THE LI T N<; PLA<;U; OF CATTLE. 45 



and the milk is diminished. The eye loses somewhat, of its prominence :ui(l luster, 

 the eyelids and oars droop slightly, and th-- routs of tin- horns and cars and the limbs 

 are hot or alternately hot and cold. IJy this time the temperature is usually raised 

 from in:;' Fahrenheit, in t he slightest or most t ai.ly cases, told., and upward to 108 

 in the more aenic and severe. Auscultation and percussion also now reveal decided 

 changes in the lung tissue. 



The ear applied over the diseased portions detects in some cases a diminution ot the 

 natural soft breathing murmur, or it may be a tine crepitation wbich has heen likened 

 to the noiso produced ly rubbing a tuft'of hair between linger and thumb close to the 

 ear. When- this exists' it is usually only at the margin ot' the disea-ed area, while in 

 the center the natural sot'f, murmur is entirely lost. In other cases a loud blowing 

 .sound is heard over the diseased lung, which, though itself impervious to air and pro- 

 ducing no respiratory murmur, is in its tirm, solid condition a better conductor of 

 sound' and conveys to the tar tin- noiso prod need in the larger air-tubes. 



Percussion is effected by a series of laps of varying force delivered \vith the tips of 

 the lingeis of the eight band on the back of the middle linger of the left firmly 

 pressed on the side of tin- chest. Over all parts of the, healthy lung this draws out a 

 clear resonance, but over the diseased portions the, sound < licited is dull, as if the per- 

 cussion were made over the solid muscles of the nock or thigh. All gradat ions are, 

 mot with as the lung is more or less consolidated, and conclusions are to be drawn 

 accordingly. 



In other cases we hear on auscultation the loud, harsh, rasping sound of bronchitis 

 with dry, thickened, and rigid membranes of the air tubes, or the soft, coarse, mucous 

 rattle of the- same disease when there is abundant liquid exudation a'.id the bunting 

 of bubbles in the air passages. In others theje is a low, soft, rubbing sound usually 

 in jerks when the chest is being tilled with or emptied of air. This is the friction be- 

 tween the dry. inflamed membrane covering the lungs and that covering the side of 

 the chest, and is heard at an early stage of the disease, but neither at its earliest nor 

 at its latest stage. Later there may be dullness on percussion up to a given level on 

 one or both sides of the chest, implying accumulations of liquid in the cavity. Or 

 there is a superficial dullness on percussion, and muffling of the natural breathing 

 sound with a very slight, sometimes almost inaudible, creaking due to the existence 

 of t'alse membranes (solidified exudations) on the surface of the lung or connecting it 

 to the inner side of the ribs. This is often mistaken for a mucous rattle that can no 

 longer take place in a consolidated lung in which there can be no movement of air 

 nor bursting of bubbles in breathing. The mucous rattle is only possible with con- 

 siderable liquid exudation into the bronchial tubes and a healthy, dilatable condition 

 of the portion of lung to which these lead. In rare cases there will be splashing 

 sounds in the chest, or when the patient has just risen to his feet a succession of clear 

 ringing sounds becoming less numerous and with longer intervals until they die away 

 altogether. These are due to the falling of drops of liquid from shreds of false mem- 

 brane in the upper part of the chest through an accumulation of gas into a collection 

 of liquid below. It has been likened to the noise of drops falling from the bung-hole 

 into a cask half filled with liquid. Peculiar sounds are sometimes heard, as wheezing 

 in connection with the supervention of emphysema, and others which it is needless to 

 mention here. 



In lean patients pressure of the tips of the fingers in the intervals between the ribs 

 will detect less movement over the diseased and consolidated lung than on the oppo- 

 site side of the chest where the lung is still sound. 



As seen in America, in winter, the great majority of cases fail to show the violence 

 described in books. The patients fall off rapidly in condition, show a high fever for 

 a few days, lie always on the same side (the diseased one), or on the breast, and have 

 a great portion of one lung consolidated by exudation, and encysted as a dead mass, 

 and yet the muzzle is rarely devoid of moisture, the milk is never entirely suspended 

 and may be yielded in only a slightly lessened amount as soon as the first few days of 

 active fever have passed. 



During the extreme heats of summer, on the other hand, the plague manifests all 

 its European violence. The breathing becomes short, rapid, and labored ; each expi- 

 ration is accompanied by a deep moan or grunt, audible at some distance from the 

 animal. The nostrils and even the corners of the mouth are strongly retracted. The 

 patient stands most of its time, and in some cases without intermission, its fore legs 

 set apart, its elbows turned out and the shoulder-blades and arm- bones, rapidly losing 

 their covering of flesh, standing out from the sides of the chest so that theiroutlines can 

 be plainly seen. The head is extended on the neck, the eyes prominent and glassy, 

 the muzzle dry, a clear or frothy liquid distils from the nose and mouth, the back is 

 slightly raised, and this together with the spaces between the ribs and the region of 

 the breast-bone are very sensitive to pinching, the secretion of milk is entirely ar- 

 rested, the skin becomes harsh, tightly adherent to the parts beneath and covered 

 with scurf, and the arrest of digestion is shown by the entire loss of appetite and ru- 

 mination, the severe or fatal tyinpanies (bloating), and later by a profuse watery 



