SPLENIC OR PERIODIC FEVER OF CATTLE. 10 



9 



The examination, after death, of cattle in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, 

 and Kansas, indicates that the usual post-mortem appearances, in well- 

 marked cases of splenic fever, are as follows : 



The skin, very often infested with ticks, is occasionally seen studded 

 with dried drops of blood, as if the animal had sweated blood in dying. 

 Then small blood clots have been found freely distributed over the neck, 

 trunk, and limbs, and especially between the thighs. 



On removing the skin, blood-extravasations, or serous infiltrations, 

 are sometimes found beneath the lower jaw and brisket. The subcuta- 

 neous areolar tissue, as a rule, is pallid and not congested, as in anthrax. 



The muscular system is normal, and I have not l)eeu able to distin- 

 guish any deviation from the common appearance of slaughtered cattle, 

 if the animals are examined immediately after death. 



The organs of respiration are, in many instances, healthy. The res- 

 piratory passages are always so. The lungs, sometimes the seat of cada- 

 veric congestion, on the side on which the dead body has been lying 

 are occasionally ecchymosed, and the pleura is of a dark purplish color, 

 over distinct lobules which are found intensely congested, but never 

 hepatized throughout their substance. It has not occurred to me to find 

 a single portion of lung tissue which would not float on water. 



In nearly half the cases the collapse of the lungs, when the chest is 

 opened, is imperfect; and according to the extent of interference with 

 this collapse do we find interlobular emphysema. The areolar tissue 

 between the lobules is blown up with air ; and on the outer aspect of 

 the lung, especially on the arteries and middle lobes, a beaded and 

 streaked appearance, owing to the distension of the connective structure, 

 is striking and well marked. The pleume are rarely found changed; 

 but occasionally, scattered over the mediastinal reflections or on the 

 diaphragm, are well-marked ecchymoses. 



The pericardium is unusually empty, but I have found it considerably 

 distended with bloody serum. The surface of the heart is almost inva- 

 riably blood-stained to a greater or less extent. The most common seat 

 of these ecchymoses is on the apex, or the auricular appendages. In 

 the right side a small blood clot is very commonly found in animals that 

 have been lying dead for several hours, and the left side is found 

 empty. Both ventricles, and sometimes even the auricles, may be found 

 entirely ecchymosed ; but, as a rule, the extravasations are most marked 

 and extensive in the left ventricle, and especially on the fleshy pillars. 



DICfESTIVE ORGANS. 



The mouth, pharynx, and cesophagus are always healthy. The 

 rumen is usually full of food, and its coats healthy. The mucous mem- 

 brane alone has been found congested in two cases. 



The recticnlum, or second stomach, containing semi-fluid material, 

 has been often found reddened ; but especially in cows which had swal- 

 lowed nails, wires, needles, and other foreign objects, that are so com- 



