162 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES, 



TJie palpalle or obvious symptoms are sliglit rigors or sliiver- 

 ings, the hair merely standing the wrong way, loss of appetite 

 to some extent, secretion of milk diminished ; in some cases the 

 animal " knuckles over " at one hind fetlock, usually the right 

 one ; an occasional cough is heard, which is dry and hard in 

 character, not the painful cough of pleurisy, as one would 

 suppose, nor the moist hoarse cough of inflammation of the 

 bronchial mucous membrane ; rumination becomes irregular, 

 and although there is some loss of appetite, the animal seems 

 fuller than its fellows, which are healthy and eating vigorously. 

 The bowels are rather constipated, and the urine is scanty and 

 high coloured. 



The pulse of cattle, as I have already stated, is not, more 

 especially with regard to its number, a good guide to the practi- 

 tioner in this or many other diseases; however, as it advances, the 

 pulse becomes accelerated and of a feeble character — sometimes 

 a large soft pulse, other times a small wiry one. These insidious 

 symptoms may continue for several days, the most careful 

 examination of the chest denoting nothing unusual except a 

 tenderness upon pressure applied to the intercostal spaces of 

 one or both sides, and pressure upon the back causing the 

 animal to wince and perhaps give a slight groan. Some cases 

 in an infected herd will at this stage begin to give obvious signs 

 of recovery, and in a few days seem well again, the morbid 

 material having evidently been expelled from the body without 

 causing any extensive pulmonary change. In all cases, however, 

 some amount of irritation and alteration of the lung tissue has 

 been induced, as a cough remains for some time longer. These 

 cases, however, are a source of great mischief, as they become 

 the media through which the virus continues to be conveyed to 

 the cattle with which they are herded, for a considerable period 

 after their apparent recovery. Should recovery not take place, 

 the signs of general disturbance gradually, sometimes rapidly, 

 increase ; the cough becomes more persistent, the mucous mem- 

 branes, except that of the nose, are generally pale, the respiratory 

 movements increased in frequency, more abdominal and shallow ; 

 when the animal stands, the elbows are turned out, the nose 

 extended, back arched, and the hind limbs drawn under the 

 body and knuckling over at the fetlocks; when recumbent, 

 the animal throws the weight of its body upon the sternum, and, 



