100 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



was lying with its bead forcibly drawn onto the right shonlder, and the 

 cervical muscles twitching as in a severe attack of chorea. In another 

 the animal had the same position of the head, and jerking of the muscles; 

 but it was lying motionless on its belly, with all four legs sprawling- 

 out, as if they had yielded and slipped out without an effort, as the 

 body sank to the ground. The state of the secretions is usually a 

 good index in the course of the disease. There is little tendency to free 

 perspiration, and the only remarkable change of the skiu is oedema, 

 which distends it in some cases below the jaw, or under the sternum. 

 Hide-bound and costive, the animals indicate the febrile crisis by slight 

 blood-staining of the faeces and by htematuria. The latter is commonly 

 profuse, until the animal is so far paralyzed in its hind quarters that 

 there is retention. 



With rare exceptions, the bladder is found distended, and weighs, 

 with its bloody contents, ten, twelve, or fourteen pounds; this, too, just 

 after the animal has urinated immediately before or in the act of death. 

 Under the microscope the urine presents no tints, but only amorphous 

 dei)osits of h;ematin, and some epithelial cells. From first to last, it 

 coagulates by the aid of heat and nitric acid, except in those cases 

 where it retains its normal color. 



The milk secretion is all but entirely suspended, aud the little which 

 is drawn is dense, aud mainly composed of cream. No change of a 

 definite kind can be detected by a microscope. 



IV. Termination. — In the majority of cases depression and listlessness 

 increase, the pulse increases in frequency, the respiration becomes labored, 

 tl|e animal heat reduced to 100° and to 98° Fahr.; and the animal 

 stretches out on the ground, on which it has been lying motionless for 

 some time, aiul dies without a struggle. 



In exceptional cases the febrile symptoms subside, the secretion of 

 milk in cows is restored, the color of the urine becomes paler and paler, 

 till it is normal, and the animal recovers in ten days or a fortnight, only 

 indicating its previous condition by a stiffness of gait and considerable 

 emaciation. A month or six weeks is required before evidence of 

 thriving is obtained. 



I have seen animals in apparently a convalescent state and manifest- 

 ing considerable appetite; after distending their stomachs on grass, 

 they have appeared uneasy, the fever has returned, diarrhea set in, 

 and death occurred within thirty-six or forty-eight hours. Such acci- 

 dents are uiuloubtedly dependent on the lesions of the fourth stomach 

 and intestines. They are gastroenteric complications, and not indica- 

 tions of a true relapse. 



POST-MOETEM ArPEARANCES. 



The structural lesions which occur in splenic fever are so numerous 

 and various, that 1 (Iccm it advisable to transcribe the notes of a suffi- 

 cient mnnber of examinations in support of a summary, which may be 



