CHANGES IN THE BLOOD. 103 



These letters were accompanied by the carcase of a sheep of 

 the Shropshire Down breed in an advanced state of decom- 

 position. 



On a. post mortem examination being made the whole body 

 was found to be loaded with fat ; that of the abdominal parietes 

 being several inches in thickness ; the sublumbar region had 

 many pounds of fat in it, and here it was found that the interior 

 of the fatty masses had undergone crystallisation ; well-formed 

 crystals of stearine and margarine being found in the midst of a 

 dry kind of debris. 



The structures of the liver and of the heart were not only 

 thoroughly infiltrated with oil globules, but had undergone fatty 

 degeneration to an advanced degree ; the lungs were congested, 

 and the large pulmonary vessels tilled with thrombi ; the cardiac 

 ventricles were quite full of blood, showing that death had been 

 induced by resthenia and pulmonary congestion. 



Microscopically examined, the blood (which was pale in colour 

 when seen with the naked eye) from the heart, pulmonary vessels, 

 and from other parts, was found to be loaded with oil globules, 

 as represented in the drawing, w^hich was made on the spot. 



Fig. 2a. — {a) Blood corpuscles altered in shape. (6) Oil globulea, 

 isolated and in groups, scattered about the field. 



It will be seen that the oil globules vary in size, some being 

 smaller, some much larger than the red blood corpuscles. It was 

 unfortunately, however, impossible to prepare microscopic shdes 



