292 P(.EURISY IN THE HORSE, CATTLE, AND DOGS. 
and a state of collapse brought on, from which they will be incapa¬ 
ble of i^covering. Those only of you who have seen the collapsed 
and condensed state of the lung that had been long compressed 
by the fluid, can conceive of the extent to which this is carried. 
I will add a fact, important and alarming, that the records of 
veterinary surgery do not contain a half-dozen cases of the suc¬ 
cessful performance of the operation. This should not discou¬ 
rage us from attempting it, but should induce us to consider 
whether we may not perform it under happier auspices, and 
before the lungs and the serous membrane which lines the 
cavity have been so disorganized, and the constitution itself so 
sadly debilitated. I cannot see any harm that could be pro¬ 
duced by an early resort to paracentesis. He must be a bungler 
indeed who wounded any important part. It really is worth 
our consideration, whether many a horse has not been lost by 
delay. You will ascertain by auscultation whether there is fluids 
in both cavities. If there should be, and in considerable quan¬ 
tity, it will not be prudent to operate on both sides at once. If 
much fluid is discharged, there will be acceleration and difficulty 
of respiration to a very great degree. You will not be alarmed 
at this; it will pass over, and on the next day you may attack 
the other side; or open both at once, if there is but little fluid in 
either. 
Having resorted to this operation, you will especially be eager, 
as soon as you dare, to commence your course of diuretics with 
tonics. You must rouse the absorbents to action before the ca¬ 
vity fills again. 
Tendency to relapse .—I think I have observed, that there is in 
pleurisy not only a far greater tendency to relapse, but to a return 
of the disease at some indefinite time, than in pneumonia. The 
lungs do not perfectly recover from their state of collapse, nor 
the serous membrane from its long maceration in the effused fluid: 
oedema, cough, disinclination to work, incapability of rapid pro¬ 
gression, colicky pains, as the unobservant practitioner w'ould 
call them, but, in truth, pleuritic stitches; these are the frequent 
sequelae of pleurisy. This will afford another reason why w’e 
should not defer too long the important operation of paracentesis. 
Metastasis .—So far as my experience has gone, there is much 
greater disposition to metastasis than in pneumonia : indeed, it 
is easy to imagine that the inflammation of a mere membrane 
may more readily and oftener shift, than that of the substance 
of so large a viscus as the lungs. The inflammation shifting its 
o ^ «... ” 
first ground, attacks almost every part indiscriminately, and ap¬ 
pears under a strangely puzzling variety of forms. Ascites is the 
most frequent change. Dropsy of the abdomen is substituted 
