AILMENTS, CAUSES AND REMEDIES 237 



they are capable of doing through their connection by 

 means of the pneumogastric system of nerves. Prac- 

 tically, want of proper food, accompanied by exposure, 

 so debilitated the camels as to predispose them to 

 disease, and the severe cold, together with trying 

 changes of atmosphere, excited disease of the lungs of 

 an acute or quickly killing character ; latterly the 

 continued want of proper nutrition, although not 

 associated with extreme exposure, induced chronic or 

 more lingering disorder, which in many camels, 

 although they were for a time equal to a certain 

 amount of exertion, caused death when they were called 

 upon for extra efforts, and the rate of mortality amongst 

 them, exactly corresponding to the length of the 

 marches, confirms the idea. . . . One remarkable 

 result of my post-mortem investigation was that the 

 pleura, or covering of the lungs and chest, was in no 

 instance involved. In most animals this membrane is 

 nearly always included when the lungs themselves are 

 attacked, and in this particular instance, where the 

 chest was so specially exposed, it could hardly have 

 been anticipated that it could have escaped ; but such 

 appears to be a peculiarity in the camel, for my personal 

 observation was immediately endorsed on my mention- 

 ing the fact to Mr. Kettlewell, who had himself noticed 

 the apparent anomaly. It will be gathered from the 

 foregoing that disease of the lungs, then, was pre- 

 eminently the most fatal ; that some died of dysentery, 

 which is a known accompaniment of scurvy, I do not 

 doubt, as I observed many camels during life much 

 emaciated from that cause, and I heard that in the 

 Northern Army many succumbed to the premature 



