398 SEPTIC BLOOD DISEASES. 



are absorbed into the blood, inducing high fever, local inflamma- 

 tion, diarrhoea or dysentery — in the form called white scour in 

 young animals — and even death. 



I think the above in a great measure explains why inflamma- 

 tion of the feet is such a frequent concomitant of bowel affections, 

 even a slight irritation of the mucosa being sufficient to induce 

 it, such as that arising from an ordinary purgative administered 

 whilst the animal is in perfect health ; absorption of gaseous 

 products, as in flatulent colic ; of putrefactive products in septic 

 metritis ; and in broncho-pneumonia, when the catarrhal pro- 

 ducts have been retained in the bronchii, and there undergone 

 putrefaction. Again, it may be stated that the sudden deaths, 

 characteristic of the disease termed braxy in sheep, are due more 

 to the rapid evolution and absorption of noxious gases arising 

 from the rapid fermentation of food eaten whilst in a partial 

 state of decomposition, than to the tympanites by which braxy 

 is generally recognised. 



This form of poisoning has . been named stercorremia and 

 intestinal septicaemia, and is said to supervene upon a number 

 of conditions, such as insufficiency of gastric juice to neutralise 

 the majority of the germs which pass through the stomach, &c. 



In order to make this subject more easily comprehended, I 

 have ventured upon the following arrangement: — (A) Sapraemia, 

 where the products only are absorbed ; and (B) where the 

 microbes themselves, as well as their products, gain entrance 

 into the circulation, and there increase and multiply. Under 

 the first head may be included — - 



I. Traumatic Fever. — The mildest form of septicaemia. Causes. 

 — Aseptic tissue necrosis, as in subcutaneous wounds, or in any 

 effusion of blood, fibrin, or serum which does not undergo 

 sepsis. 



S/jmjJtoms. — Sudden elevation of temperature — two to four 

 degrees — as soon as shock has passed off, no other constitutional 

 disturbance, the temperature falling in a few days, according 

 to the extent of the absorption. If disturbance occurs, it is 

 certain that some complication has arisen. 



II. Malignant ceclema (Koch), gangrenous septiciiemia (Pasteur), 

 is caused by the small sporogenous oedema bacilli called Vibrio 

 scpticiis by Pasteur, which exist in large numbers, particularly 

 in the upper layers of soil, and infection is easily produced by 



