14:2 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 



When, as sometimes happens, the mucous membrane most 

 affected by the congestion is that of the bronchi, the phenomena 

 are not less severe ; indeed, the disease is sometimes even more 

 rapidly fatal. A slight cough is soon followed by accelerated 

 breathing, which rapidly increases ; and, according to Drs. San- 

 derson and Bristowe, the difficulty in breathing becomes so great, 

 that some of the pulmonary vesicles are broken, and emphysema, 

 not only of the lungs, but of the subcutaneous tissues of the neck 

 and back, is thus induced. I cannot, however, endorse this, 

 being of opinion that both the pulmonary and subcutaneous 

 emphysemiie are due to the formation of gases in the areolae of 

 the connective tissue. 



Dr. Beale, after microscopically examining the discharges 

 from the mucous membranes with the highest magnifying 

 power, namely, the s^th of an inch objective glass, arrived at 

 the conclusion that the abundant granular matter which he 

 thus discovered consisted of living particles — germinal matter 

 — that they constituted the morbid poison, and that the various 

 local congestions were due to the abundance of these particles, 

 blocking up the minute capillaries. Although not at the time 

 generally accepted, this conclusion of Beale's has proved fairly 

 correct. 



With reference to the true nature of the cattle plague, and 

 its identity with or resemblance to various human maladies, 

 many theories have been advanced by writers upon the disease. 

 Some have considered it to be the precise counterpart of typhoid 

 or enteric fever, and this view has been held by the German 

 pathologists for a considerable period, and was undoubtedly the 

 view held by most veterinary surgeons who had the oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing it in this country. Dr. Murchison, however, 

 successfully combats this view, and very lucidly points out 

 its error. He says : " Human enteric fever is characterised by 

 definite and easily recognised anatomical lesions; and for my own 

 part I have been unable to discover any analogy whatever with 

 them in those of rinderpest. The alterations in Peyer's patches in 

 the latter disease are clearly the result of the general inflammation 

 of the mucous membrane, and tend to obliterate the glands, 

 instead of rendering them more prominent. Their resemblance 

 to the lesions of enteric fever is much less than that of the 

 condition of the corresponding glands in cases of cholera, small- 



