Dysentery of Cattle. 243 



iug without passage at first). Then follows a period of profuse 

 and foetid discharge, with relaxed or open anus, the liquids 

 escaping involuntarily and smearing the tail, perineum, thighs 

 and hocks, and the protruded mucosa showing dark red conges- 

 tions and even commencing erosions. Colicy pains, slight at first, 

 have now become intense, and the right side of the abdomen is 

 very tender to the touch and fluctuates noisily when manipulated. 

 Appetite and rumination are lost. Salivation may be present, the 

 saliva falling in films to the ground. The buccal epithelium is 

 .softened, loosened and easily detached by the finger, leaving raw 

 sores. The temperature which has risen slowly (not as in rinder- 

 pest abruptly) may reach 106°. The hair becomes dry, the skin 

 harsh, rigid, and firmly adherent to the deeper parts, and often 

 cold, while the muzzle is hot, dry and even cracked. 



At a still more advanced stage, the pulse is small, the tempera- 

 tirre lowered, the animal very weak and unsteady and inclined to 

 lie, great emaciation, sunken glazed eye, drooping head, ears and 

 eyelids, and a general foetor from the skin as well as the dejec- 

 tions, which attracts crowds of flies. By this time there may 

 be passed only bloody mucus mixed with eschars, and having a 

 most repulsive odor. 



It is a noticeable fact that the faeces are alkaline, and in man 

 the saliva is acid and destitute of its glycogenic properties, the 

 stomach .secretions are alkaline and no longer peptogenic, and 

 the secretion of bile is arrested until improvement sets in. 



Course. Duration. Some mild cases recover in two or three 

 days, and in violent cases death may occur at this early date. 

 More commonl}^ the disease continues for two or three weeks 

 before ending in death or recovery. Some merge into the chronic 

 form and may last for months and die in a condition of marasmus. 

 The.se la.st cases become mere walking skeletons, with pallid 

 mucosae, .sunken eyes, scurfy hide-bound skins covered with 

 vermin, and the frequenth^ everted rectum is congested and 

 covered with ulcers and eschars. Mortality is from 50 to 80 per 

 cent. 



Complications . Most complications are in the direct line of 

 septic infection. Among the most common are hepatic abscess, 

 gangrenous pneumonia, and extensive gangrene of the intestinal 

 walls. In man arthritis, paralysis, parotitis and other secondary 



