FATAL ENZOOTICS OF CALVES 373 



born before they have taken nourishment. According to his 

 opinion, the first infection of the intestinal contents takes 

 place independently of food by various bacteria, also pep- 

 tonizing ones. At the earliest infection occurs four hours, 

 at the latest twenty hours, on an average ten to seventeen 

 hours, after parturition. He also proved that in a child infec- 

 tion per anum is due to the bacillus fluorescens, the porcellain 

 coccus, the bacillus subtilis and proteus ; infection per os is 

 caused by the bacterium coli and the bacillus fluorescens 

 liquefaciens. 



Symptoms. — In some cases the owner observes a few hours 

 after birth, but in most cases one or two days, that the calf 

 strains slightly and exhibits some tenesmus, and that the faeces 

 are thin. The liquid faeces in the beginning are yellow, some- 

 times orange colored and fetid. Later the manure is discharged 

 involuntarily, is gray like slate dust, and thin as water. Suck- 

 ling is limited or entirely suspended. The calf is soporous, 

 the muffle, the ears and extremities are cold, the walking sway- 

 ing. At a later stage the eyes sink back into the orbital 

 cavities, and 12 to 24 hours, occasionally 36 to 48 hours, from 

 the beginning of the diarrhoea death takes place. 



Jensen mentions as Morkeberg's observation that the 

 disease sets in with severe stretching at times of a distinctly 

 convulsive character. The rate of mortality iu this disease is 

 very great. Friedberger and Frbhner give it as 80 to 100 per 

 cent. 



Pathological anatomy. — Pathological changes are found in 

 the abomasum, intestinal canal and heart. According to Jen- 

 sen's description, the gastric mucous membrane is injected and 

 full of small hemorrhages. The mucous membranes of the 

 small intestines, caecum and colon are mostly of a uniform red 

 color, due to numerous small hemorrhages; here and there 

 desquamated epithelium is observed. The folds of the rectal 

 mucosa are especially hypeiaemic. The mesenteric glands are 

 swollen and exhibit hemorrhagic infiltration. The spleen is 

 normal, the liver and kidneys somewhat hyperaemic. The 

 heart shows occasionally ecchymoses. This picture agrees- 



