126 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Etiology. 



Like anthrax, it is also due to specific infectious elements belong- 

 ing to the same class of bacteria — the fission fungi. The bacteria 

 of this disease are shorter and finer than those of anthrax, and do 

 not end with the abruptness which is the characteristic of bacillus 

 anthracis. They are also movable bacteria, while those of anthrax 

 do not in general betray any motion. They multiply by spores. 



Feser gives the following necroscopical description : " Distinct 

 rigor mortis of the well-fattened cadaver. Visible mucosee dark 

 red. The left over-arm, the left shoulder and a j^art of the right, 

 and the middle portion of both posterior limbs were much tumefied, 

 and a distinct crepitation — rastling — was both to be felt and heard 

 on passing the hand heavily over these parts. The axillary and 

 inguinal lymph-glands were to be distinctly felt as hard nodes un- 

 der the skin. The subcutis and tendinous aponeuroses were filled 

 with a yellow, gelatinous infiltration in those places which were 

 tumefied. The connective tissue in the vicinity of the large vessels 

 was much thickened and infiltrated with a mass similar in appearance 

 to the above. The muscles appeared in many places of a dark-red 

 color — red infiltration — rich in blood, softened, emphysematous, 

 crepitating, and of a peculiar sweetish, sickly odor. (This odor of 

 the flesh in this disease is very striking, but can not be well de- 

 scribed.) The blood which oozed out of the vessels was black, 

 viscid, and tar-like. 



"The above-mentioned lymph-glands were swollen, soft, and 

 full of blood. 



" The abdominal cavity contained a reddish-black, peculiar-smell- 

 ing exudation. Peritoneum clean, lustrous, and smooth. In the vi- 

 cinity of the kidneys was a tumefaction filled with a yellow, gelatino- 

 haemorrhagic infiltration. Omentum infiltrated here and there as 

 above. The contents of the rumen soft, the epithelium, or rather 

 the mucous membrane, frequently peeling off and attached to the 

 ingesta. Reticulum filled with soft ingesta ; epithelium intact, 

 without injection of the vessels. Contents of the omasum firm. 

 Abomasum filled with a reddish-brown fluid, the contents having a 

 fetid odor ; epithelium adherent ; mucosa swollen, dotted with 

 ecchymoses and hsemorrhagic infiltrations, or rather diffuse ligemor- 

 rhagic centers. At the beginning of the ileum was to be seen a 

 very much contracted portion one decimetre long, of a diffuse dark- 

 red color ; the walls were thickened ; the epithelium desquamated, 

 and the underlying sinuses exposed. This portion of the intestine 



