190 INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 



tre, — a process of suppuration is set up, and proceeds until the 

 contents of the cyst become again fluid, but of a difl^rent char- 

 acter, for they now consist of pus. The pus increases ; the cyst 

 becomes more and more distended ; it encroaches on the sub- 

 stance of the lungs ; it comes into contact with other tubercles, 

 and the waUs opposed to each other are absorbed by their mu- 

 tual pressure ; they run together, and form one cyst, or regular 

 excavation, and this sometimes proceeds until a considerable 

 portion of the lung is, as it were, hollowed out. By and by, 

 however, the vomica (tumor) presses upon some bronchial pas- 

 sage ; the cyst gives way, and the purulent contents are poured 

 into the bronchiae, and got rid of by the act of coughing. At 

 other times the quantity is too great to be thus disposed of, and 

 the animal is suffocated. Occasionally it will break through the 

 pleuritic covering of the lung, and pour its contents into the 

 thorax. 



Abscesses may exist for a considerable time in the lunge 

 undiscovered. 



The resolution or gradual abatement of inflammation is the 

 tern lination most to be desired in this state of the disease, for 

 then the engorgement of the vessels will gradually cease, the 

 effusion into the cells be absorbed, and the lungs will gradually 

 resume their former cellular texture, yet not perfectly ; for there 

 will be some induration, slight but general ; or some more per- 

 fect induration of certain parts ; or the rupture of some of the 

 air-cells ; or an irritability of membrane predisposing to renewed 

 inflammation. The horse wiU not always be as useful as before ; 

 there will be chronic cough, thick wind, broken wind. 



The first thing to do in pneumonia is to bleed until the pulse 

 falters, and the animal bears heavy on the pail. The orifice in 

 the vein should be large, that the blood may be extracted as 

 quickly as possible. This is the secret of treating the inflam- 

 mation of a vital organ. 



Next comes purging, if we dared ; but experience teaches that 

 in pneumonia there is such a fatal tendency in the inflammation 

 to spread over every mucous membrane, that purging is almo5t to 

 a certainty followed by inflammation, and that inflammation bids 

 defiance to every attempt to arrest it. It may be said with per- 

 fect confidence that, in the majority of cases, a physic-baU would 

 be a dose of poison to a horse laboring under pneumonia. 



May we not relax the bowels ? Yes, if we can stop there 

 We may, after the inflammation has evidently a little subsided, 

 venture upon, yet very cautiously, small doses of aloes in our fever 

 medicine, and we may quicken their operation by frequent injec- 

 tions of warm soap and water ; omitting the purgative, however, 

 the moment the faeces are becoming softened. We must, how- 



