Acute Fibrinous Pneumonia. Pneumonitis in the Horse. 261 



The nature of the symptoms will vary according to the extent 

 and character of the inflammation, from mild febrile reaction, 

 with excited breathing and slight crepitation, to the more severe 

 varieties in which the intensity of the symptoms are such as to 

 threaten suffocation. 



A marked feature of pneumonia in solipeds is that the patient 

 obstinately stands in one position and never lies down so long as 

 the severity of the inflammation lasts. The sharp crest on the 

 lower border of his breast bone compels the horse to lie on his 

 side, and since in this position the whole weight of the body has 

 to be overcome in any full dilatation of the chest, he cannot retain 

 the recumbent posture when any serious impediment to breathing 

 exists. Hence it is that the fact of a horse sufEering from pneu- 

 monia having lain down and remained so for some time is justly 

 accepted as an indication of improvement. 



Progress and results of the disease. The general symptoms 

 above noted, remain with more or less intensity throughout. 

 After the first flush of heat, on the occurrence of febrile reaction, 

 the limbs become alternately hot and cold, and in this the general 

 surface partakes to a less extent. 



The tendency of pneumonia is to a crisis and recovery. Cer- 

 tain days have been supposed to be critical and on the whole the 

 third, seventh, eleventh and fourteenth are those on which a 

 favorable change is most probable. 



Among the more favorable indications are the manifest abate- 

 ment of the high bodily temperature and febrile symptoms gen- 

 erally, the increasing ease and regularity of the breathing, the 

 greater force, distinctness and slowness of the pulse, the perma- 

 nent return of warmth to the limbs, the softer and more elastic 

 feeling of the skin, the recovery of appetite, and above all, the 

 turning of the nose from the open window or the retention of the 

 recumbent position for a length of time. These symptoms will 

 become more patent day by day, and the absorption of the effused 

 products and the clearing up of the lung may be traced by the 

 gradually decreasing area of dullness and of the circular line of 

 crepitation as ascertained by percussion and auscultation. 



If on the contrary the disease takes an unfavorable turn, some 

 such signs as the following will manifest it : Increasing rapidity 

 and embarrassment of the breathing ; smallness and indistinct- 



