26 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



labDicd; till' aiiiinal ^asps for breath. Tlie spasmodic action of the 

 nostrils is very marked, the <?riint very audible, and there is a peculiar 

 puckerin<;- of the angles of the mouth. The temperature, which is ele- 

 vated during- the acute stage of the disease, is irregularly up and down, 

 according to the comidicationsof the disease, and there is great tendency 

 to coldness of the horns and extremities. Abortion is not an uncommon 

 accident. The constipation, which is a very common symptom of the 

 lung disease, is a])t to be followed by diarihea in the later stages, and 

 this is also associated with a considerable discharge of clear-colored 

 urine. 



Auscultation and percussion are valuable aids in the diagnosis of lung 

 plague. Most persons can, with a little care, distinguish the sick from 

 healthy cattle by listening to the sides of the chest. It does not require 

 a skillful expert to recognize that the ribs are motionless and flattened 

 over the consolidated lung, that there is an absence of resonance on 

 striking the ribs over the affected region, and that the ear distinguishes 

 a very distinct respiratory murmur wherever the lung is pervious, and 

 an absence of this sound where the lung is transformed into a solid mass. 



At an early stage of pleuropneumonia there is a harsh sound, roar, or 

 rhonchus, produced by the passage of air through the windpipe and its 

 subdivisions. This varies in intensity in different cases, as some animals 

 have more exudation on the mucous surface of the air passage than 

 others, and the leathery-looking shreds of lymph adhering to the inflamed 

 membrane vibrate as the air rushes past them and give rise to the harsh 

 sound which may sometimes be heard by persons standing by a sick ani- 

 mal. In many cases one lung alone is affected, and then the respiratory 

 murmur is more distinct than in health, wherever the lung tissue is per- 

 vious, whereas there is a total absence of sound over the consolidated 

 organ. Occasionally an air passage remains open through a mass of 

 hardened lung, and the air rushing through this rigid bronchial tube 

 makes a very decided whistling noise. 



In the earliest stages of pleuropneumonia the deposit of lymph on the 

 serous covering of the ribs and lungs produces a leathery-friction sound, 

 and as liquid accumulates in one or both cavities of the chest the respira- 

 tory murniur is lost towards the lower part of the affected side or sides, 

 and it is alone distinct over the upper i)ortions of pervious lung tissue. 



A careful examination of the cliest reveals day by day the progress of 

 the disease. AVlieu one buig is attected an animal is much more likely 

 to recover than when both are diseased. Portions of the diseased lung- 

 tissue are apt to die, ami becoming detached or softened, produce cavi- 

 ties in the lungs, whicli are indicated by a cavernous rale or sound some- 

 what similar to that produced by blowing air in tiie hollow of the hands 

 when closed against each other. 



By careful auscultation the cases that tend to convalescence nmy be 

 distinguished by less marked roughness in the inspirations, and a gradual 



