The Cattle-Plague. 247 



discharge of the epithelial and epidermic cells, are tj'pical of this disease. 

 In this waj' it can only be classed amongst general diseases with fevers of a 

 specific kind, and which originate from a specific canse, rnn a definite course, 

 manifest a singular periodicity in their progress, and have a marked tendency 

 to destroy life. The pathological process is constant. The temperature of 

 the body first rises. General functional disturbance soon follows, the blood 

 loses its watery parts and soluble albumen, indicating also a large increase in 

 the proportion of blood corpuscles and fibrinc to serum. Assimilation is 

 checked. The reservoirs in which the food is prepared for true gastric and 

 intestinal digestion become torpid. The rumen, reticulum, and omasum 

 retain a large quantity of solid food, and their movements are stopped. The 

 fourth stomach ceases to secrete gastric-juice, its epithelium is thrown off", 

 a morbid cellular deposit clogs the gastric glands, and the proper preparation of 

 aliment for intestinal digestion and absoi'ption can no longer occur. The 

 intestine is the seat of inflammation. Its contents indicate the drain of the 

 blood of its soluble albumen and other products, the intestinal epithelium 

 is rapidly ejected, and in some cases many of the glands become clogged with 

 a deposit similar to that which is found in the follicles of the gastric mucous 

 membrane. A free suppuration is nowhere witnessed, but discharges flow 

 from the mucous membranes, and are highly charged with epithelial cells and 

 the specific virus of the disease. The rapidity and completeness of the 

 general functional disturbance is indicated by the albuminous and dark- 

 coloured urine ; the deposition and early putrefaction, fetor of the secre- 

 tions, &c." 



As to other features he agrees with the NoEFOLK MediCAL 

 Committee, who express their opinion thus: — "With regard 

 to the essential nature of the disease, there can be no doubt 

 that it is due to a special poison of great subtlety ; one capable 

 of reproducing itself in the living organism; intensely conta- 

 gious; capable of being disseminated widely by means of the 

 air, and also readily conveyed by the clothes of attendants, the skins, 

 viscera, &c., of the dead animals, or any solid substances which 

 have become infected with it, given off by the exhalations and 

 excretions of the living animals, and moreover capable of being 

 artificially conveyed from animal to animal by means of the 

 discharge both of the living and dead bodies." Not only do they 

 consider that the disease is the result of a specific blood-poison, 

 but that it is an eruptive disease, closely allied in its nature to 

 the exanthemata in man ; that it is both infectious and contagious ; 

 that it is communicable from ox to ox, from sheep to sheep, and 

 between these two classes of animals by mere association ; that 

 it is also inoculable by means of the discharges from bullocks to 

 sheep, from sheep to bullocks, and to each other respectively. 

 That the disease, as seen in sheep is identical in nature with 

 that of bullocks, but is milder in type, and is also modified as to 

 its post-mortem appearances. 



Dr. Andrew Smart, deducing the character of the disease 

 from morbid appearances, states : — 



" These give it no resemblance to the ulcerated typhoid fever in man. The 

 analogy fails. The morbid appearances are peculiar. In so far as any 



