204 J. A.^GUritth: 



we had driven into a wateiliole, hold her mouth in the water for 

 ahriost tit'teen minutes. In both these cases some time elapsed bei'ore 

 any liquid was swallowed, as observed by carefully watching the 

 movements of the oesophagus, while but a small quantity was swal- 

 lowed at a time, and at infrequent intervals. 



l^'rom the beginning, prehension of food, even cut green fodder, 

 is ditncult, and soon becomes impossible, even though the animal 

 may be obviously anxious to partake of the material. When it is 

 possible to seize the food, mastication cannot be performed. An 

 attempt" is made to chew a blade of cabbage, a stalk of sow thistle, 

 some green clover, or such material introduced into the mouth, but 

 the process resembles more the action of a human being sucking a 

 sweet than the normal mastication of a cow. The buccal muscles 

 do not seem to come properly into action, and there appears to hj 

 inability to properly direct the tongue. During this attempt to 

 masticate there is considerable salivation. Often such partially o-- 

 very slightly cliewed material which has been introduced into the 

 mouth will be dropped, and if it is not, it rarely gets beyond the 

 base of the tongue just in front of the velum. Indeed, in nearly 

 all cases it has been observed by most writers that a quantity of 

 partially chewed food is almost invariably found situated there on 

 post-mortem examination. In two cattle dead of the disease, or 

 what was probably the same disease in Tasmania, which I had an 

 opportunity of examining post-mortem (although unfortunately 

 dead nearly 48 hours), this plugging of the base of the tongue by 

 food was very definite. 



But the difficulty in swallowing does not cease here; it is evident 

 that even the oesophagus is in a semi-paralysed condition, for in one 

 case where with considerable patience and persistence the patient 

 had slowly and with some distress succeeded in swallowing a little 

 fresh grass, I found on post-mortem examination a few hours 

 later, the ingesta lying along the lumen of the intra-thoracic por- 

 tion of the oesophagus like a loosely twisted green rope. 



As the disease progresses, the champing of the jaws l)ecomes more 

 noticeable, the tongue is frequently protruded as if to make an 

 attempt to lick the dry muzzle, but without success, and may 

 remain so protruded for several seconds or even longer. Salivation 

 l)t'(()ines more profuse, there being a constant dribbling from the 

 iiiouth of saliva, which is often ropy in consistence. There is fre- 

 qiiently an intermittent mucoid discharge from the nostrils, which 

 is probaV)ly saliva which has been only [lartially swallowed and 

 returned per nasal chamber. The expression becomes more wistful 

 and the head more straightly lield A slight swaying of the body, 



