230 TAPPING FOR HYDROTHORAX IN THE HORSE. 
CASE II. 
Was a grey coach gelding, the property of Mr. Richard Taplin, 
of the Falcon Inn, High Wycombe, which I was called to on the 
1st of Sept. 1840. This horse had been ailing for a long time 
before I saw him, and had been running in the Wycombe coach 
to Beaconsfield and back daily ; and although considered by the 
owner as “ not up to the mark/’ yet was thought not sufficiently 
ailing to discontinue work. On examination I found him labour- 
ing under a great degree of fever, the conjunctival membrane of 
the eyes and the pituitary membrane of the nostrils highly in- 
jected, great heat of the mouth, an anxious distressed counte- 
nance, failing appetite, pulse hard and wiry, and bowels rather 
constipated. 
From the horse-keeper I learned that he had not lain down 
for a month or six weeks. I bled him freely from a large orifice, 
and opened the bowels with Mr. Percivall’s laxative fever medi- 
cine. The horse, a day or two after, appeared much relieved : still 
there was considerable fever. I then gave him tartarized anti- 
mony, with the nitrate of potash, daily : the feverish symptoms, 
however, did not subside ; the respiration became more laboured ; 
the countenance more haggard, with a wilder look of the eyes. 
I then gave him chloride of mercury, tartarized antimony, and 
digitalis, and inserted setons in the chest : the feverish symptoms 
then abated suddenly, as if by a charm, and the animal appeared 
to be recovering. This went on until the 21st of Sept., when, by 
examining the chest daily, I became convinced that the inflam- 
matory action had terminated in effusion. I communicated my 
opinion to the owner, and also to W. Jackson, Esq., surgeon, of 
Wycombe, who also daily auscultated the chest with the stetho- 
scope and the ear. The symptoms became more confirmed, 
and the water rapidly accumulated. I proposed tapping, and, 
after a good deal of pro and con and much unnecessary delay, I 
was allowed to do so, and, accordingly, on the 25th of Sept. I 
operated, and took from the right side twenty-four quarts, by 
careful measurement, of a pale straw-coloured serous fluid. I 
then introduced the trocar into the left side, and drew off only 
three quarts. Previous to tapping, the animal appeared every 
moment to be breathing his last, and was with difficulty kept 
from falling during the escape of the fluid. In a short time, 
however, he rallied ; the respiration became tranquillized, the 
pulse regained its natural action and frequency, and the horseap- 
peared as if very little was the matter. The orifices were closed ; 
the animal put in a loose box, kept quiet, and a bran mash with 
oats given him, which he ate with avidity. The setons were 
