602 Inllamuiation of the Pia Mater. 



Tliere is partial or complete loss of appetite. In their mo- 

 ments of semi-consciousness animals will pick up food, but they 

 chew it in a clumsy fashion and let it fall out of their mouths 

 again, or appear to forget that they have it in their mouths. 

 \\ hile drinking they will lower their heads into the w^ater until 

 their nostrils are covered. As a general rule the animals are 

 constipated and the elimination of urine is retarded. 



Careful clinical observations have shown that during the course 

 of an attack of cerebral meningitis, there are often pronounced symp- 

 toms of spinal meningitis. 



At the present time little is known regarding the symptoms 

 of chronic cerebral meningitis. In view of the fact that it is 

 the cortex that is chiefly involved disturbance of the functions 

 of the cortex might be expected. Some cases of staggers might 

 be due to chronic peri-encephalitis. Lecarpentier observed 

 twisting of the head and rolling to the right in a young dog 

 affected with ossification of the tentorium cerebelli and com- 

 pression of the motor branch of the trigeminal nerve. 



Course. The symptoms vary from case to case and make 

 their appearance in varying sequence. Horses die, as a rule, 

 within two or three days after the first appearance of symp- 

 toms ; that is to say, before the excitement or stupor has become 

 sufficiently pronounced to allow of a sufficiently accurate diag- 

 nosis to be made. There are cases, however, in which the onset 

 of the mania is apparently sudden ; this being quickly followed 

 by a period of great depression and death within twelve hours. 

 Tliere are still other cases in which the animals appear merely 

 exhausted for several days, the exhaustion being associated with 

 loss of appetite, difficulty of moving, dullness, etc. ; the symptoms 

 peculiar to the disease becoming pronounced towards the end 

 of the second or third w^eek. There are all gradations between 

 these two extremes and in practice the differentiation between 

 the acute and chronic forms is not sharply marked and is of 

 little actual value. In cattle primary meningitis generally lasts 

 for one-half to two days, whereas tuberculous meningitis is, as 

 a rule, subacute. 



With regard to the sequence of the symptoms it may be 

 said that the disease generally commences with dullness, fol- 

 lowed by a period of excitement. This in turn is followed by 

 loss of consciousness and in a proportion of cases by paralysis. 

 These stages frequently merge into each other and there may be 

 a complete absence of paralysis. In other cases the periods of 

 excitement and stupor alternate at varying intervals, and not 

 rarely there is obvious improvement in the animal. In a horse 

 affected with leptomeningitis of the medulla oblongata Frohner 

 observed that the head was suddenly held in an oblique position 

 and there was also joaralysis of the muscles of deglutition with- 



