82 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



best to recommend for the acute case. Internal medicines, 

 reputed to possess the property of defibrinating the blood 

 and of dissolving clots, may be administered. Ammonium 

 iHuriate and potassium nitrate are said to be of some value in 

 that connection. In the internal organs, the treatment is 

 limited to the administration, of appropriate systemic rem- 

 edies. 



ATROPHY. 



DEFINITION — In its etymological sense, the word 

 ■'atrophy" signifies want of nutrition. In pathology it is de- 

 fined as the wasting of a part or all of the body, or in other 

 words the diminution of the normal volume of the body, of 

 any organ or of any tissue. General atrophy, that is, the uni- 

 form wasting of the whole apparatus of the body, is however 

 usually referred to as "emaciation" when due to disease or 

 privation, and as "senile changes" or "senile degeneration" 

 when due to old age. 



CLASSIFICATION.— Atrophy may advantageously be 

 divided into several classes: viz., (i) Pathologic atrophy or 

 wasting due to disease; (2) physiologic atrophy or wast- 

 aig due to inactivity; (3) local or circumscribed atrophy 

 when limited to a small area or single structure ; (4) diffused 

 atrophy, when affecting a whole group of muscles or a whole 

 apparatus; and (5) general atrophy when the whole organ- 

 ism is involved. As to cause, there is (i) nervous atrophy 

 or wasting due to impaired trophic innervation; (2) ischemic 

 atrophy or shrinking of a part due to inadequate blood sup- 

 ply; (3) pressure atrophy or wasting from prolonged com- 

 pression ; and (4) senile atrophy or wasting from old age. 



ETIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY.— Atrophy of any 

 given part results in the diminution of the size or of 

 the number of cells or both, and not in any change in their 

 chemical constitution. Degenerations and disintegrations 



