4 CAUSES, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OF 



symptoms. There are general symptoms, as rigours, shivering in fever ; 

 and in certain organs we have symptoms of those organs having under- 

 gone certain changes. 



Diagnostic Symptoms are those by which we are able to detect the 

 character of the disease, and the parts diseased. It is the discrimination 

 of disease. There are diagnostic, prognostic, and pathognostic symp- 

 toms. There may be a collection of symptoms, and may be character- 

 istic, as in glanders. There is a discharge from the nose. This may be 

 symptomatic of several diseases. But if there is a discharge and ulcera 

 tion of tbe mucous membrane, the sub-maxillary glands are enlarged, 

 and attached to the adjacent tissue, etc., then we liave characteristic or 

 pathognomic symptoms of glanders. 



Prognosis, or telling the probable termination of a disease. You 

 examine the symptoms carefully, and make up your mind what is the 

 matter, and then tell the future of the disease, either favourable or un- 

 favourable. 



Therapeutics, that branch of medicine which has reference to the treat- 

 ment of diseases. Diseases are classified under different names, accord- 

 ing to progress and character of disease. These are epizootic, enzootic, 

 specific, sporadic and zymotic ; these are the ordinary classification or 

 heads. 



Epizootic is derived from two Greek words, signifying on and animal. 

 In human practice it is epidemic. A great many animals become 

 similarly affected at the same time, without any appreciable cause. A 

 common example is that known as epizootic, catarrhal fever and influ- 

 enza. It may be due to atmospheric influence, either contagious or non- 

 contagious. In cattle a good example is epizootic aphthje. 



Enzootic diseases are confined to certain localities, and are due to local 

 influences. They may become contagious after leaving that certain 

 place. Kinderpest is a good example, but has never been known on this 

 continent. It is in Eussia. Texas fever appears common to certain 

 localities of Texas, but it is set up among the northern cattle. It may 

 be generated from the character of the water, food, grass, soil, etc. In 

 man, the term indemic is applied, as the ague 



Specific, peculiar to particular class of animal, the virus of which, if 

 introduced into another animal, may produce the same disease as glan- 

 ders, strangles, distemper in dog days, etc., but a specific disease is not 

 necessarily contagious. 



Sporadic is a word derived from a Greek word, meaning to sow here 

 and there. It is from accidental causes. Most diseases come under 

 this head, and are from well-marked causes. 



Zymotic. — Some of the diseases mentioned are of a zymotic character. 

 Zymotic means a ferment. It acts like a ferment in the blood. Investi- 

 gations show that by minute bodies, so small that you can scarcely 

 think of their minuteness, an action is set up 'n the blood, perhaps in 

 the form of a ferment We find that most diseases consist in some 

 change in the blood itself, or in the flues wh' i nourish and renew the 

 tissues ; but a majority consist in a char i in the blood itself. In a 

 living body, there is a continual change taking place, and the great 

 characteristics of these changes are the processes of decay and repara- 

 tion, which only terminate at death. Substances pass into the body 

 and are carried to all parts of the body. Waste is taken up in the blood 

 and carried from the body. The body wastes during the day, and during 

 repose it is nourished and the waste repaired. The human being, during 

 one year, loses three thousand pounds by waste of tissue, and the repair 

 equals the waste. However, in youth the repair exceeds the waste, so 



