410 DISEASES OF THE BLOOD. 



" In the subacute forms the lesions are much less marked. The mucous 

 membrane of the intestine is less congested ; sometimes oedema of the 

 submucous tissue exists. The mucous membrane of the fourth stomach 

 is often punctuated with brownish-red patches, traces of the capillary 

 haemorrhages which were produced at the onset of the disease. The 

 mesenteric glands are swollen, gorged with serum, but not hsemor- 

 rhagic ; the liver is large and of a yellowish tint ; the spleen is little 

 altered ; the urine always contains albumen ; the lungs are seldom 

 quite sound ; they usually contain here and there small diffuse centres 

 of catarrhal pneumonia, of nodular bronchial pneumonia, or simply of 

 atelectasis. 



''These lesions are more constant and more dense if the animals 

 have resisted the disease for some time ; they then constitute the 

 transition stage between the simj^le collapse at the beginning of the 

 disease and the suppurating lesion of lung disease. The joint lesions 

 when they exist are very interesting. At the beginning all the peri- 

 articular tissues are infilti'ated with a yellowish gelatinous serosity. 

 The synovial membrane is covered with vascular aborisations of an 

 extreme richness, which extend on to the articular cartilages. The 

 synovial capsules are distended by a considerable quantity of thick 

 synovia of a deep yellow or brownish tint, holding in suspension flakes 

 of fibrous exudate more or less dense and abundant. When the lesion 

 is older the synovia is replaced by a thick fibrous exudate, which fills 

 sacculations, and extends between the articular surfaces. In this case 

 the lesion appears identical with that of the arthritis seen in pleuro- 

 pneumonia of sucking calves." 



Diagnosis. The diagnosis presents no difficulty, for the development 

 and acute course of the disease (the majority of patients die within a 

 week of birth) leave little room for doubt. 



This disease is easily distinguished from dysentery in new-born 

 animals, which appears at birth, as also from simple diarrhoeic ente- 

 ritis; in the latter "disease the symptoms are delayed, sometimes occur- 

 ring only when the animals are weaned ; moreover, the disease is never 

 so grave as that now under consideration. 



Should, however, the post-mortem appearances seem indecisive, the 

 diagnosis can be based simply on the high mortality. 



Prognosis. The prognosis is extremely grave. About 95 per cent, 

 of the animals attacked die, and among those which survive many show 

 thoracic complications, that render them useless. 



Treatment. Treatment of animals already affected is useless, and, 

 moreover, too costly. Drugs administered through the digestive ap- 

 paratus to a large extent miss their mark, because the digestive symp- 

 toms are secondary, primary infection having occurred through the 



