PURPUKA Il^MORrJIAGICA. 385 



capillaries and smaller veins of loose structures, more p.irticu- 

 larly in the depending parts of the body, constituting those 

 swellings which are so characteristic of purpura, and when 

 withdrawn from the body it is only feebly coagulable. Again, 

 I have witnessed the occurrence of the disease in horses 

 apparently recovered from influenza and strangles, placed to 

 work or taken to exercise while still debilitated. 



In rarer instances purpura may appear as a primary disease, 

 traceable to defective drainage, ventilation, or bad food. 



I have witnessed a few instances where death has occurred in 

 the horse without the usual external manifestations ; but where 

 the post mortem examination revealed many of the characteristics 

 of this blood disease, sometimes the animals have suffered from 

 enteritis, sometimes they iiave sunk without manifesting any 

 pain, have refused food, hung down their heads, the surface of 

 the body being cold, they have become pulseless, and died in 

 a few hours. 



In one instance the animal suffered from several convulsive 

 fits for three days, and died in one of them, the post 'inorterii 

 revealing darkness and fluidity of the blood, petechial spots on 

 several internal organs, more particularly on the cerebro-spinal 

 meninges. In this, as well as in the other cases, a careful 

 examination of tlie tongue prior to death enabled me to detect 

 the nature of the disease. This organ had a peculiar mulberry, 

 purple, or claret colour, and that was the only symptom of blood 

 alteration that could be detected, the Schneiderian membrane 

 and conjunctivae being merely injected. 



It may safely be concluded that the causes of purpura are of 

 a septic nature, and are due to the absorption of products of 

 decomposition extrinsic to the body: to the severity and 

 rapidity of tissue cliange within the body, either owing to a 

 previous disease or debilitating circumstances, and to their 

 accumulation when naturally generated, owing to impairment of 

 the excretory organs. 



The acute symptoms are generally of a remittent type,^and 

 when the practitioner is consoling himself with the belief that 

 the animal is improving, it often happens that at the next 

 visit the symptoms have become much aggravated, and the 

 patient is rajjidly carried oif, dying perhaps on the second, 

 third, or fourth day. In many instances again the acute 



^ This remittency rather points to the conclusion that purpura is not only due 

 to the products of surrounding putrefaction, but to the presence of a malarial or 

 miasmatic non-contagious facultative microbe. 



2c 



