500 



the following solution: Acetate of aluminium, 1 per cent.; alum, one- 

 half to 1 per cent.; bromide of potash, 1 to 2 per cent.; water, 100. 



CEDEMATOUS PNEUMONIA. 



Synonyms: Adynamic i^neumonia; hospital or stable pneumonia; 

 influenza; Pectoralis equorum; 'pleuropneumonia; Contagiosa equorum; 

 Brustseuche, German. 



Definition. — This disease is the adynamic pneumonia of the older vet- 

 erinarians who did not recognize any essential difference in its nature 

 from an ordinary inflammation of the lungs, except in the profound 

 sedation of the force of the animal affected with it, which is a promi- 

 nent symptom from the outset of the disease. Again, this same pros- 

 tration of the vital force of the animal, combined with the staggering 

 movement and want of coordination of the muscles of the animal, 

 caused it for a long time to be confounded with influenza, with which 

 at certain periods it certainly has a strong analogy of symptoms, but 

 from which, as from sporadic pneumonia, it can be separated very read- 

 ily if a case can be followed throughout its wbole course. 



OLdematous pneumonia is a specific inflammation of the lungs, pro- 

 ducing an interstitial cedema and inflammation of the tissues of these 

 organs, and a constitutional disturbance or fever of a low or adynamic 

 type. It causes a profound sedation of the nervous system which may 

 be so great as to cause death. It is sometimes attended by pleurisy, 

 inflammatiou of the heart, or septic complications which also prove 

 fatal. 



Etiology. — While, as an infectious disease, its original cause is due to 

 a specific virus, there are many predisposing causes which act as impor- 

 tant factors in aiding in its development. Old horses, especially those 

 which have been rendered anoemic or debilitated by hard use or by di- 

 minished quantities of food, and those which are obliged to work con- 

 stantly in water or are exposed to continual cold and wet, as in the case 

 of canal horses, old hack horses and their congeners, and those younger 

 animals which have a sudden weakened vitality produced by being put 

 too rapidly to work, or to too hard work before their muscles are har- 

 dened and their organs have been accustomed to the unusual demands 

 placed upon them by want of training, are much more susceptible to 

 the contagion than adult animals in a good condition of health. Lym- 

 phatic, narrow-chested, thick-hided and big-hoofed animals will contract 

 the disease much more easily than the finer-skinned, richer-muscled 

 animal of a sanguinary temperament, and robust ccustitution. 



Old, cold, damp, foul, unclean, and badly drained and ventilated stables 

 allow rapid dissemination of the disease to other horses in the same 

 stable, and act as rich reservoirs for preserving the contagion which, 

 in one of these cases, the writer knew to be retained for over a year. 

 Every few weeks during this time, in the corner of a large livery stable, 

 one or more cases of (edematous pneumonia broke out, usually in one of 



