388 Veterinary Medicuie. 



In cases that have survived twelve hours, false membranes are 

 found, in the form of fine filamentous shreds on the surface of 

 the congested serosa, which has become dull, opaque, and thick- 

 ened. In twenty-four to thirty hours these have increased in 

 thickness and solidity, binding together the convolutions of the 

 intestines or floating free as shreds or membranous layers in the 

 exuded liquid. At first 3'ellowish white, these become gray, 

 red, and finally white as they become organized into fibrous 

 tissue. They may cover any of the abdominal organs and bind 

 these together more or less firml}'. 



The liquid effusion collecting at the lower part of the abdomen, 

 may be blood red, serosanguinolcnt, or straw colored, and contains 

 a considerable amount of albumen, fibrine, granules and cells as 

 well as the bacteria. It may attain to as much as 25 or 30 quarts. 

 When purulent or septic the liquid is comparatively limited in 

 amount and is usually connected with a ruptured abscess or 

 external wound or intestinal perforation. The presence of 

 alimentary matters, the foetid odor, and gaseous emanations are 

 marked features in this last condition. 



The intestines are usually distended with gas, and have thin 

 walls infiltrated, pale and thickened, and often bound to other 

 convolutions or to adjacent organs by false membranes. The 

 liver and spleen are pallid, and their capsules swollen, thick and 

 opaque, with more or less membranous exudate. 



In case the patient survives, the eflusion and neoplasm are 

 slowly absorbed, but the false membranes only imperfectly, and 

 they may be found later as organized bands attaching the intes- 

 tines or other organs to adjacent parts, and limiting their motions 

 or constricting and strangling them. Hence there is left a pre- 

 disposition to relapse or to other disease of the abdomen. Roll 

 has noticed degeneration and softening of the false membranes, 

 which extended to the wall of the bowel beneath and led to per- 

 foration. 



Prcve?itio>i . In solipeds especially this affection is .so fatal 

 that ever}' precaution should be adopted to prevent its occurrence. 

 In this class of animal the tendenc}' to suppuration in wounds 

 and inflammations of all 'kinds greatly exceeds what we see in 

 other animals. A wound that in man will heal kindly by first 

 intention will almost certainly suppurate in the horse, and an 



