774 DISEASES OF THE WITHEKS. 



In the beginning of tlie necrosis, while the parts are verj 

 sensitive, the exaggerated sensibility is not at all in proportion to 

 the apparent extent of the disease. The animal shrinks from the 

 manii^ulations of the touch, and this is a symptom which should 

 be carefully considered in its relation to the progress of the dis- 

 ease, from the fact that in these manifestations it is passing 

 through the same phases as those which marked the progress 

 of the induration, running a sort of parallel with the duration 

 of the necrosis, and diminishing as the sloughing proceeds, the 

 interior situation being interpreted by the exterior phenomena, 

 with some exceiDtions. For there are cases in which it diminishes, 

 while the disease continues without change, to exhibit the same 

 severe sj-mptoms. One effect of the abundant suppuration accom- 

 panying diseased withers, and the febrile symptoms which accom- 

 pany it, is a rapid loss of flesh by the suffering animal. 



The disease is always of long duration, and even when treated 

 in the most rational manner. Its persistency will naturally cor- 

 respond with the slow process of the sloughs and repairs of the 

 tissues involved, themselves of comparatively low vitality and 

 slow of change. But as soon as the separation of the diseased 

 parts has taken place, however deejD the wound may have been, 

 or whatever the number and depth of the fistulae, the cicatriza- 

 tion proceeds rapidly, and is comjileted in a comparatively short 

 time. The terminations, which are to be looked for, are classified 

 by Bouley and Nocard under the following heads : 



1st. Resolution. — This is very rare if the disease has been 

 neglected, and only occurs when it has been of a circumscribed 

 extent and seated in a region favorably situated for the elimin- 

 ation of the mortified tissue, as when it escaj^es through large 

 oj^enings, without lying long enough in the midst of the muscular 

 substance to produce the effects of the long confinement of the 

 pus in the deeply situated regions. 



2d. Disease of the neck, when the necrosis has spread as far 

 forward as the cervical joortion of the ligamentum nuchte. This 

 forms the more common termination, and is as serious and fatal 

 as the original disease itself. It is too often met with, especially 

 in low-bred animals of lymphatic constitution. 



3d. Death, too frequently. 



4th. Putrid infection, due to purulent fermentation and the 

 absorption of septic principles. 



