VITIATION OF THE SYSTEM. 23 



There are evidences and arguments in proof of the exist- 

 ence of a law of periodical liability in the phenomena of 

 life. To bring the critical days of health into relation with 

 critical days of disease, it is necessary to refer to some pa- 

 thological facts. Fevers generally originate in the entrance 

 of a poison into the system, in malaria, or infection or con- 

 tagion. In most cases the poison, after it has entered the 

 system, lies dormant there, and the time it remains dormant 

 is termed the latent period, &c. ( Vide ' Lancet^ for 29th Oct., 

 1842.) 



The Water which the animal drinks may prove the 

 vehicle for the introduction of disease. It may contain 

 some noxious impregnation ; or it may have become pu- 

 trescent. Water forms an excellent vehicle for the exhibi- 

 tion of such medicinal substances as are almost or quite 

 tasteless and inodorous. It is in the recollection of us all, 

 that the race- horses at Newmarket were poisoned by the 

 treacherous introduction of arsenic into their water-troughs. 



order of very obscure nature. No particular organ seemed to suffer, nor, indeed, 

 was found in the least altered after death. Many of the patients ate well up to 

 the last moment. Of the fifteen yet living, M. Renault destroyed eight (of which 

 there was no hope of recovery), for the purpose of examination ; and the result 

 convinced him that the disease was in the blood. For, whether it were taken 

 from the dead or the living animals, the fluid covered his hands without redden- 

 ing them, and either did not coagulate, or formed a mass of a dirty grey colour, 

 containing a verj' small proportion of fibrine. Indeed, so feeble was the force 

 of cohesion between the organic elements of the blood, that, even during the life 

 of the animal, the fibrous filaments separated from the liquid whenever it was 

 agitated. If we add to these characters, the paleness and flaccidity of all the 

 organs which, like the red muscles, are essentially fibrous ; the absence of all 

 inflammation, either acute or chronic, in any organ ; and the rapidity with which 

 the carcasses became putrid ; it cannot be doubted that the disorder existed in 

 the blood — characterised by the small proportion of fibrine and colouring matter, 

 as well as by the ready separation of its elements. This opinion also receives cor- 

 roboration from the apparent causes of the malady. For nearly six months the 

 horses had been fed on fodder that had stood in the stack exposed to the rains 

 of the preceding year, and that had in consequence become mouldy and insup- 

 portably offensive to the smell. The oats also had been of an inferior quality. 

 Added to which, the horses had been much over-worked. M. Renault made 

 entire changes both in the provender and work ; and thus put a stop to the 

 further progress of the disorder." (' Veterinarian,' vol. v, p. 51.) 



