THOUGHTS ON HYDROTHORAX. 
13 
the horse is enormously fat, or the lung be hepatized, you 
may not be able to come to a satisfactory conclusion ; then 
you must always discriminate between the gurgling, gushing 
sounds often heard in the bowels, and mistaken for the 
rushing of water in the chest. They are heard at irre¬ 
gular intervals if the chest is only partially filled with water. 
You may by great patience and attention distinctly catch the 
regular sound made by the action of the water as it is com¬ 
pressed upwards, and then let rush down again, as the lungs 
recede or exhale air. The sound is not unlike that heard if 
you have a gallon bottle half-full of thin fluid and agitate it 
regularly about the rapidity of respiration. If you can dis¬ 
tinctly hear the pleura pulmonalis rubbing upon the pleura 
costalis, and the air permeating the lung on the one side, and 
there is an utter absence of any sound whatever on the 
other; and if the animal indicates an evident apprehensiveness 
when this side is pressed, the pulse being above 60 for five or 
seven days, but sinking in condition, the attack having com¬ 
menced with a grunting and sore cough, and there is now a 
deepish heaving of the flanks—not a quick heave—(this 
expressive phrase I have from Mr. Holmes of Beverly, 
whom I esteem no mean authority on these matters, see 
Veterinarian , vol. xxxii), I say if you have the above indica¬ 
tions you may feel pretty certain there is effusion into the 
cavity, for they are criterions that will rarely mislead you. 
Paracentesis Thoracis. 
In February last I operated upon three horses within five 
days. They were young, valuable, fresh horses. I took 
fourteen quarts of water from one horse, being all I could 
get from the near side. He died six hours afterwards, when 
from three to four bucket-fulls more were found to exist in 
the same side, but there was none in the other side. He had 
been ill about twenty-six days. One of the others I operated 
on the off side, feeling convinced there existed fluid in it, but 
I could get none. I then operated on the other side, and 
took away twelve quarts. He died during the operation. 
After death it was found that the off side contained six 
bucket-fulls at least of fluid; and singular to say, this horse’s 
breathing was comparatively tranquil till within six or eight 
hours of his death, and he laid down and rested quietly for 
a length of time, and that on both sides, up to a short period 
before he died. The accelerated breathing, and the other 
alarming symptoms, came on suddenly. 
The third case I operated upon six times in sixteen days. 
