DROPSIES. 75 



to every crevice and corner in the building. This operation 

 any farmer can perform himself, as there is no risk what- 

 ever. The spirits of salt will have to be kept in a glass- 

 stoppered bottle till it is wanted, as it will not only eat a 

 common cork, but it will, by exposure to the air, abstract 

 moisture from it, by which it greatly loses its virtue and 

 strength. As before stated, this plan of disinfecting is omly 

 to be used when the house is empty. (See Sulphurous Acid 

 Gas in Part II.) 



Distemper, — (See Influenza and Strangles.) 



Distemper, Choktng. — (See Typhosus.) 



Diuretics. — A name given to those medicines which 

 cause an increased secretion from the kidneys. Example, 

 chlorate and nitrate of potassa, the Spanish fly, and eupur- 

 purin. (See Medicines.) 



Dropsies. — Every school boy is familiar with the term 

 dropsy, which means an unnatural accumulation of water 

 in the cavities of the body-chest, heart-case, belly, breast, 

 sheath, and cellular tissue of the legs. (See Debility.) 



1. When water is in the chest it is called Hydeothoeax. 

 This is the immediate cause of death, in pleurisy in the 

 horse and pleuro-pneumonia in cattle, the animal dying by 

 suffocation or asphyxia. 



2. When in the belly, it is called Ascites. 



3. When in the cellular tissue, and confined to a portion 

 only of the body, as the leg or sheath, it is called CEdema ; 

 but if the swellings are over different portions of the body, 

 it is called Anasarca. 



4. When in the heart-case or pericardium, it is called 

 Dropsy op the Heart. 



Causes. Treatment of diseases by starving, or low diet, 



