300 Extracts from Communications to the Society. 



while all those used in forming the common vats were 

 in a state of great decay." 



March, 1825. — Dr. Kercheval of Bards Town, Ken- 

 tucky, communicated an answer to Dr. Mease's inquiry of 

 him respecting some particulars of a disease described by 

 Dr. K. in the Medical Recorder of Philadelphia, Vol. 4. 

 p. 445 ; and which was said to have been communi- 

 cated to several persons who had flayed some cattle 

 which had died of an epidemic disease in the year 1819. 



The symptoms were swellings in the throat and breast, 

 extending along the sides to the flanks, and uniting across 

 the loins. These swellings were soft and elastic, and 

 when cut into after death, were found to contain clotted 

 blood, and coagulated lymph. The animals also frothed 

 at the mouth, and appeared to be distracted. Death was 

 often attended with violent agitations, and great distress. 

 The disease lasted from four to twenty -four hours. It 

 only appeared from the Months of June to September in- 

 clusive, and attacked horses, sheep, and horned cattle, 

 whether grazing in wild or cultivated fields. 



In the human subject, the first symptom was a small 

 and circumscribed blister, containing a dark and turbid 

 fluid, and gradually extending, formed a circular ulcer, 

 which became livid, and finally gangrenous. The sur- 

 rounding parts were hard and swelled, and affected with a 

 loss of sensibility. Chills and fevers, attended by head- 

 ache and pains in the joints, extremities, and along the 

 course of the spine, succeeded, and, in one case, purple 

 spots on the skin followed. In another, indisposition first 

 appeared on a Friday, and gangrene in both hands the 

 next day ; on the following Wednesday, it had reached 

 to the shoulder, when delirium occurred, and the man 

 expired the next day. No person of colour was affected 

 bv the disease. 



