356 DISEASES OF BKEATHING. 



The cough during the first stage is dry and more or less jDainful, 

 but not so painful as that of pleurisy, which is also short and sup- 

 pressed. After a few days, the cough becomes soft and moist, and 

 is accompanied by a copious discharge from the nostrils. If the 

 ear be applied to the side, a gurgling sound caused by the 

 passage of air through the inflamed tubes, which are more or less 

 blocked up with phlegm, "will be heard. 



Contagious Pleuro-Pneumonia. — See page 466. 



General Treatment of Pneumonia, Pleurisy, and 



Bronchitis. 



PRINCIPLES OF TREATMENT.— Pneumonia, pleurisy, and bronchitis 

 api^ear as a rule to be diseases which have their respective local manifestations 

 in the lungs, pleura, and bronchial tubes, and which have a definite course to 

 run. Our efforts, therefore, should be directed to tiding our patient over the 

 dangerous period during which the disease remains in his system ; careful 

 nursing being the best means by which we can accomplish that desirable 

 object. 



Veterinary surgeons and farriers of former days killed so many horses by 

 the indiscriminate and heroic manner in which they bled their patients, that 

 the inevitable reaction has caused the almost complete abandonment of 

 bleeding in equine practice. It is, however, the one sovereign means for 

 reducing high arterial pressure (p. 17), which is fj-equently met with in cases 

 of chest diseases ; and its necessity will be indicated or disproved by the state 

 of the pulse. With respect to the pulse of high arterial pressure, Hamilton 

 says : " The mere feeling imparted to the finger is deceptive, for a pulse of 

 high tension may be either large or small. The high tension may be associated 

 with an exhausted heart, and hence the pulse may be small, a condition which, 

 as Mahomed rightly remarked, is usually thought to require stimulation, but 

 which in reality is much benefited by depletion. Of all the characters of a 

 high-pressure pulse, according to the same authority, the least constant is 

 hardness and incompressibility. Many pulses of high tension certainly 

 possess this character, but not all. A pulse of undue length and of a pushing 

 character is a raiore reliable indication. It is long, persistent, and hard. It 

 is the pulsus tardus, or ' long pulse,' of the older physicians, the expression 

 of a heart labouring against undue resistance." In the disea^^es we are con- 

 sidering, there is great waste of tissue, with little or no appetite, and, conse- 

 quently, rapid emaciation. Even if food were forced on the patient, he would 

 be unable to digest it. There is, therefore, imminent danger of his .'■inking 

 from exhaustion before the disease has run its course. Hence, we should 

 refrain from bleeding, which under ordinary circumstances would have a 

 debilitating effect, unless when it is clearly indicated, as it is in a state of high 

 arterial pressure. 



C ounter-irritation (chiefly blisters) as a relief for acute chest inflammation, 

 has been used in the same rule-of-thumb manner as bleeding, and has 

 accordingly wrought great harm on horses. Its principles of application are 

 discussed on page 17. We are all familiar with the fact that counter-irritation 

 applied to one part of the system, has the effect of diminishing congestion of 

 blood in another part, as for instance, blistering the back of the neck, or 

 placing the feet in a bath of warm water and mustard, in the case, with our- 

 selves, of "fulness of blood to the head." As the state of the internal tem- 

 perature will be a fairly safe guide to the degree of violence of the inflam- 

 mation ; we may accept the fact of the internal temperature being high, as 



