130 Surgical Diseases and Surgery of the Dog 



pilocarpin. When the symptoms are grave operative measures are 

 imperative. (See Pericardicentesis.) 



HYDBOPEKICABDIXTM. 



By this term is meant any non-inflammatory, passive effusion 

 of serous fluid into the pericardial sac. Like any other hydropsy 

 this condition is always of a serious nature, developing through 

 local stasis of the circulation owing to valvular lesions, auricular 

 tumors, pulmonary affections and chronic pleurisy, whereby starva- 

 tion of the pericardial capillary cells and filtration of some of the 

 fluid constituents of the blood take place. It may also develop 

 through capillary poisoning incident to chronic nephritis and cancer- 

 ous and tuberculous cachexia, and more or less during the agonal 

 period. It is nearly always associated with hydrothorax, the origin 

 of which generally precedes it, and very frequently with ascites 

 and anasarca. 



The exuded liquid is clear and yellowish, or slightly tinged by 

 admixture of hemoglobin or blood. It contains less albumin than 

 blood serum, and a certain quantity of fibrinogenous material, which 

 causes it to undergo coagulation when exposed to the air. The 

 walls of the sac are pale and lack inflammatory adhesions. Benja- 

 min saw a case of hydropericardium associated with thoracic adeno- 

 pathy, in which the parietal serosa was beset with slightly granular 

 patches. 



Symptoms and Diagnosis. The same physical and functional 

 signs are present as in pericarditis proper, but without elevation of 

 temperature. 



Treatment. The same treatment is indicated as for pericar- 

 ditis. 



Surgery of the Heart 



That the heart is capable of sustaining operative interference 

 with subsequent perfect recovery of the animal has been amply 

 proved experimentally. In 1895, Rosenthal, who up till that time 

 was the first to attempt treatment of a wound of the heart by 

 direct means, exhibited to the Medical Society of Berlin a dog, 

 which had survived and fully recovered from resection of the 

 sternum and an experimental cardiac wound. Shortly after, Del 



