Course. Diagnosis. Treatment. 679 



Course. The disease, as a rule, terminates fatally within 

 a week, death being due in most cases to disease of the spinal 

 cord. There are cases in which circumscribed inflammation of 

 the meninges may persist for months. 



Diagnosis. There is no special difficulty in making a diag- 

 nosis when the symptoms can be observed to make their appear- 

 ance in the order given, but systematic observation is essen- 

 tial. S>Tnptoms that are of particular value are the gradual 

 disappearance of the irritability of the nerves, which is present 

 in the early stages, until there is complete paralysis, and the 

 forward extension of the inflammatory processes. With refer- 

 ence to the course taken by this disease, injuries to and com- 

 pression of the cord are easily excluded. — Pachymeningitis 

 ossificans may be distinguished by the chronic course and the 

 slightness of the initial symptoms. — Acute muscular rheuma- 

 tism may be differentiated by the painfulness of the muscles, 

 while the sensibility of the skin remains normal, and the nor- 

 mal condition of the reflexes, tetanus by the trismus, and the 

 absence of sensory disturbances ; acute inflammation of the 

 brain and its membranes by the pronounced dullness and the 

 paralysis of the cranial nerves. — Polyneuritis sometimes oc- 

 curs in animals, but in this condition there is exaggerated sen- 

 sibility, but there are no muscular spasms. — In many cases, the 

 differentiation of transverse or diffuse inflammation of the cord 

 may be associated with difficulty. The chief distinction is that 

 in spinal meningitis there is severe pain and muscular spasms 

 over large areas. In inflammation of the cord there is at an 

 early stage extensive sensory and motor paralysis, and dis- 

 turbance of defecation and micturition are more frequently ob- 

 served. Finally, experience shows that in cases in which the 

 disease is confined to the cord there are no objective symptoms 

 of pain. 



Treatment. The increased excitability and reflex irrita- 

 bility seen in the early stages make it essential that the animal 

 be placed in a quiet, clean box and provided with a soft bed, 

 because bedsores are easily produced in cases of this kind. The 

 affected parts of the body should be injected or rubbed several 

 times daily with alcohol containing camphor or turpentine, and 

 parts that are already partly paralyzed must be kept clean. 

 Large animals should be placed in slings, should the increased 

 irritability permit of it, and paraplegia has not become com- 

 plete. Should the animal go down, the parts must be washed 

 several times a day with a disinfectant and sprinkled with a 

 disinfecting powder. 



Cold applications should be used to oppose the inflammatory 

 processes, and this is particularly the case in small animals in 

 wdiicli the thin layer of muscles does not offer much opposition 

 to the effect of the cold on the vertebral canal. India rubl)er 



