20 QUATERCENTENARY STUDIES IN PATHOLOGY 



tendency to somnolence. It did not rise when approached, and the 

 breathing was rather hurried. At 5 p.m., exactly twenty-four hours after 

 the commencement of the experiment, the animal died. 



The autopsy was made immediately after death. The inoculated le^, 

 as well as that on the opposite side, and the whole of the front of the 

 abdomen, were intensely infiltrated with slightly opaque and somewhat 

 blood-stained oedematous liquid. The oedema was extreme, perhaps 

 greater than in any case previously observed. 



Examined microscopically, this liquid was found to be swarming with 

 a bacillus alike with that injected, dividing actively, but free from spores. 

 It varied in length, some of the rods being short, others fairly elongated, 

 and certain of them were distinctly motile. 



This case, certainly, gave me an insight into the aetiology of 

 the disease which previously was wanting. The animal was under 

 our own observation when alive, the symptoms were typical of the 

 disease, it died a natural death after about twelve hours' illness. 

 Ticks and tick-bites were absent, and the carcase seemed to be 

 free from disease so far as could be judged by mere naked-eye 

 observation. The peritoneal liquid was in small quantity and was 

 clear ; it did not contain any organism detectable by microscopic 

 examination. Anaerobic cultures of the intestinal contents developed 

 pure growths of the Louping-ill organism, which, on being inoculated 

 subcutaneously on a sheep, killed it within forty-four hours, its body 

 permeateid with the rod inoculated. The clear peritoneal liquid, after 

 being incubated, became turbid, developed the Louping-ill organism, and 

 this, on being injected subcutaneously into another sheep, killed it, 

 in this case within twenty-four hours, the liquid of its tissues again 

 swarming with the same organism. 



Here is another observation having the same bearings : — 



A four-year-old Cheviot ewe was admitted living to the Station at 

 Kielder on May 29th, 1903. She had been ill for a considerable period, 

 and had been lying helpless on the farm for a week. The symptoms 

 were said to have been typical of Louping-ill, and by the time she 

 reached us a state of almost total collapse had ensued. 



The animal was found dead on the following morning (May 30th), 

 and the examination of the carcase was made within a few hours of her 

 demise. The abdominal wall in front had a faintly greenish tint. About 



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