I 



SPLENIC OR PERIODIC FEVER OF CATTLE. 93 



of a dark, port- wine color, is retained for hours, and then evacuated in 

 inconsiderable quantities. Frequent pulse, hurried breathing, and tre- 

 mors are almost invariable symptoms; and, according to the severity of 

 the attack, tjiere is more or less paralysis, which either partially aiJects 

 the hind quarters, or equally involves the fore. From implication of the 

 lesser brain there is occasionally a defective co-ordination of movement ; 

 and, when the brain proper is involved, the animal either lies comatose, 



or is delirious. 



In the first case there is more or less blindness, and in the second a 

 wild, staring gaze, and the greatest restlessness. Animals recover, espe- 

 cially if from the south ; but the communicated disorder among northern 

 stock is extremely fatal; and, in many forms, destroys every animal 

 exposed to its ravages. Death usually occurs about the third or the 

 fourth day from the time the animal is very obviously sick; but probably 

 not for ten or twelve days from the first indications to be obtained by 

 the thermometer. The symptoms of approaching death are usually gTeat 

 prostration, the animals lying and refusing to rise, retention of the urine, 

 the head occasionally drawn forcibly round, especially to the right side, 

 and the muscles of the neck twitching without much intermission. After 

 death there is marked cadaveric rigidity ; the skin and subcutaneous 

 tissues are usually sound ; but effusions of serum, and sometimes of blood, 

 have been witnessed under the lower jaw and sternum. The respiratory 

 organs are commonly healthy, but in some cases the lungs are somewhat 

 ecchymosed, and more frequently there is partial interlobular emphysema. 

 The heart is frequently blood- stained both on the inner and the outer 

 aspects. The peritoneum is sometimes ecchymosed, and, in one instance, 

 was found to contain a large amount of free, coagulated blood. The 

 digestive organs, from the month to the fourth stomach, are, as a rule, 

 healthy. The fourth stomach, or abomasum, is, with rare exceptions, 

 the seat of distinct lesions, viz., dark redness, ecchymosis, yellow gran- 

 ular-looking eruptions, and erosions of the cardiac end ; and the pyloric 

 end is of more normal color, but frequently the seat of extensive super- 

 ficial erosions, penetrating the substance of the mucous membrane, to 

 which, wherever an abrasion exists, food usually adheres. The small 

 intestine is generally the seat of punctiform or ramified redness through- 

 out its whole extent; and blood extravasations are common in the 

 caecum, colon, and rectum. The liver is often congested, and the gall- 

 bladder distended with viscid bile. The spleen is twice, three, or even 

 five times its natural size ; and, according to the duration and severity 

 of the attack, is more or less broken up and disintegrated in its inter- 

 nal structure. In one case the spleen had given away at its base, and 

 hemorrhage had taken place into the peritoneum. The kidneys and supra- 

 renal capsules are usually congested. The mucous membrane of the 

 urethra, at its origin iu the pelves of the renal lobules, is often the seat of 

 extensive ecchymosis. The vuinary bladder is usually very much dis- 

 tended with bloody urine, which never coagulates spontaneously, and 



