414 CHRONIC INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS, 
and led him away; and although the weather was cold and it 
rained fastly, he made him cross several rivers, and travel through 
a road filled with water. The colt, which had for a long time 
only gone out of the stable to drink, appeared to shiver much 
during the journey, which was nine miles. Being arrived at the 
house of his new proprietor, he was evidently ill, and on the 
morrow his flanks began to heave* A farrier was sent for, who 
bled him, and passed some setons, and attended him until the 
7th of March, when he died. 
M. L. desired a veterinary surgeon to open the animal, to 
ascertain whether there was any unsoundness at the time of sale; 
and M. C., by whom I was accustomed to be employed, de¬ 
sired that I would attend. The examination was made forty- 
eight hours after death. 
The cellular tissue was infiltrated throughout. The serous 
membrane of the chest was thickened, with patches of red and 
black, and the sac of the pleura was thoroughly filled with a- 
vellow liquid, in which floated some flakes of albuminous matter. 
The lungs, and especially the left, were compressed and 
There was not the slightest tubercle or abscess, but the 
pulmonary tissue was supple, and of precisely the same construc¬ 
tion and appearance. Some lymphatic ganglions were a little 
enlarged, but they otherwise preserved their natural appearance 
and organization. 
Was the colt unsound at the time of sale? 
The gentleman whom I met in consultation thought that he 
was, but I contended for the contrary. My opponent argued 
that dropsy is always a chronic disease, and that the compressed 
state of the lungs is a character of old affection of them, the 
existence of which was confirmed by the enlargement of the 
ganglions; and that such lesions indicated unsoundness (Vaffec¬ 
tion' rcdhibitoire) with greater certainty than either tubercles or 
vomicae would have done. 
I replied that dropsy was not a disease, but a symptom of 
disease, or rather the effect of some inflammation; and that it is 
not so much unsoundness of itself, as from being the result of some 
chronic affection; that the flocculent albumen was the simple 
consequence of effusion, and was formed in a very little while; 
that the compression of the lungs could not indicate old unsound¬ 
ness, for the strongest of all reasons, that it could only exist 
when they were squeezed together by a liquid which the tho¬ 
racic cavity could scarcely contain; and that beside, the pul¬ 
monary organs, supple and spongy, must necessarily be di¬ 
minished in bulk, when they had sustained this pressure for the 
space of two days after death; that the same thing was ob-> 
flabby. 
whole 
