THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 301 



Post-mortem examination. — Sometimes we find after 

 slaughter of a healthy animal that parts of the peritoneum 

 are united by adhesions, while others are opaque and 

 flocculent from the presence of white shreds of organised 

 lymph. These are indications of a previous attack of this 

 disease. In recent cases the membrane is in various parts 

 reddened, opaque, and hidden by lymphy deposits, which 

 bind the different abdominal organs together and vary in 

 the degree of organization according to their age. These 

 lesions are most marked around the point of injury. The 

 peritoneal sac contains a considerable quantity of fluid, 

 which is straw-coloured, milky, or sanguineous. Of 

 traumatic lesions giving rise to this disease passage of 

 sharp foreign bodies from the stomachs is not infrequent, 

 hence we generally find that peritonitis is present in cases 

 of traumatic pericarditis, bringing about union of the reti- 

 culum with the diaphragm, so that a cyst-like passage is 

 formed, which generally contains a milky serous fluid or 

 a blood-clot. 



Treatment. — That suggested for enteritis. As in that 

 affection cathartics should not be administered, for increased 

 peristalsis will give rise to increased irritation of the 

 inflamed peritoneum. Opium is specially indicated to 

 check peristalsis. 



Ascites {dropsy of the abdomen). — This is sometimes 

 the result of acute inflammatory disease of the peritoneum, 

 but more frequently of general debility or of mechanical 

 impediment to return of venous blood, such as exists in liver 

 or heart diseases, also tumours pressing on vena portse. 

 It is a complication of other dropsical disorders. It is 

 not frequent in the adult, but is met with in obstetric 

 practice, since congenital ascites is an impediment to 

 expulsion of the affected animal from the womb. In these 

 cases it seems to result from debility or scrofulous disease 

 of the parent ; the sickly foetus may therefore be sacrificed, 

 the fluid being evacuated either by direct incision with the 

 concealed knife through the abdominal walls, or by the 

 passage of a special long trocar and canula through the 

 chest into the abdomen. 



