CONSEQUENCES OF CASTRATION. 6o3 



over the wIkjIg surface of the serous membrane. The disease is 

 accompanied by a low adynamic form of fever ; changes in the 

 blood are induced by which its various constituents become 

 broken up, and discharged by the urinary organs, tinging the 

 urine a dark red or coffee colour. 



Upon a 'post mortem examination being made of an animal 

 which has died from this form of peritonitis, the small intestines, 

 and sometimes the stomach and large ones, will be found to 

 contain large quantities of this altered blood, passive haemor- 

 rhage into the canal having occurred prior to death. It has the 

 appearance of very dark red, or reddish-brown, ill made coffee, 

 containing the grounds. 



While the intestinal canal is thus partly filled with altered 

 blood, the surface of the peritoneum presents a variety of 

 appearances. In some parts it is studded with dark red spots, 

 wliilst in other jDarts it is covered by an exudation of an aplastic 

 nature. Surrounding the abdominal ring, a diffuse dark red 

 blush is generally seen, extending over more or less surface, as 

 the case may be. In some instances the exudation of lymph 

 has been abundant, and bands of false membranes may be seen 

 uniting the intestines to each other, and to the abdominal walls; 

 whilst others are characterised by effusion of a turbid serosity 

 more than by exudation of lymph. Several quarts or gallons of 

 serum wiU often be found, although the animal has been ill but 

 for a few hours. In places, the congested vessels of the peri- 

 toneum present a streaky appearance, but what is properly 

 termed congestion is never very strongly marked ; this is in all 

 probability due to the readiness with which effusion and exuda- 

 tion take place; the intense dark red colour, found here and 

 there over the surface of the membrane, having more of the 

 characters of ecchymosis or gangrenous extravasations than of 

 true congestive spots. When the intestinal convolutions are 

 separated from each other, a film of exudation is seen to extend 

 across the interspace, and it is seen that the exudation collects 

 in the furrow between the convolutions of the various intestines 

 more abundantly than elsewhere. The effusion is often mixed 

 with loose flakes of coagulable lymph, and it seldom presents 

 the straw colour of a true serous effusion, being generally tinged 

 with blood, or containing ill-conditioned purulent matter, which 

 gives it a dirty grey, or even greenish hue. 



