GENERAL DISEASES. 313 



them no blood flowed. The venae cavas themselves did not 

 contain any — there were only two clots of blood in the cavi- 

 ties of their hearts. One of them, of the size of a small nut- 

 meg, occupied the left ventricle ; the other, which was still 

 smaller, was found at the base of the right ventricle. The 

 chest of one of them contained a small quantity of serosity ; 

 a similar fluid was between the dura mater and the arachnoid 

 membrane, and the same was the case in the larger ventricles 

 of the encephalon. The other viscera did not offer any thing 

 remarkable, except the paleness and flaccidity of their tissue. 

 The great fatigues of the chase, and the immersion of these 

 animals in water at the time when they were very much 

 heated, appeared to have been the cause of this singular dis- 

 ease. In the 'Report of the Clinique of the School of Alfort,' 

 in the year 1825, the same anasmia was remarked in two dogs 

 that died there ; one of them had lately undergone a consid- 

 erable haemorrhage, and in the other anaemia had developed 

 itself spontaneously. 



" It is, in fact, among dogs that this extreme anaemia has 

 been principally observed, and it is ordinarily fatal. 



"This disease, according to'M. Vatel, is generally the 

 symptom of a chronic malady, or the instantaneous effect of an 

 excessive haemorrhage. It is rarely primary. The extreme 

 discoloration of the tissues, and of the mucous membrane 

 more particularly ; the disappearance of the subcutaneous 

 bloodvessels; and the great feebleness or the animal, are 

 the principal symptoms. There also often exists considerable 

 swelling of the limbs."* 



Treatment. — This, in the first instance, should consist in 

 removing the cause ; and secondly, in assisting nature to re- 

 store the deficiency in the color and quality of the blood by 

 those agents which form the necessary constituents of healthy 

 blood. For the former, a nutritious diet, with a free allowance 

 of fresh air, sunlight, and exercise, should be ordered. Veg- 

 etable and mineral tonics, especially the preparations of iron, 

 » Youattcm"TheDog." 



