PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS. 
495 
the thoracic muscles are increased. Inspection in pleurisy 
with hydrothorax notes an increase in the size of the lower 
part of the chest. The attitude, breathing and facial expres¬ 
sion of the animal denotes pain. The abdominal furrow or 
ridge, the extent to which the abdominal muscles are brought 
into use. Inspection notes the double movements of the ab¬ 
dominal muscles in pulmonary emphysema, and assisted by 
the thermometer, it notes the rise and fall of animal heat. 
Palpation .—This in medical language denotes the process 
of examining morbid conditions by the sense of feeling or by 
touch. By it we recognize tenderness, resistance, fluctuation, 
pain, the presence or absence of normal animal heat, also im¬ 
pulse from movements of an internal body or organ. Subcu¬ 
taneous emphysema is detected by laying on the hand. It 
detects a crackling sensation under the skin, caused by the 
movement of air in the cellular tissue. By palpation we note 
the character of tumors as fibrous, osseus, granular, soft, 
hard, or fluctuating. Palpation is useful as an aid to inspec¬ 
tion and percussion. By it we note difference in resistance 
as well as of sound in percussion. Application of the hand 
to the chest informs us of the number and force of the beats 
of the heart, the shape of the chest walls, their movements or 
number of respirations and the character of them. We note 
sensitiveness to pain on pressure, and sometimes the friction 
murmur or pleurisy. 
Mensuration, or a system of the measurements of the chest 
as an aid to diagnosis, is not commonly practiced by veterin¬ 
arians. It might be useful in the study of pleurisy with 
hydrothorax in the horse if the diseases were unilateral, as in 
man. But all we can learn by any system of measurements, 
however skillfully applied to the chest of the horse in pul¬ 
monary and cardiac trouble, may be known from the other 
methods. The first measurement, if made with a graduated 
tape, around the body from a point slightly posterior to the 
withers. At least there, such measurement should be made 
at a few inches distant from each other. These measure¬ 
ments should be taken at the end of a complete inspiratory 
and expiratory movement; at least in the same stage of the 
