TAPPING FOR HYDltOTHORAX IN THE HORSE. 329 
as represented to me, with ** a bad cold, and had been overdone.” 
A little blood had been taken from him, and some cordials, beer 
messes and gruel (favourite remedies in this country), adminis- 
tered. The horse presented every appearance of suffering from 
pleuritis, for which he had been injudiciously treated. There was 
great debility, with fever. I gave the usual fever and diaphoretic 
medicines. His cough left him, the fever abated, the appetite 
returned, and he lay down : yet, although there was such evident 
amendment and signs of recovery, I was, from the first, appre- 
hensive of effusion taking place in the chest. I cannot now put 
the symptoms into any tangible form, yet I was almost certain it 
would take place. This continued until June 4th, when I found 
that the breathing had become laborious, and he again kept his 
standing position. There was the peculiar wildness of the eye and 
the laboured action of the intercostal muscles, and my fears be- 
came confirmed. The following day all these symptoms were 
aggravated, and on applying the ear or the stethoscope, fluid was 
plainly distinguishable. In this state the owner was for sending 
I # J o # o 
him to the knacker ; but, more for the experiment’s sake than 
any hope of success, I proposed tapping; and, on my return 
from Wycombe in the evening, I introduced the trocar into the 
left side first, but no fluid appeared. I then tapped the right 
side, and took away a pailful and a half of a pale straw-coloured 
serous fluid. There was a considerable quantity wasted, and more 
would have come, even then, in gushes, but we could scarcely 
keep the animal from falling on us. The pulse was hardly per- 
ceptible during the escape of the fluid. After a few minutes the 
animal rallied ; the pulse rose again to a healthy standard ; the 
respiration became tranquil, and the animal immensely relieved. 
I closed the orifices as well as I could under the circumstances; 
gave him a small dose of the chloride of mercury, with sulphate 
of iron, and left him. The next morning I found him very much 
better respiration perfectly tranquil, and the pulse not exceeding 
40; but an extensive swelling occupying the right side of the 
chest and abdomen, reaching as far as the linea alba : a vast 
quantity of fluid having escaped into the cellular tissue. This 
swelling I punctured daily with a small lancet, and it gradually 
diminished. The horse daily regained strength and condition, 
lying down regularly ; and, in one month from the time I was 
first called to him, he was at work, and drew a ton, and even 
25 cwt. in a cart twice a week to London. The horse is at this 
time in good health and regular work, and I have not had a com- 
plaint ever since respecting him. 
