Treatment. Little can be done to check the development of the above described pulmonary lesions; but the cough may be relieved, and the pulmonary circulation improved by assisting the heart.
The most prompt and efficacious assistance is given by digitalis in doses of ½ to 1 drachm per day for adults, iodide of potassium in doses of 1 to 1½ drachms, and bromide of potassium in doses of 1 drachm to guard against reflex excitability of the pneumo-gastric. This treatment, however, should not be followed for more than five or six days, and should then be replaced by the administration of arsenious acid in doses of 15 grains per day, ground horse-chestnuts in doses of 3 ounces per day, etc., etc.
DISEASES OF THE PLEURA.
Primary inflammation of the pleura is very rare in animals of the bovine species, but secondary diseases of this membrane, on the other hand, are frequent.
ACUTE PLEURISY.
Cruzel, Fabry, and a number of practitioners have described the occurrence in working animals of acute pleurisy à frigore or serofibrinous pleurisy in consequence of severe, sudden variations in temperature, or prolonged chills. At the present day it seems fairly well established that pneumonia, and not pleurisy, is commonest under such conditions, and Moussu disclaims ever having seen primary pleurisy. On the other hand, pleuritic effusions are very common in contagious pleuro-pneumonia, secondary pleurisy due to pericarditis produced by foreign bodies, septic broncho-pneumonia or broncho-pneumonia due to foreign bodies, and the pleurisy which accompanies septicæmia consequent on parturition, etc. These forms of disease, however, are not simple serofibrinous pleurisy, but septic or suppurative pleurisy, still little understood in veterinary surgery.
Tuberculosis of the pleura, although very frequent, is rarely accompanied by marked exudation. Like secondary disseminated pleural carcinoma, it usually assumes the vegetative and adhesive form, with adhesions of greater or less extent between the lung and wall of the chest.
Symptoms. In all these morbid conditions the symptoms vary greatly, and it would be difficult to give an accurate general description of them.
In acute pleurisy à frigore shivering attacks, moderate fever, dulness, loss of appetite, interference with rumination, dryness of the skin, rapid wasting and intercostal pain, first indicated by dull colic, constitute the usual symptoms.
The respiration is short and irregular, interrupted when the exudation is abundant. Pressure over the intercostal spaces produces pain, as does strong percussion. Percussion reveals an area of dulness bounded above by a horizontal line.