64 RINDERPEST. 



ulcerations ; and glands wliicb, in a vast majority of cases, 

 seemed untouched, might give signs of purulent destruction. 

 Making every reasonable allowance for different manifesta- 

 tions in cases such as those we have given from Jessen, 

 where the disease was induced by inoculation ; or for a predis- 

 posing tendency to the typhoid state, muco-enteritis, pleuro- 

 pneumonia and the like ; we are still able to group together 

 all the seemingly conflicting indications, and define the gene- 

 ral scope of this disease by its congestion of the mucous tissueSf 

 more or less diffused, and that congestion as mainly destruc- 

 tive of the epithelial covering of these tissues. 



In the incubative stage, marked changes manifest them- 

 selves in the condition of the blood, and the commencement 

 of feverish action. We have seen (p. 22), that when the 

 virus has once been absorbed, it permeates within a few hours 

 every portion of the blood, rendering each drop a fresh 

 medium for inoculating the healthy animal with the Pest. 

 It would almost seem credible, that the poison is a vital 

 germ, feeding upon the germ cells of the blood, appropriating 

 its serous and driving off' its saline constituents ; and propa- 

 gating its kind until the red corpuscles become amorphous 

 and shrivelled (see PI. x, fig. 3). Gamgee, however, did not 

 in his microscopic investigations, observe the serrated con- 

 dition of the corpuscles noticed by Dr. Smart. In some 

 cases he found **a great excess of white corpuscles, and in 

 others delicate needle-shaped crystals, which are probably 

 haemato-crystalline,* form in the blood after this fluid has 

 been drawn from the body."f (PI. x, figs. 4, 5 and G). 



The moment that the normal balance in the blood con- 

 stituents is disturbed, feverish action, which escapes notice 

 by ordinary means of observation, is truly established. Gam- 



 These crystals may be regarded as evidence mostly of the decomposition which the blood 

 undergoes, and of abnormal chemical combinations of its saline constituents. They resemble 

 closely in form and appearance those recently obtained by Wormlky in the methods proposed by 

 him for the discovery of poisons when found in human tissues in minute quantities. For these 

 correspondences, see his " Micro-chemistry of Poisons. PI. T, flgs. 1,2 and 3, where the forms 

 of crystalline products are given, as revealed by the microscope magnifying, from 80 to 226 diame- 

 ters; the l-2r)0 gr. of chloride of potash having been tested by a minute trace of tart, soda ; 1-100 

 gr. potash as nitrate, treated with bichloride of platinum in one case, and tartaric add in the 

 other, and in PI. IV, flg 4. where the crystals of tart-emet. from a hot supcr-paturatcd solution 

 without any re-agent, are magnified 80 times ; and in other plates for the ncedle-polnted crystals. 



t Bee Cattle Plague, p. 64. 



