252 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



brane. I find the same observations in the best authorities who 

 have written upon the contagion, and particularly in the writings of 

 M. Bourgelat, who has made the treatment of these animals a par- 

 ticular study. In many cows the lungs are found gangrenous ; in 

 others, they are filled with abscesses; and in others, again, there are 

 vesicles filled with water, mixed sometimes with pus ; it is more 

 rare to find tartarized or cretaceous matters. There are constantly 

 inflammation and gangrene of the pleura, and we have never yet 

 killed infected animals and found the lungs in a perfect state. The 

 cough being the first symptom of this disease, it is present in every 

 animal affected. The lungs being constantly diseased, it is evident 

 that the disease of these organs is the essence of the contagion, and 

 that it is with perfect justice that the people of France and Ger- 

 many term it pneumonia. The alterations in the other viscera are 

 not so essential as those in the lungs. It is common, nevertheless, 

 to find the stomach inflamed and gorged with food. It is scarcely 

 altered when the animals are killed shortly after the commencement 

 of the disease ; but, when they have been slaughtered at the last 

 stages, or when they have died, the first compartment is inflamed, 

 the food is found but little affected by digestion, or it may be rot- 

 ten. The second compartment is equally inflamed, and filled with 

 forage which is undigested. The third compartment suffers the 

 most, and is often found inflamed and gangrenous, the food in it 

 being extremely compact and dry, and sometimes rotten (pourri). 

 The fourth or true stomach is frequently inflamed and gangrenous, 

 but the food is not hardened. 



" From the first days of the malady the beast has eaten and ru- 

 minated ; and, as it would not be able to maintain either of these 

 functions if the stomach had become inflamed, it is very evident 

 that the disturbance of the stomach is a consequence of the fever, 

 and the putridity of the juices of the beast, and that it is not the 

 cause of the disease. The animal has been infected and the stomach 

 maintained its health for a number of days, and it is only by a cor- 

 ruption of the humors that it is found vitiated. 



" 3. The true nature of a disease is known by the accidents which 

 accompany it in its duration, and by the changes which we observe 

 on the autopsy of the animal, when compared with the organs in 

 health. But the essential features of the disease ought to consist in 

 the symptoms which are manifested from the beginning, and which 

 have continued during life, and in the marks of corruption in the 

 interior, which are the actual causes of these symptoms. It requires 

 care not to be deceived by these accidents, which are a consequence 



