GENERAL DISEASES. 305 



refers to the febrile state. The specific phenomena of the 

 latter most surely find no counterpart in the symptomatology 

 of the former. It is only in the continued type of the fever 

 that any identity can really be said to exist. If we examine 

 the main features of the two affections, we find at once a 

 broad and unmistakable difference in their clinical and patho- 

 logical equivalents. 



" Typhoid fever is an eruptive disease. Its course and 

 duration are definite, and the lesions resulting from the fever 

 process are localized and specific. In distemper of the dog 

 not one of these essential characters can be applied. The 

 pathological changes of the latter have no specific form or 

 seat. Universal congestion more or less intense, local inflam- 

 mation, blood extravasations, and serous exudation of varying 

 extent, constitute the pnncipdl posf-morfem phenomena."* 



DROPSY. 



Dogs, especially old ones, frequently, and from constitu- 

 tional disease, become what is termed '■ eiroJ>sica/," i.e., a se- 

 rous exudation takes place in some portion of the organism. 

 The usual forms met with in canine practice are, hydrothorax, 

 viz., when the exudation is within the cavity of the chest ; hy- 

 drops-pericardium, when within the pericardial sac or membrane 

 covering the heart; hydro-metra, wh&n within the uterus; 

 hydrocephalus, when within the head ; ascites, when within the 

 peritoneal sac or abdomen ; anasarca, when within the areo- 

 lar tissue of the body generally. 



I shall here commence with the form known as ascites, 

 placing the others in their respective classes. 



Ascites, or abdominal dropsy, may be the result of in- 

 flammatory action or of chronic disease of the circulating 

 system ; hence it is either active or passive. 



The active form is usually met with in young dogs, and is 



* From the "Veterinarian," Feb. 1867. 

 20 . 



