80 RINDEKPEST. 



acme two variations occur; in diminislied or suppressed 

 secretions from the glands or follicles, or in its becoming more 

 abundant; in which last case are manifested alternative 

 methods of disposing of the fluid secreted ; in its either being 

 poured out in the membrane very freely, or in being retained 

 in the cavity of the follicle, becoming inspissated and under- 

 going various other secondary changes.* The progressive 

 stages of exanthematous action thus defined, give enabling 

 facility to explain the seemingly discrepant statements given 

 by difterent observers as to the manifestations of the Pest on 

 the intestinal canal ; in the apparently opposite show of diar- 

 rhoeic discharges, unmixed with mucus, as in the majority of 

 cases (see p. 26, &c.,) observed by Smart and others ; in 

 more acute cases tinged with blood, be^joming dysenteric in 

 appearance, &c. ; in others partaking of the character of rice 

 water stools, and, as in the vaccinated cases, leaving traces 

 of , purulent destruction. Yet we are not, by reason of such 

 occasional manifestations, to misapprehend the general nature 

 of this Pest for muco-enteritis or dysentery, as the principal 

 seat of such lesions is in the tubular glands (follicles of Lie- 

 berkiihn) of the large intestines. 



The occasional occurrence of rice-water stools intimates that 

 in the acutest form of the catarrhal inflammation of the 

 mucous coat of the intestinal canal, we have some approach 

 to the rapid and fatal exhaustion of cholera ; this leads us to 

 dwell briefly upon the lesions of the latter disease, which 

 bear not only to the ordinary observer, but to the skillful eye 

 of the pathological anatomist, some very singular resem- 

 blances. During the period of transudation, we find the same 

 separation of the water and salts of the intercellular fluid of 

 the blood through the mucous membrane of the intestinal 

 canal, resulting in the same colliquative discharges per 

 anum, and the inspissation of the blood itself, which becomes 

 dark and tarry (p. 38). The hypertrophied muscles, after 

 death, show on section the same dark purple red color, with 

 a shade of blue or violet (p. 39), although, according to R6ki- 

 tansky, this peculiar iridescence is shown in other affections.t 



* R6kitan9ky'8 Patholog. Anat., Vol. Ill, p. 66. 



t Typhus, acute convulalons, Bcurvy, cyanoals, and in peraons auffocatcd. Vol. HI, p. 804. 



