94 DEPABTMENT OF AGK1CULTDKE. 



The organs of respiration are, in many instances, healthy. The respiratory passages 

 are always so. The lungs, sometimes the seat of cadaveric congestion, on the side on which 

 the dead body has been lying, are occasionally ecchymosed, and the pleura is of a dark pur 

 plish color, over distinct lobules which are found intensely congested, but never hepatized 

 throughout their substance. I have not found a single portion of lung tissue which would 

 not float on water. 



In nearly half the cases the collapse of the lungs, when the chest is opened, is imper 

 fect; and according to the extent of interference with this collapse do we find interlob- 

 ular emphysema. The areolar tissue between the lobules is blown up with air; and on 

 the outer aspect of the lung, especially on the arteries and middle lobes, a beaded and 

 streaked appearance, owing to the distension of the connective structure, is striking and 

 well marked. The pleura? are rarely found changed ; but occasionally, scattered over the 

 mediastinal reflections or on the diaphragm, are well-marked ecchymoses. 



The pericardium is usually empty, but I have found it considerably distended with 

 bloody serum. The surface of the heart is almost invariably blood-stained to a greater or 

 less extent. The most common seat of these ecchymoses is on the apex, or the auricular 

 appendages. In the right side a small blood clot is very commonly found in animals that 

 have been lying dead for several hours, and the left side is found empty. Both ventricles, 

 and sometimes even the auricles, may be found entirely ecchymosed ; but, as a rule, the 

 extravasations are most marked and extensive in the left ventricle, arid especially on 

 the fleshy pillars. 



DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 



The mouth, pharynx, and oesophagus are always healthy. The rumen is usually full 

 of food, and its coats healthy. The mucous membrane alone has been found congested in 

 two causes. 



The recticulum, or second stomach, containing semi-fluid material, has been often 

 found reddened; but especially in cows which had swallowed nails, wires, needles, or other 

 foreign objects, that are so commonly found in the second stomach of cattle. In two cases 

 wires had perforated the recticulum and diaphragm, and in one the pericardium was adhe 

 rent to the diaphragm, and injured. 



The omasum, or third stomach, is almost invariably in a normal condition; and 

 whereas there are some instances in which it is considerably distended, and the food packed 

 dry between the folds, there is no appreciable difference between the condition in which 

 we have found it in our numerous dissections, and the state in which we should expect to 

 find it in a similar number of healthy cattle. 



The abomasum, or fourth stomach, is almost invariably the seat of distinct and spe 

 cific changes. On opening it, throughout its whole length it is found varying from a pink 

 to a deep blood-red color over its cardiac end. The pyloric end is more commonly of a 

 natural color. But although there is this marked difference in the general aspect of the 

 two sections of the abomasum, both present further and very characteristic morbid appear 

 ances. In the cardiac end, three different forms of lesion are seen, in different cases. In 

 some the folds-, and even the membrane between the folds, are studded irregularly with 

 minute petechiae of a dark, blood-red color. Each petechia is like a flea-bite, though 



