Report on Steppe Murrain or Rinderpest. 247 



conveying the materies morhi, and when we take into account the 

 varying susceptibility oi animals to the immediate action of this 

 matter, and also the further circumstance of its remaining dormant 

 in the system for a fortnight, or possibly a longer time, we see 

 many reasons for withholding our assent, without greater experi- 

 ence in the disease, to the opinion that the pest has a spontaneous 

 origin in the ox of the steppes. 



General Symptoms of the Pest. — When the animal sickens, the 

 affection will be recognised by almost continuous spasmodic 

 twitchings of the voluntary muscles of the body, more particu- 

 larly those of the neck and shoulders, and of the hind quarters. 

 These twitchings are accompanied by tremors which are more or 

 less generally diffused, and which interrupt the regularity of the 

 spasms, and give to the animal an appearance of suffering from 

 exposure to cold. The coat stares, and the patient stands with 

 its back arched and its legs gathered together under the body, 

 but does not seemingly suffer much acute pain. In the course 

 of a few hours rumination is suspended, and the appetite 

 fails, but water will generally be partaken of almost up to the 

 end. 



The temperature of the body is variable, a slightly increased 

 warmth of skin existing at the beginning of the illness, which, 

 soon, however, gives way to a chilliness of the surface, and this 

 again to a death-like coldness of the ears, legs, and horns, as the 

 malady advances to a fatal termination. The pulse is scarcely 

 disturbed at first, unless the attack is a severe one, when it 

 quickly rises to 70 or more, but wants tone in its action. In all 

 ordinary cases it becomes gradually more frequent in number, but 

 less in force, and in the latter stages can only be felt at the heart. 



The respiration is but very little altered at the commence- 

 ment; it rarely becomes difficult, and was never painful in any 

 of the cases we witnessed. It sometimes rises to 30 on the 

 second day. The contractions of the abdominal muscles are 

 often interrupted in their rhythmical action by the spasmodic 

 twitchings which give a singular motion to the animal's flanks, 

 and has led some observers to speak of a difficulty of breathing 

 as being invariably present. A discharge comes on early from 

 the nostrils, which has many of the characters of ordinary mucus, 

 but, when carefully examined, will be found to contain flocculi 

 of lymph. A slight cough is also present in some cases, but it 

 cannot be heard except one is near to the patient, when it imparts 

 a singular and almost indescribable sound to the ear. 



The expression of the countenance does not denote much 

 acute suffering, and the eyes are without any dull appearance 

 except in the advanced stages of the malady, when the lids are 

 found to be drooping as in sleep, arid the ears also to be a little 



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