290 SPLENIC APOPLEXY. 



sheep, Delafond says, that though inexperienced persons 

 rarely detect any premonitory signs, still such occur, and 

 chiefly consist in an appearance of liveliness and activity, 

 coupled with a florid hue of the mucous membranes. If 

 blood is drawn from the animal at this period, it is found 

 dark, and it coagulates very rapidly. As the flock moves 

 about, the best, youngest, and fattest sheep are seen to stop, 

 to stretch their neck, dilate their nostrils, open their mouth, 

 and to breathe with some difficulty. This passes off, and the 

 animal begins to eat, but has a tendency to tympanitis. If 

 the sheep is then made to urinate by closing its mouth and 

 nostrils, a red bloody urine is seen to flow, and on looking 

 about, the fleeces are observed tinged from the urine of the 

 affected animals. The fseces become rather soft, and are 

 covered with a glairy whitish mucus often mixed with blood. 

 All these premonitory symptoms Delafond has described as 

 observable in a flock from amongst which some animals die 

 every two or three days. They assuredly indicate that the 

 disease is in the flock, and some casual circumstance, such as 

 a full meal, a storm, &c , leads to many deaths. The acute 

 symptoms are rapid, and with laboured breathing, bloody froth 

 discharged from the nose, hesitating gait, impaired vision, 

 and convulsive twitching of the limbs, the dying animal 

 falls over. Urine tinged with blood, and even bloody excre- 

 ments, are then expelled, and in a few minutes, or at longest 

 in from one to three hours, the sheep dies. 



Post-mortem Appearances. Cattle, sheep, or other ani- 

 mals dying of this disease speedily decompose. The abdomen 

 swells up, and there is prompt but transient cadaveric rigidity. 

 On removing the skin, it is found congested, and the subcu- 

 taneous areolar tissue is the seat of bloody infiltrations, 

 especially about the neck, in sheep. On opening the abdo- 

 men a certain quantity of bloody serum flows, and the first 



