CHAPTER XXX. 



ENZOOTIC AXD EPIZOOTIC DISEASES— contm^ud. 



MALIGNANT CATAEEHAL FEVER OF THE OX. 



A MALIGNANT form of caoarrlial fever, sometimes, but erro- 

 neously, called glanders of the ox tribe, due to tlie operation of 

 a morbid poison, which expends its specific effects upon the 

 mucous membrane lining the sinuses of the head and nasal 

 chambers ; manifested by rigors, dulness, and debility, suc- 

 ceeded by the mucous membranes becoming of a bluish-red 

 colour, the eyes closed, the eyelids swollen, and flowing of tears 

 over the cheeks. There is a painful and frequent cough ; the 

 pulse is feeble ; bowels costive at first, but diarrhoea soon 

 succeeds. In the course of a few hours after the onset of the 

 disease, a profuse discharge issues from the nostrils, mouth, 

 and eyes ; the sinuses of the face and head become filled with 

 purulent matter, and in some instances the horns drop off. 



The connection between the bone of the horn (flints) and the 

 sinuses of the head is very intimate, for the bony process, the 

 horn core, which springs from the crest of the frontal bone is 

 hollow^, and this hollow is continuous wnth the frontal sinus. 

 This hollow or sinus in the horn-process is very vascular, and 

 its blood-vessels anastomose with those upon its periostal sur- 

 face. Any influence, then, wdiich causes inflammatory action 

 in the sinuses, easily induces the same processes in those 

 structures which are so intimately connected ; and such we find 

 it to be the case in malignant catarrhal fever, — inflammation 

 is excited in the sinuses of the flint, which extends to the surface 

 of the bones, and the consequent suppuration detaches the 

 horny coverings. 



The symptoms of this affection are not dissimilar to those 



