246 The Cattle-Plague. 



fingers. The mucous inembranc of the abomasum (fourth) is 

 always highly congested, more especially towards the pylorus." 

 The patches not mentioned. " Peyer's glands are not invariably 

 diseased, but, like other follicular openings of the digestive canal, 

 they are often covered with layers of lymph, beneath Avhich 

 ulceration is occasionally observed. . . . The chief ravages of 

 the disease, as we have met with them, are in the large intestines. 

 The blind end of the colon — the coecum — was, in one case in 

 particular, ulcerated over several inches of its inner surface. . . . 

 Their deposits of lymph, varying in size from that of a pea to the 

 end of a finger — scabs, as they have been designated — usually 

 stud the large intestines almost throughout their whole extent. . . 

 The inner surface of the bladder often resembles the mucous 

 membrane of the large intestines, and the larynx is slightly 

 ulcerated. The rest of the organs are generally healthy. . . . 

 The blood in all the vessels is fluid, evidently from loss of its 

 jlhrine (completely opposed to Dr. Gamgee's showing, p. 240). 

 It is also darker in colour than ordinary venous blood." 



This description, though differing in some important particulars 

 from the foregoing, stands as a sufficient identification of the Steppe 

 plague with that which is now running its course in this country. 

 Similarly, by a reference to the records of the Italian visitation 

 in 1711-14, and the English in 1745, preserved in the writings of 

 LaNCISI, LayakD, Vicq d'Azye, and others, the same connecting- 

 link is found to exist between the jiost-mortem manifestations of 

 the different periods, as that which has been mentioned as 

 existing between those externally visible. These various out- 

 breaks are as similar in character as are those of small-pox in 

 different localities, and under differing circumstances. 



Nature and Character .-—Having thus become acquainted with 

 the symptoms, we are now prepared to consider another set of 

 opinions. Professor Gamgee says : — 



" The cattle jalague is a specific, malignant, and higlily contagious fever, 

 known to us only as the result of direct or indirect communication from sick 

 to healthy animals. ... It is a specific bovine fever, manifesting all its 

 characteristic features in horned cattle alone, though experience has proved 

 that there are circumstances under which it may oe communicated to the 



buffalo, goat, sheep, deer, gazelle, zebra, and other wild ruminants 



It never'attacks men, horses, dogs The animal poison which is the 



active agent in the development and propagation of the malady, originates 

 in the system of the ox, is perpetuated in countries where herds of cattle 



abound, and is not to be found where bovine animals are wanting The 



disease spreads from country to country through the trade in cattle 



The poison passes through the system 'of other than animals of the bovine 

 race, but appears to be deprived of much of its force until it returns to 

 members of the ox tribe. The cattle plague is not a local disorder, it is not an 

 aflection of any special organ or group of organs. It is a systemic disease — 

 a fever in -which the mucous membranes and skin are specially implicated. 

 The cell growth, fatty and molecular disintegrations, disquamation and 



