40 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 



frequently sitting on his haunches with the fore legs wide 

 apart ; pressure over the ribs causes acute pain ; the cough 

 is more frequent, the breathing shorter and more difficult, 

 and an anxious haggard look pervades the whole coun- 

 tenance. 



Terminations. — Resolution, adhesion, effusion, or the 

 chronic form. 



In the lower animals, recovery from acute pleurisy 

 usually terminates in adhesions, while effusion is generally 

 the forerunner of death. When the latter (effusion) takes 

 place, a considerable and marked alteration is immediately 

 manifested in the symptoms — the breathing becomes 

 more and more laboured, threatening suffocation ; on aus- 

 cultation the natural respiratory murmur is absent so far 

 as the fluid reaches, whilst above it is considerably increased; 

 percussion gives a dull dead sound over the region of 

 effusion; as the fluid increases the intercostal spaces be- 

 come bulged, and towards the latter stage the dependent 

 parts of the animal are more or less cedematous. The 

 pulse is feeble and quick, and as the end approaches be- 

 comes imperceptible. Asphyxia closes the scene. 



Post-mortem Examination. — Effusion of serum, with pus 

 and bands of lymph across the walls of the chest ; recent 

 adhesions, and considerable thickening of the pleura, coated 

 with lymph. 



Treatment. — Pleurisy, from the acuteness of its character 

 and rapidity of its progress, demands prompt and active 

 measures : bleeding, advocated by other authors, is not, in 

 my opinion, admissible, or in accordance with the character 

 of the disease, which is excessively lowering in itself, and 

 weakening the volume of blood would have a tendency 

 rather to promote what of all things we' should wish to 

 avoid — effusion — than check the inflammatory process and 

 prevent its occurrence. Purgatives are equally inadmissible, 

 and, of the two, more dangerous, for if excessive action of 

 the bowels is excited in any inflammatory chest affection, it 



