■340 Veterinary Medicine. 



Lesions. The essential lesion is the presence of pus but as an 

 accompaniment may be any one of the morbid conditions just 

 enumerated. The purulent contents of the pleural sac may have 

 one of various colors, dirty white, brownish, reddish brown, cho- 

 colate or greenish. When fcetid there is usually gas (pyo-pneu- 

 mothorax). In other cases it may have only a mawkish, heavy 

 odor. The liquid is opaque and grumous, containing a profusion 

 of red blood globules, pus globules and granules. It has largely 

 parted with its power of coagulation so that the false membranes 

 are few and spare. A yellowish pultaceous film covers the mem- 

 branes and serosa generally. The surface of the pleura generally 

 has a greenish hue and may be strewn with hard miliary nodules. 

 The microbes of the liquid are not simply those of pus, but usu- 

 ally septic saprophytes as well, particularly when the foetor is 

 strongly marked. 



Symptoms. These are primarily those of the affection on which 

 the empyema has supervened. Evidence of inhalation broncho- 

 pneumonia, abscess of the lung or chest wall, necrotic rib from 

 fracture or otherwise, strangles with thoracic complication, a re- 

 cent operation of thoracentesis, rupture of the oesophagus, or pneu- 

 monia or influenza with suppuration or gangrene, and develop- 

 ing specially violent and prostrating phenomena would assist in 

 diagnosis. Temperature runs high, 104° to 106° F., but show- 

 ing marked oscillations, the pituita is of a dark purple, the appe- 

 tite lost, the intercostal spaces extremely tender, the discharge 

 from the nose of a heavy odor and it may be foetid. There is 

 marked implication of the nervous system, shown it may be in 

 extreme dullness, prostration and muscular debility, or it may be 

 in irritability, vertigo or even delirium. The animal loses flesh 

 visibly from day to day. Percussion may show a lower area of 

 flatness up to a given horizontal line and above this a tympanitic 

 resonance. 



Under such circumstances the puncture of the lower part of the 

 chest with an exploratory needle will yield a purulent or even 

 foul-smelling liquid which will confirm the diagnosis. 



Course. The disease runs a rapid course usually terminating 

 in death in three of four days. 



Treatm,ent. This is not at all promising with the disease fully 

 developed. The main hope must rest on the disinfection of the 



