GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 41 



or sometimes a single ulcer on the tongue, there is no 

 reddened or abnormal affection of the vagina ; while in most 

 cases the intestines, lungs and air-tubes, and in all cases the 

 heart, liver, spleen and kidneys, were healthy and sound. 

 In pleuro-pneumonia, the principal abnormal signs are found 

 in the lining membranes of the air tubes, which are congested 

 and thickened ; in the lungs, either hepatized,* consolidated 

 at the base, adherent to the investing membranes or with 

 effusion ; in the heart, dilated and relaxed, with adherent 

 pericardium ; and in the liver, spleen and kidney being more 

 or less congested. 



(II B.) GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 



As before intimated, we dissent from the opinion so gene- 

 rally concurred in by those whose opportunities of examina- 

 tion and whose veterinary skill entitle their judgments to the 

 highest respect, that the Rinderpest is identical with the epizo- 

 otics which have visited Europe and Great Britain for ages 

 past. But we will not express this conviction without first con- 

 ceding some fair apology tor those who, against reasonable 

 grounds of doubt, have been led apparently to coincide with the 

 general current of opinion and authority. We may then, with- 

 out also yielding our judgment, venture to prove from 

 contemporaneous evidence, which has happily been placed 

 before us, that the murrains of the last century are wholly 

 distinct in their pathognomical indications from the distem- 

 per we are considering. 



It is natural that there should exist in the popular mind a 

 tendency to confound this pest with all others which in past 

 ages have destroyed, and even up to the present time are 

 desolating flocks and herds of domesticated animals, and 

 generally known as murrains. But scientific minds refuse to 

 indulge in this general confusion. We cheerfully record the 



* In Rinderpest the lung is not necessarily diseased. A dull, solid-like sound is emitted on 

 striking the ribs over a lung solidified from pleuro-pneumonia. In Rinderpest, when the lungs 

 are emphysematous, the sound from percussion is still more resonant and hollow-like than even 

 from healthy lungs. (T. Baldwin. Sequel, &c., p. 43.) 



