12 METHODS OF ELUCIDATING DISEASE. 



In tlie different forms wliicli the fever of influenza may 

 assume, a leading feature by wliicli several of these may he 

 separated from each other is the physical character of these 

 membranes. 



Witness the bright j)ink colour of the conjunctival mem- 

 brane in that particular form where the connective tissue is 

 prominently involved, and which has given to it its most com- 

 monly employed designation, ' pink-eye.' Again, in the bilious 

 form we have the true hejmtic hue spread over the whole 

 buccal membrane as well as the schnciderian and conjunctival. 

 Wheii degradation of tissue is imminent, and when the blood 

 is being poisoned by absorption of effete materials consequent 

 on tissue change, or from noxious emanations received from 

 without, such necrasmic changes as occur to the formed ma- 

 terials of the blood are made plainly visible to our observation 

 by blood spots, and stellate rays branching from these petecliim 

 and vihici, found on the nasal membrane. While when disease 

 marked by these features and of such a type as indicated 

 by these destructive changes is under treatment, the most 

 noticeable symptom, and one to be depended upon, is the per- 

 sistence or otherwise of these blood spots ; indeed, theu' disap- 

 pearance and recurrence on the visible mucous membranes 

 in these fevers are surely indicative of the subsidence or 

 otherwise of the other, and what may appear the graver, 

 symptoms. 



With these membranes also are associated the characteristic 

 lesions of some of our most serious and harassing diseases of 

 animals, as glanders, cattle plague, epizootic aphtha, etc. 



The information to be obtained from the condition of the 

 buccal membrane, although not so diagnostic and specially in- 

 dicative of particular organic changes in the very numerous 

 disorders of the digestive system to which the horse is so 

 liable, as in the case of those general or specific fevers to which 

 we have already referred, is yet ample and explicit, and well 

 deserving of our closest attention. A furred and pasty con- 

 dition of the tongue, with a sour and disagreeable smell, is 

 a sure enough indication of indigestion, gastric or intestinal. 

 An excessively moist state of the mouth from an over-suppl\' 

 of saliva indicates irritation of the posterior parts of the mouth 

 or fauces, irregularities of the tcetli, or the presence of foreign 



