A SINGULAR CASE OF ANASARCA IN A HORSE. 161 
hocks, and the thighs, and, in two or three hours after the first 
appearance of the ailment, the extremities had enlarged to a very 
great size. Nothing was done until the morning, when my assist- 
ance was requested. He was an entire horse, three years old, 
tall and muscular. 
The serous infiltration comprehended not merely the posterior 
extremities, but had extended to the testicles, the sheath, and 
the abdomen, and partly involved the cartilaginous circle of 
the ribs. It involved the place of girth, the chest generally, the 
cellular substance surrounding the windpipe, and the crest of the 
neck. Between the branches of the lower jaw, the lips, and the 
alae of the nose, w r as the same infiltration. The contraction of 
the nasal orifices, occasioned by the infiltration of the alte of the 
nose, and the mechanical pressure of the enlarged upper portion 
of the throat on the cartilages of the larynx, rendered the respira- 
tion exceedingly laborious and loud. 
I contented myself at first with bleeding my patient, and in- 
serting a seton at the fore part of the chest, with some potential 
caustic on the internal surface of the thighs, and ordering some 
injections to be thrown up. I urged upon the owner that the horse 
should not be left a moment, and therefore desired that he might 
be sent to my stables, which were scarcely a mile distant. 
He arrived in the evening. The fore legs were now exceedingly 
infiltrated ; indeed, all four were in such a state of tumefaction 
as I never saw before in any animal. There was not a portion of 
the horse which did not seem twice its natural size. 
July 2 . — The infiltration has increased in a most extraordinary 
manner. It is utterly impossible to move the animal from his 
place. The articulations of the extremities are completely 
effaced. The testicles and sheath disappear in the mass around 
them. The chest and the neck are confounded together. The 
space between the lower jaw is continuous with the under lip, 
while the upper lip cannot be distinguished from the alse of the 
nose and the face generally. Not a single portion of the external 
part of the frame retains its primitive form, but the whole is one 
mass of deformity. There were only these boundaries — in the 
head it was limited by the base of the ears, the eyes, and the 
forehead ; and in the neck it proceeded not beyond the humero- 
mastbideal muscle and the middle of the shoulder, and the car- 
tilaginous circle of the ribs. 
This affection of the subcutaneous cellular tissue has the cha- 
racter, with all the serous effusions of this nature, of being exten- 
sively diffused, without much heat or sensibility, and of yielding 
to the pressure of the finger, and preserving the impression, and 
which is only effaced gradually, and in proportion as the pressure 
VOL. XV. 
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