DISEASE OF THE PLEURITIC MEMBRANES. 
611 
mild febrifuge mixture, morning and evening, for five days ; at the 
end of which he was convalescent, except a cough, which was 
removed in a fortnight more, by mild alteratives. He was very 
much reduced in flesh, and was a long time before he recovered 
his former condition. About six weeks after this attack his hind 
legs began to swell, and discharged a thin foetid fluid, which was 
somewhat difficult of cure : it however yielded to the usual me- 
dicines employed in such cases. 
The horse had three months’ rest : he then appeared well and 
in fine condition. I now recommended him to be tried at his 
work. The first day he worked well ; the second day was not 
far advanced before he was attacked with precisely the same 
symptoms. I subjected him to the same course of treatment, and 
he again recovered. His legs were never affected with any dis- 
ease after, but that was probably owing to the occasional exhibition 
of a mild cathartic. He was allowed a long rest, with good food. 
It was now the beginning of May 1847, and the horse appearing well 
and almost fat, he was tried at work again, and with a like result, 
and by similar treatment recovered. I recommended a summer’s 
run at grass as the only chance of ever rendering him a useful 
animal. For two months he feci well and got quite fat, and was a 
match for the majority of the fashionable dray-horses of London. 
After this time he had frequent attacks of the same symptoms in 
a very mild form, which would pass off in about one hour. These 
attacks became more and more frequent, and of longer duration. I 
advised the owner to allow the horse to take his chance at grass, 
as I considered medicine could not be of any further use to him. 
(Edematous swellings, now made their appearance in various 
parts of the body, but always in a dependent position. The pulse 
was small, and ranged betwixt 50 and 70. He daily grew worse, 
lost his appetite and flesh very rapidly, and died in a month 
after he began to be attacked at grass, without exertion for an 
exciting cause. 
I made a careful post-mortem examination, which developed the 
following morbid changes : — The abdominal viscera presented no 
trace of inflammation ; the alimentary canal contained little else 
but fluids : the interior of the chest was next exposed for inspec- 
tion, and the fluid which it contained first claimed my attention ; it 
had a dark muddy appearance, and contained a few small pieces 
of coagulated lymph, and measured about three gallons. Flocculi 
of lymph were deposited on various small portions of pleura ; the 
lungs were very small and much compressed, and uniform in tex- 
ture, but the diminution in size was not owing to diseased action 
in their structure, but to the compression of the fluids from without. 
The pericardium was much above its natural dimensions, and 
