Incisions were made through the skin, but in opening them no blood
flowed. The venæ cavæ themselves did not contain any--there were only
two clots of blood in the cavities of their hearts. One of them, of the
size of a small nutmeg, occupied the left ventricle; the other, which
was still smaller, was found at the base of the right ventricle. The
chest of one of them enclosed a small quantity of serosity; a similar
fluid was between the dura mater and the arachnoid membrane, and the
same was the case in the larger ventricles of the encephalon. The other
viscera did not offer anything remarkable, except the paleness and
flaccidity of their tissue. The great fatigues of the chase, and the
immersion of these animals in water at the time that they were very much
heated, appeared to have been the causes of this singular disease. In
the report of the labours of the School of Alfort, in the year 1825, the
same anæmia was remarked in two dogs that died there; one of them had
lately undergone a considerable hemorrhage, and in the other anæmia had
developed itself spontaneously.
It is in fact among dogs that this extreme anæmia has been principally
observed, and is ordinarily fatal. It has been remarked by M. Crusal in
a bullock attacked with gastro-enteritis.
This disease, according to M. Vatel, is generally the symptom of a
chronic malady, or the instantaneous effect of an excessive hemorrhage.
It is rarely primary. The extreme discoloration of the tissues, and of
the mucous membrane more particularly, the disappearance of the
subcutaneous blood-vessels, and the extreme feebleness of the animal,
are the principal symptoms. There also often exists considerable
swelling of the limbs.
The following singular case of a wound penetrating into the chest and
pericardium of a dog, is recorded by Professor Delafond:
A mastiff dog fighting with another was stabbed in the chest by the
master of his antagonist. Five hours after the accident, the Professor
was sent for. On the exterior of the sternum was a laceration an inch
and a half in length, covered by a spumy fluid, from the centre of which
was heard a gurgling noise, showing that a wound had penetrated into the
sac of the pleura. The respiration was quick, and evidently painful; the
beating of the heart was also strong and precipitate. The finger being
introduced into the wound, penetrated between the fourth and fifth rib
on the left side. "Having arrived at the pleuritic sac," says the
Professor, "I gently tapped the surface of the lung, in order to assure
myself that it was not injured; my finger penetrated into the
pericardium, and the point of the heart beat against it."
He bathed the wound with a little diluted wine, and brought the edges of
it as near together as he could, and confined them with a suture,
administering a mild aperient.
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