28 / CANINK MEDICINE AND SURGERY 



mortality, lobular pneumonia, with the exception 

 noted, presents the same clinical symptoms as the 

 idiopathic variety. 



Treatment. — The treatment of pneumonia of either 

 the lobar or lobular type, resolves itself into the 

 treatment of conditions found, and the upkeep of the 

 vital forces of the patient until the disease runs its 

 course. 



The most modern- method of treating pneumonia 

 is by the pneumobacterin and antipneumococcic 

 serum. The former combats the disease by raising 

 the opsonic index of the patient, thus enabling the 

 leukocytes to more efifectually cope with the in- 

 vading organisms (active immunity), and should 

 be employed as soon as the diagnosis of pneumonia 

 is positive. It may be used in doses corresponding 

 to those used in human practice, namely twenty- 

 five to fifty million dead bacteria injected hypoder- 

 mically. It is not necessary to obtain the opsonic 

 index, as variations in the temperature constitute 

 a sufficient clinical guide. In cases responding to 

 bacterin treatment the temperature will fall after 

 the injection and then gradually rise again, when 

 another injection should be j^iven. The antiserum 

 is used to neutralize the toxins already liberated 

 by the organism and often produces great ameliora- 

 tion of the symptoms (passive immunity). 



One of the most important factors in treating 

 this, or for that matter, any other infectious dis- 

 ease, is to secure free elimination for both the 

 toxins produced by the infecting agents, and also 

 for those manufactured in the animal's own ali- 

 mentary canal. In health these toxins are elimi- 

 nated or neutralized, and their producers kept under 

 control by the excretory organs and digestive 

 juices. In disease, on the other hand, the functions 



