76 KnfDERPEST. 



no sure sign. If the eye, unaided, could not detect en- 

 gorged or discharging papillae, a lens should be brought into 

 requisition, before the true pathological sign should be antici- 

 pated, the destruction and peeling; off of the epithelium. 



We will briefly notice other sources of illusion. The dis- 

 charge from the eyes and nose occurs in many affections, 

 fatal or transient ; but in the Pest, it soon becomes glairy 

 and changes to what is termed a turbid secretion. Yet it 

 would be absurd, in view of the pathology of the murrains 

 of the last century we have so fully detailed ; to confound 

 this discharge with the purulent one, resulting from a phleg- 

 monic or ulcerous condition of the system ; neither should the 

 prediction be too easily made, that the initial watery flow, 

 however copious, would readily be changed to one of more 

 significant consistence or color. Gamgee gives an apt illustra- 

 tion* of this, from cases occurring at his establishment in Edin- 

 burgh, during a series of inoculation experiments, conducted 

 by a commission of the French government. Great care was 

 exercised in the purchase of animals free from the distemper, 

 in order that such experiments might be wholly reliable. 



Three animals were purchased one day, receiving the guar- 

 anty of the seller as being free from any contamination with 

 the prevailing epidemic. They had each, however, the glairy 

 discharge from eyes and nose, but did not develop any 

 further evidences of ailment. It appeared, on inquiry, that 

 they had been exposed to easterly winds in an ill-sheltered 

 field, and the discharge was only diagnostic of a slight catarrh. 



Greater complication arises mainly from discrepant author- 

 ities, perchance from inherent causes, as to the proper diag- 

 nostic position of the lung and skin symptoms. 



Smart aflSrms that " there is no cough or lung symptoms 

 in the pure and uncomplicated examples of the disease," but 

 limits the respiratory changes to a prolonged outhreath (p. 23). 

 Egan, Gooch and Gamgee notice a short, dry or husky cough, 

 with difficulty in breathing (Gooch), attended by more noise 

 in expiration than in pleuro-pneumonia (p. 24). These may, 

 at the commencement of the attack, be regarded as merely 



• Gamgee'8 Cattle Plague, p. 49. 



