THOUGHTS ON HYDROTHORAX. 
11 
The post-mortem examination of the cases that died showed 
the usual pathological appearances ; namely, the cavity of 
the chest full of water, generally on both sides, but in several 
only on one side, with quantities of lymph floating in the 
fluid and attached to the lungs and pleurae; sometimes the 
pericardium, and nearly always the pleura costalis, and in 
some instances the pleura pulmonalis, were also covered with 
a thick coating, or furred encrustation, of straw-coloured 
organized lymph, causing adhesion of the lungs to the ribs. 
This state was also accompanied with decay of the interior 
of the lungs to a greater or less extent. 
All these cases at the onset appeared only slightly ailing, 
without any detectable disease or acute inflammatory action : 
no dubious symptoms whatever, to excite apprehension, but 
after a few days effusion supervened. 
Our treatment may subdue the more violent excitability, 
but still the enemy continues insidiously creeping on, as in¬ 
dicated by a deepish heaving of the flanks, an ominous pro¬ 
tracted lull in the system, the pulse never below 60, but 
varying from this to 76 or 82 for days and days together, or 
even for weeks, the patient never rallying as might be ex¬ 
pected, but feeding daintily, looking dejected, or spiriting up 
for one moment at the sight of food, to be again downcast the 
next; he does not lie down, and in this state he may continue 
on for twenty-five or thirty days, if the effusion be on one 
side only, and the substance of the lungs not affected; but 
in from seven to ten days, if both sides are filling, and the 
pericardium involved, and we have foetid breath, the case 
may be considered hopeless. 
Condition determining Effusion. 
Whether it is some unknown agency that finally deter¬ 
mines or causes this inordinate separation of serum from the 
blood, or whether we have a glimpse, as it were, of this appa¬ 
rently inscrutable phenomenon, I will not discuss. But this 
we do find, that those horses which seem most liable to it 
are those with an inordinate growth of hair upon them, 
which would seem to arrest, or at least interrupt the seem¬ 
ingly feeble circuit of electrical action. They are of a gross 
habit of body ; profuse perspiration is occasioned on the least 
possible exertion, the vapour of the body becoming condensed 
by the obstruction offered ; the system seems as though it 
was surcharged with stagnant electricity, it may be spent 
electricity, too feeble to carry on the functions of vitality, 
which is marked by a depression of animal spirits, and dire 
