614 



SPOKADIC DISEASES. 



On cutting into the luugs> it will be found that the large and 

 small tubes, and sometimes the trachea, contain an amount of 

 fluid. This condition, as well as the collapse, is limited in the 

 majority of instances to the small or anterior lobes of the lungs, 

 and rarely, except by extension, affects the large lobes, not 

 only in ordinary but in mechanical bronchitis. This fact is 

 of importance, as pleuro-pneumonia contagiosa, with which the 

 disease under consideration has been confounded, generally 

 commences in the larger lobes, either in their centres or towards 

 their posterior edges. 



The fluid contained in the tubes is thick, and has a yellow 

 colour; in the trachea it is more or less frothy; and is abundant 

 in the smaller bronchi, as shown in the figure. 



Yir-. 39. — Section of portion of lung ; the external aspect is shown in 

 fig. 38. The larger (a) and smaller bronchi and air vesicles (b) filled 

 with purulent matter. 



If th^ lungs in this condition be squeezed, little pellets of 

 yellow matter are pressed out : sometimes these pellets are too 

 small to be seen by the naked eye, and require the aid of a 

 magnifying glass. If the bronchitis be associated with catarrhal 

 pneumonia, elevated patches will be apparent on the cut surface, 

 having a greyish-red colour. They are soft to the touch, and if 

 squeezed, the same muco-purulent matter exudes from them, or 

 from a small bronchus which may happen to communicate with 

 the particular group of vesicles implicated. 



Dr. Hamilton, in his series of papers on bronchitis published 

 in the Practitioner for 1879, states it is a matter of difficulty in 

 man to get at the first change which ensues in the bronchi 

 in acute catarrh. He has, however, been able to verify his obser- 

 vations by an examination along with myself of the lungs of 

 American cattle slaughtered in the earlier stages of bronchitis ; 



