STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 311 



spasmodic tAvitchings noio begin to dimimsh, and for some hours before 

 death they have entirely passed off. 



"A sickly smell attends the patient, but there are no disengagements 

 of gaseous compounds into the areolar tissue, (the loose open tissue con- 

 necrting the skin and flesh of cattle particularly,) nor any other indica- 

 tions of the decomposition of the tissues which have been spoken of by 

 some writers. In short, the animal dies, apparently, and almost without 

 convulsions, from pure prostration of the vital powers. In those cases 

 which recover, no pustules (]nmples) have been observed as forming on 

 the skin, nor any desquamation (scaling) of the cuticle, (the outer and 

 insensible skin ; that which thickens on the hands of the laborer,) or fall 

 of the hair. JSTor have any ulcers of the ej^es, nostrils, or muzzle, been 

 noticed in either extreme or protracted cases. 



^^Duration. — In all cases which tend to a fatal termination, the animals 

 rarely live beyond the fourth day after the symptoms have shown them- 

 selves, while very manj^ of them will sink as early as the second day. 

 The greater number, however, die on the third day of the attack. In 

 those which recover, some diminution in the severity of the symptoms 

 usually takes place on the third or fourth day; and if the patient survives 

 this time, even should the symptoms not abate, it is regarded as a favor- 

 able indication of ultimate recover3^ The return to perfect health is 

 rarely effected in less than three weeks ; but much wnll depend on the 

 age and constitution of the animal, as likewise on the amount of the 

 structural disease in the mucous membranes of the alimentary canal, and 

 not a little also on the care and attention which are bestowed upon the 

 patient. 



'^Percentage of Deaths. — If the pest be allowed to take its natural course 

 for only a few days, it will be found that not unfrequently the deaths 

 number ninety per cent. Fat animals and those which are well cared for 

 are found to bear up very badly against the disease. 



^^Patlioloriy. — It is difficult to speak with certainty of the true nature 

 of the rinderpest; but it is evident that the morbific matter on which it 

 depends, having entered the system through tiie medium of the organs 

 of respiration, soon acts upon the blood, by converting some of the con- 

 stituents of that fluid into its own elements ; and that, while this process 

 is going on, the animal gives no recognizable indications of being the 

 subject of the malady. This period constitutes the incubative stage of 

 the disease. The blood having thus become contaminated, its vitality 

 impaired, and the poison augmented a thousand-fold within the organ- 

 ism, (organs essential to life,) the brain and nervous systems, as the 

 centres of sensation and motion, have their normal functions necessarily 

 and quickly interfered Avith ; and hence one of the earliest indications of 

 the disease is a spasmodic twitching of the voluntary and other muscles 

 of the body. 



" The malady has'now arrived at a stage when nature makes a bold 

 efl'ort to rid the system of the poison, and in doing this the force of the 

 morbific matter, so to speak, falls with more or less severity upon the 

 mucous membranes throughout the entire body. Eff'usions of lymph, the 

 fibrine of the blood, take place in the follicles (open places or little sacks 

 or bags) of the mucous membranes, as an efi^ort, perhaps, in part, of the 

 overtaxing of these gi-and excretory organs, and partl}^ because the 

 fibrine itself is charged with the meterics morhi, (morbid matter or j^oison 

 of the pest,) and has probably also lost some portion of its vitality, which 

 renders it unfitted to remain in the vessels. Dark colored blood, which 

 remains y?MidJ even after death fi'om its defibrination, (the destroying the 



