181 
ally during the summer season. The excrements are often covered with a bed of 
mucus, in a brownish, infectious liquid. Among some subjects the gastro-intestinal 
irritation determines a mild colic. Most frequently the thoracic organs are the most 
severely attacked ; the lungs are congested and become more and more inflamed. The 
plenra secretes a saperabundance of water ; the pulse is irregular, increasing from 60 
to 70; the beatings of the heart are not always very strong, and the metallic sound is 
rare. — 
The blood collected in a gauge is black. The separation of the white and black 
clots of blood is effected in the usual limit of time. The consistency of both is almost 
healthy. The white clots are smaller than those in the normal state, and are rose- 
tinted, or sometimes lead-colored. This color is also to be remarked in the serum, the 
proportion of which does not appear to be the same as in the healthy state. When a 
cure is performed the symptoms gradually, but slowly, disappear. 
In some cases there is a relapse, and then the issue of the distemper is almost always 
fatal. Cases of passive foundering, of persistent running at the nose, or of rapid 
emaciation and areturn of appetite often predict the glanders, which generally ap- 
pears in the ange, between the lower jaws, by numerous large abscesses. In an unfor- 
tunate case respiration becomes more and more difficult the animal falls, struggles a 
little, and dies. Among certain animals death is preceded for twenty or thirty hours 
by a weakness of the limbs, which cannot sustain the body, being in a kind of para- 
lytic condition. In the fulminant cases the subject appears scarcely indisposed, sud- 
denly falls, and dies in five or ten minutes. 
Lesions.—Discolorations and friability of the muscular system; infiltration of the 
cellular tissue of the limbs, most frequently of the posterior members, sometimes of the 
lips. Effusion of three or four pints of clear red water in the abdomen. The perito- 
neum of similar color to the water. The mucus of the small intestine usually of a 
bright red color, thick, and covered with yellowish, bloody mucuses. The plaques 
of Peyer and the follicles of Brunner (small glands of the intestine) participate in 
these changes. The mucus of the large intestine is sometimes of a greenish gray or 
a light slate color. It is easily removed, and in certain cases it presents a dotting 
of small, scarcely perceptible, ulcerations, especially in the cecum. The liver is fria- 
ble and discolored. The mesenteric ganglions are black and congested. 
The breast contains from six to ten pints of a reddish, sanguineous water, without 
albuminons deposits or spurious membranes. The lower portion of one or both lungs 
is hepatized, like the tissue of the liver, and veined with yellowish albuminous de- 
posits. The pericardium contains from three to five deciliters (.176 of a pint) of water, 
usually clearer than that in the breast. The intensity and extent of the lesions of the 
intestines and lungs vary according to the mildness or severity of the affection, the 
abdominal form or the pectoral, and the more or less rapid progress of the malady. 
The heart is discolored and friable, as though partly cooked. It presents small, pesti- 
lential spots, principally near the fissures, (near the great vessels.) The blood inclosed 
in the right cavities of the heart, and in the large veinous trunks, is black, pitchy, and 
incompletely coagulated. The left ventricle incloses a black and white clot. The 
brain and its envelopes are strongly injected, but there is no notable change in the 
consistency of the white or gray substances. The other lesions are neither character- 
istic nor certain, and are of a secondary order. 
Denomination.—By the preceding symptoms and lesions the typhoid or gastro-inflam- 
matory, epizootic affection may be easily recognized. In 1825 this distemper visited 
France with similar ravages to those produced by the epizootic of the United States. 
Causes of the malady.—The epizootic attacks old as well as young horses, although 
the latter, especially if they are fat, may be more proof against it; it spares neither 
those that labor nor those that repose; those who may be quartered in good or bad 
stables, or even in the open air. The animals who have eaten the grass of spring, and 
those who have been deprived of it, cannot escape this distemper. Neither water nor 
forage can be considered as the cause of the malady. The epizootic appears in conse- 
quence of a medical atmospheric constitution that we believe is unknown in its 
essence, and that disappears after four or five months like the small-pox, cholera, and 
all other epidemics or epizvotics. 
Under the influence of this medical constitution, the small sores, the stamping and 
pulling at the halter, are followed by a considerable swelling. The abscess, when it 
is formed during the course of the malady, especially when in the lower jaw, suppurates 
but little in proportion to its size. 
Contagion.—In the epizootic distemper that I have had to combat with I have not 
been able to establish a clear case of contagion. Bnt there are veterinary physicians 
who pretend to have observed very positive instances of contagion. It is still, how- 
ever, a matter of doubt; it is always best to separate sick animals, no matter what the 
malady, from the healthy ones, and this course is more emphatically a proper one in a 
ease of epizootic. 
As a disinfectant, chloride of lime possesses very unreliable qualities; phenique (ear- 
4A 
