482 PHRENITIS, OR INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 



Any noise excites the animal, and the rustling of straw, or 

 touching the surface of the body, indicates an increased 

 sensitiveness to external impressions of various kinds. The 

 symptoms, however, soon change, and indicate the aberra- 

 tion of the cerebral functions. We cannot accept Mr 

 Percivall's description of the disease at this stage. He says : 

 " The frantic animal will rear both his forelegs into the 

 manger, and in this posture stand, with his head erected, 

 for several minutes perhaps, no person daring to approach 

 the while, lest he should unexpectedly spring up or reel 

 round, and fall upon the intruder. In a word, our patient 

 is ' mad' furiously so, in the worst sense of the word, as 

 applied to staggers." Further on, Mr Percivall says : 

 " As the disease increases, instead of lying quiet as before, 

 in a state of apparent insensibility after a throe, convul- 

 sions will follow so quick upon one another, that the patient 

 will be kept in continual struggle, panting and perspiring, 

 and perhaps foaming at the mouth, leading his attendants 

 to believe he is not only phrenitic, but actually rabid" All 

 this does not tally with the most reliable histories of cases 

 of phrenitis especially due to injury, and the diagnosis of 

 which could be relied on. Inflammation of any organ is, as 

 a rule, associated with loss of function ; and accordingly, in 

 well-marked encephalitis, after the paroxysmal or congestive 

 stage, there is dulness, listlessness, and loss of conscious- 

 ness. The animal stands with sunken and outstretched 

 head, and either has difficulty in holding an erect position 

 or lies. A certain degree of vivacity may recur, but it 

 speedily disappears again, and there is decided loss of sensi- 

 bility, and suspended function of all the organs of special 

 sense. The pulse is apt to be full and throbbing at the 

 submaxillary, and the breathing is loud, and stertorous as 

 in coma. When the animal drinks it sinks its head in the 



