SYMPTOMS OF ANTHRAX. 203 



some infectious virus, or to contamination and poisoning by 

 inoculation, it is tolerably certain that the local symptoms 

 from which the diseased condition derives its name are 

 coincident with, or probably slightly precede, the constitu- 

 tional and general disturbance. 



The local manifestations, the characteristic swelling of the 

 tongue and appearance of vesicles or phlyctena3 over the 

 dorsum of the organ, the sides, and more rarely the fr?enum, 

 are rapidly developed symptoms. 



The animal, though occasionally disposed to eat, is unable 

 to do so. This is generally the first attractive sign of indis- 

 position. On more careful examination the tongue is found 

 swollen, tense, and firm, with, very early in the disease, the 

 existence of several larger or smaller vesicles along its dorsum 

 and sides. The mouth is filled with ropy saliva ; if the 

 tongue be examined on its venter surface, vesicles may or 

 may not be found, and according to the amount of swelling 

 is the protrusion of the organ from the mouth. The sub- 

 lingual glands and adjacent tissues will be seen swollen and 

 infiltrated with a straw-coloured fluid. At first the vesicles 

 are small, and the contained material may be of a pale colour. 



Very rapidly, however, they increase in size, and become 

 darker from the apparently bloody matter which they contain. 

 The swelling of the tongue itself is also rapid, and in a few 

 hours it will be protruding from the mouth, livid-looking, 

 indented or lacerated from contact with the teeth. The 

 saliva which drops and hangs from the mouth will now be 

 rusty coloured from being tinged with blood, either from the 

 torn tongue or ruptured vesicles, which also in some cases are 

 found on the lips and buccal membrane. At this time the 

 ability to swallow even fluids is gone, and constitutional dis- 

 turbance, hitherto not a marked feature, becomes gradually 

 more severe. 



The vesicles which may have ruptured show an unhealthy, 

 angry looking surface, particularly around their edges, which 

 often have a gangrenous appearance. They rapidly become 

 coated with a yellowish aj)lastic exudate, which as rapidly 

 becomes removed, exposing a further eroded and corroding 

 sore, partly from the pain of which, and partly also from the 

 impossibility of having the thirst quenched and the impeded 



