History of Animal Plagiies. 361 



like Boerhaave, he could not perceive any difference between the 

 milk of a healthy and diseased cow. 



These symptoms agree with all those which were noticed in 

 cattle in the neighbourhood of Haarlem^ and those described by 

 the physicians of Konigsberg. In ordinary cases, it was only 

 necessary for some of them to be present to warrant the steps 

 which he recommends, and he begs of every one who mav read 

 his work to be persuaded that every contagious poison^ although 

 transmitted in a very small dose, yet produces rapid and murder- 

 ous effects in destrovino" the organs essentia! to life. 



A large portion of the book is taken up with hypothetical 

 reasonings on the phenomena observed. 



Seventy animals which had died of the disease were examined 

 by him. These are the results. The eyes were spread over by 

 livid and brown-coloured veins. The matters in the nostrils, the 

 mouth, and elsewhere, were bloody and very putrid. The rigidity 

 of the limbs, the hind ones especially, was very great. The 

 subcutaneous cellular tissue was black, dry, and inflamed; the 

 flesh brownish-coloured. There was little alteration in the brain : 

 its vessels were often varicose, and its membranes offered traces 

 of inflammation, especially in those which had been continually 

 comatose. The lungs were not always healthy, but often red, 

 livid, or gangrenous, and covered with black patches. The 

 membrane lining the windpipe was easily detached. The heart 

 bore traces of the contagion. The diaphragm, pleurae, and peri- 

 cardium were always inflamed or gangrenous. The cavities of 

 the heart were always filled with a burnt-looking blood or a 

 brown sediment. The liver and spleen were of a black colour, 

 and distended with blood like ink. It was danoerous to ex- 

 amine too closely the stomachs and other viscera, for the stench 

 would induce syncope. The bile was caustic and burning. The 

 stomach was inflamed, and the third compartment contained 

 black dry food, looking as if it had been baked. Its lining 

 membrane was very easily separated. The fourth compart- 

 ment was of the colour of red lead, and contained ncIIow 

 matters having a most offensive odour. Boerhaave found ex- 

 travasated blood of a black colour, and burning and fetid. 'Hie 

 intestines were much distended with "as, and variegated bv livid 



