430 
ASCITES IN THE HORSE. 
j eiing manner over his eye. Pulse not perceptible at the jaw, 
mt beating violently against the side. I now gave up all hopes 
0 m y patient, and did not expect him to live half an hour, when, 
to my sui prise, all on a sudden he raised his head and attempted 
to get on his legs, which, with a little assistance, he accomplish¬ 
ed ; and no sooner was he up; than he went to his manger and 
commenced eating com, as if nothing had ailed him. Beincr all 
along suspicious as to the existence of water in the abdomen, I 
l esolved next day to perform the operation of paracentesis, which 
1 did by introducing a trochar with the canula, through the lima 
alba, about four inches posterior to the umbilicus. On withdraw¬ 
ing the ttochar, a fluid much resembling water rushed through 
tne canula. I kept the canula in for an hour, during which pe¬ 
riod there came away nearly five Scotch pints (one Scotch pint is 
equal to four English pints, or two quarts). The rumbling in the 
jelly has now altogether ceased, and he appears to be in every 
respect very much relieved by the operation. Pulse 70, and more 
full. R. Aloes. Barbad. svj, calomel sifs. 
19th. Purging violently ; in other respects the same as when I 
last saw him. 
22d. Pulse 75; began again to paw with his feet and look 
round to his side, and there is a slight rumbling also commenced. 
1 resolved now to try the effects of digitalis in lowering the pulse 
and stimulating the absorbents. Ordered siij of digitalis to be 
given in a bottle of gruel twice per day. 
23d. Pulse 80; but the inward pain is not so great. He is 
eating heartily of corn and beans. 
21th, 25th, and 26th. Pulse 50 : he is apparently relieved from 
all inward pain, and the rumbling noise has entirely ceased, but 
he is very dull and weak, and refusing all food. Digitalis to be 
discontinued for a day or two. 
28th. About six in the morning, a servant came to inform me 
that the horse died during the night. 
Post-mortem Ex amination .—The abdomen had about two Scotch 
pints of a serous fluid in it, perfectly transparent; about three lbs. 
of a whitish curdled matter, like half-made cheese, of a sour taste 
and disagreeable odour, lay within the mesentery around the sto¬ 
mach ; the peritoneum was thickened and tough, and the kidneys, 
particularly the left, were larger than usual. The other visceraof the 
abdomen and chest were perfectly healthy; the membranes -of the 
brain were healthy, but, on cutting into the lateral ventricles, 
about a drachm of transparent fluid escaped; and it appears to 
me that it was the pressure of this fluid on the brain that occa¬ 
sioned those paroxysms and tetanic convulsions that occurred on 
the 12th and 17th of July. 
