70 THE FUNGI PREVAIL AT NIGHT 



The autopsy showed gastro-intestinal inflammation, en- 

 largement and softening of the liver and spleen. The 

 meninges and brain exhibited congestion, inflammation, 

 serum, lymph, pus. In all the fatal cases, the blood failed 

 to coagulate, and there was uniformly a contraction of the 

 stomach and intestines. 



Authors generally admit, that only the grazing animals 

 take the disease originally, and that other animals can 

 only receive it through the medium of their flesh, or milk, 

 after they have been poisoned. As all animals seem im- 

 pressible, there is a fair inference against the aerial cha- 

 racter of the cause of milk-sickness, by which, if it exist, 

 they should be equally and originally tainted. The fa- 

 cility of the correction by the plough, the insoluble and 

 non-volatile nature of the poison, evinced by the effects of 

 boiling or roasting the beef, and of the evaporation of urine 

 even to dryness, all show clearly that the poison is not 

 atmospheric, not aeriform or vaporous. It seems, there- 

 fore, plain enough that cattle receive it into the stomach 

 as food or beverage. That the poison is not found in the 

 water taken by the grazing animals, seems highly proba- 

 ble, because it has not been found subsequently to be so- 

 luble in that menstruum, or, indeed, in any other simple 

 liquid, whilst the truth of this position has been almost 

 demonstrated by confining them* in limited enclosures, 

 where, notwithstanding the total absence of water, many 

 of them have, in repeated instances, exhibited veritable 

 symptoms of the trembles. A critical examination of the 

 waters of infected regions has failed to show peculiar or 

 poisonous properties, and the plough corrects the evil, 

 without being shown to be able to alter the waters mate- 

 rially. 



It seems, then, very probable, that the poison, whatever 

 it may be, is swallowed with the food. Now the food is 



