MAMMITJS OR MASTITIS. 701 



of yellowish turbid serum, with perhaps a few coagula of casein, epithe- 

 lium casts, and sometimes even veritable diphtheritic false membranes. 

 In such a case, all the parts of the gland so altered are irrevocably 

 destroyed, so far as the lacteal secretion is concerned. 



It is from this indurated condition that those degenerations and neo- 

 plasms arise, which are met with in the mammae of animals, but especially 

 the Bitch. These are the adenomatous, sarcomatous, carcinomatous, en- 

 chondromatous. and fibromatous growths which have been described so 

 often as found in the mammas of this animal ; but a consideration of 

 which we cannot enter upon here. 



Suppuration — by which we mean the formation of abscess — is a rather 

 frequent termination of mammitis, and particularly of the phlegmonous 

 form. The abscess may be single or multiple, and vary in size as well as 

 situation. Sometimes they appear immediately beneath the skin, and 

 between it and the tunic of yellow fibrous tissue covering the gland ; in 

 other cases they are formed in the interstitial connective tissue separating 

 the glands, or even in the interlobular tissue ; while, though rarely, they 

 may be found in the connective tissue between the mammae and the 

 abdominal wall. 



Suppuration generally sets in from the eighth to the twelfth day, and is 

 marked by an increase, instead of a diminution, in the symptoms — 

 augmentation of the fever, swelling, and pain. If the abscess in process 

 of formation is superficial, the pain and redness appear to be greatest at 

 a certain point ; there the skin is at first of a bright red, but changes to 

 a violet hue, and at the same time this part becomes more prominent and 

 circumscribed. Soon there is fluctuation, and the other indication of 

 abscess, and if not artificially opened this takes place spontaneously, and 

 the contained pus escapes. Then the febrile symptoms diminish, and 

 the general condition improves ; the swelling in the gland subsides, along 

 with the pain ; pus escapes from the opening for two or three weeks, and 

 finally ceases, the wound becoming cicatrized. Recovery has now been 

 accomplished, and nothing remains, save perhaps a small mass of indu- 

 rated gland where the abscess has been. This subcutaneous or superfi- 

 cial abscess is not generally very injurious or serious. 



It is not so, however, when the abscess is developed in the intergland- 

 ular connective tissue, or in that between the mammae and the abdomen. 

 Here the pus is deep-seated, and burrows or spreads wherever the resist- 

 ance is least ; in this way it leads to the formation of sinuses, sloughing 

 of the skin over a wide surface, isolates masses of the glands — thus 

 destroying their relations with neighboring parts, and causing their mor- 

 tification and total destruction. This mammary suppuration is always 

 serious, as, under the most favorable circumstances, it generally ends in 

 the animal losing more or less of the gland ; while in some cases it may 

 cause death from the violence of the inflammation and intensity of the 

 pain, or through exhaustion from the long-continued and profuse sup- 

 puration. 



When the abscess is situated in the interstitial or lobular connective 

 tissue, the case is no better, but perhaps worse, Ow-ing to the nature 

 and disposition of the tissues, which resist distention, the pain produced 

 by the inflammation is most accute and distracting ; while the process 

 of suppuration destroys a greater or less number of the aci7ii, and the 

 pus, deep-seated, is long before it reaches the surface of the gland, caus- 

 ing great havoc in doing so.- Sometimes the interstitial abscess, opens 



