Posi-Mortem Examination. 6g 



the nature of influenza. "We will follow our 

 patient to the knacker's yard and there make a 

 careful post-mortem examination, and what do we 

 find ? In complicated cases we meet with a great 

 variety of disorganizations and lesions, most ex- 

 tensive and dreadful alterations in the structures, 

 generally in the lungs, effusion of lymph outside 

 the pericardium, and fibrinous attachment of the 

 pleura. In simple influenza it is perfectly im- 

 material whether the subject is an old horse or a 

 young one, whether it be in a high fleshy con- 

 dition or in a low and lean condition. If it has 

 died from influenza, there will be no trace what- 

 ever of disease in any vital organ obvious to the 

 anatomist ; but there will be one leading feature 

 invariably present, viz. a soft, flabby, pulpy con- 

 dition of all the muscular structures throughout 

 the body and the whole of the vital organs. 

 These tissues are blanched and of a pale clay 

 colour, as if the whole system had been blighted, 

 blasted, and the fire of vitality had burned out, 

 leaving a white ash only, and that the arterial 

 blood had lost its vermilion colour. To render 

 my views more clear, I will illustrate it by two 

 examples. I have spoken of nerve forces : we all 

 know that a palsical limb is consequent upon 

 either complete or partial loss of nerve power. If 

 a post-mortem examination be made of a limb 

 recently palsical, it is found that the flesh is soft, 

 flabby, pulpy, and of a pale clay colour, exactly 

 the same as we find in cases that have died of 

 influenza. Again, if we examine a body that has 

 been killed by lightning, being in perfect health. 



