The Sporting Dictionary, and Rural Repository, Volume 1 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

DROPSY of the Chest

—is a disorder to which horses are subject; and many instances have occurred in the practice of the Author, where seven, eight, and in one case near ten gallons of water were found in the CAVITY of the CHEST, upon opening the body after death. This accumulation of fluid being completely extravasated, no hope of cure can be entertained, as the preternatural collection can neither be taken up by absorption, or carried off by evacuation. There seems to be only one predominant trait, or distinguishing symptom, by which this disorder can be even tolerably ascertained, and that is solely by the ACTION of the horse. In either walk, trot, or gallop, (and the more as his pace is increased in each,) the fore legs seemingly spread from each other, as if they were internally distended by painful pressure, similar to division by forcible expansion, not at all unlike the means used by butchers in the stick pointed at each end to extend the limbs of carcases when displayed for sale. The legs in a trot constitute a painful hobble; and in a GALLOP the subject cannot get his legs before him, but appears at every motion likely to pitch upon his head. All this gives every reason to believe the defect, when first discovered, is frequently thought a lameness in the shoulder, and the patient presently deemed a chest-foundered horse. If a horse having a DROPSY in the CHEST, and the collection of water (from the duration of disease) is large, much information may be derived respecting the certainty, by the following experiment. Lead, or let him be rode up a gentle ascent, and he will be observed to move with but very little pain or impediment: the moment he is turned round, and descends, the weight of the water in the chest coming forward, and being pressed upon by the contents of the abdomen, in the action of going down hill, instantly produces so much pain, and such difficulty of proceeding, that with judicious practitioners, or nice observers, no great hesitation can arise in pronouncing the probable CERTAINTY of this disease.