 once he drops as if he were shot. 



It will only, however, be for a short time that he 

 can lie down. The muscles of his shoulders and chest 

 are required in order to enable him to accomplish the 

 now difficult act of breathing. His pulse gets quicker, 

 smaller, and yet more wiry ; patches of sweat break 

 out all over him, and particularly about his sides. 

 All at once, however, he appears to be getting well ; 

 the pulse drops perhaps twenty beats in a minute ; the 

 face becomes more composed ; the horse looks better ; 

 he is quieter; the pain has evidently abated; but other 

 symptoms, and fearful ones, appear. The flanks, which 

 before were comparatively quiet, are now worked vio- 

 lently. He obstinately stands fixed like the horse with 

 pneumonia ; he not only, like him, is unwilling to 

 move, but, at the slightest motion, his pulse beats ra- 

 pidly ; he looks wildly around him ; every limb trem- 

 bles, and he appears as if he would instantly fall ; but 

 he recovers himself, and slowly moves with a stagger- 

 ing gait. The short, stitchy inspiration is now gone ; 

 it is all labour ; protracted suffocation. Swellings 

 appear under the chest ; the pulse becomes faster, but 

 weaker than it was before ; till at last the worn-out 

 animal falls suddenly and dies. 



The natural consequence of inflammation of a serous 

 membrane has for some time been going on. The 



