298 BEAXY IN SHEEP. 



opening the digestive tube, extravasations of blood, quite 

 circumscribed and beneath the mucous membrane, are seen. 

 The lungs are found turgid with blood, and the heart often 

 spoken of as inflamed is marked both on its external and 

 internal surfaces with blood spots of a dark purplish hue, 

 and is filled with dark and partly coagulated blood. 



It is not easy to determine the nature of the peculiar pro- 

 cess by which animals in the most robust health, with great 

 activity of all the organs of the body, should be seized sud- 

 denly with a change in the condition of the blood, or an 

 arrest of certain functions, whereby they suffer instantaneous 

 death. There is no doubt at all that the process is a very 

 simple one, and is not inflammatory, though the condition of 

 the animal is certainly favourable to inflammatory disease. 



From the first symptoms of ill health, to the period of dis- 

 solution, there is not sufficient time for the development of 

 inflammation. We find the blood clotted in the blood-ves- 

 sels, but no exudations of lymph or other lesion indicating 

 an inflamed state of any organ. As in splenic apoplexy and 

 black quarter, there are extravasations of blood, but these 

 seem to depend on sudden congestions, attended by rupture 

 of the vessels, and consequent sanguineous effusion. In ex- 

 ceptional instances, when animals live on for several days, 

 there may be inflammatory complications ; but, as a rule, a 

 sheep is dead within a couple of hours from the time it has 

 been in the enjoyment of perfect health. Pathologists may 

 regard the disease as apoplexy, but from the complete ab- 

 sence even of blood effusions in the most sudden cases, I 

 am inclined to believe that there is a general stasis, a clotting 

 of blood within the smaller vessels of tissues, the vitality, 

 and hence the functions, of which are suddenly impaired. In 

 the mountains of central and southern Europe, the disorder is 

 regarded as a carbuncular fever. There is no doubt that it 



