17:2 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



of the heart show ecchymosed spots, and the 

 same is the case with the larger vessels. The 

 blood, diminished in its quantity and altered in 

 its quality, is blackish and more fluid; but in 

 most cases it coagulates instantaneously and 

 in a mass, without separating into its solid and 

 liquid parts. 



Nervous System. Having observed and dis- 

 sected the dead bodies at the slaughter-houses 

 of the markets, we were not able to examine 

 either the brain or the spinal marrow. Be- 

 sides, let us remark in this place, that the mode 

 of felling cattle in England would have ren- 

 dered impossible such an examination. For 

 the animals are struck with a club, which kills 

 them both by cerebral concussion and by the 

 direct alteration of the brain ; the instrument 

 having a sharp end which perforates the skull 

 and injures the cerebral lobes. Nor is this all ; 

 the moment the animal is struck down, a 

 flexible rod is inserted into the hole made in 

 the skull, and driven as far as the spinal canal, 

 so as to tear to pieces the protuberance and 

 the bulb, that is to say, the vital knot. This 

 manner of killing cattle seems to us, how- 



