History of Animal Plagues. 449 



or when they have died, the first compartment is inflamed, the 

 food is found Httle affected by digestion, or it may he even rot- 

 ten. The second compartment is equally inflamed, and filled 

 with forage which is undigested. The third compartment suflers 

 the most, and it is very often found inflamed and gangrenous, 

 the food in it being extremely compact and dry, and sometimes 

 rotten (pourri). The fourth, or true stomach, is frequently inflamed 

 and gangrenous, but the food is not hardened. 



' From the first days of the malady the beast has eaten and 

 ruminated, and as it would not be able to maintain cither of 

 these functions if the stomach had become inflamed, it is very 

 evident that the corruption of the stomach is a consequence of 

 the fever and the putridity of the juices of the beast, and that it 

 is not the cause of the disease. The animal has been infected, 

 and the stomach has maintained its health for a number of days^ 

 and it is onlv bv a corruption of the humours that it is found 

 vitiated. M. Bour2;elat has found the stomach in the same 

 state of inflammation, and the same engorgement of forage, in 

 every beast mortally attacked, no matter what acute malady it 

 may have been. 



' It is the same in the intestines, which are often found in- 

 flamed, and even gangrenous ; and this corruption appears to be 

 the eflc'ct of the rottino; of the food which the stomach has 

 passed into the intestines, and which attacks them. 



3- 

 ' An extraordinary dilatation of the gall-bladder is frequently 

 met with, and yet it is only a somewhat constant accident of the 

 contagion. It may arise from a retention of the bile in the cyst, 

 because the stomach having lost its function, the bile is not 

 evacuated. We may infer that this is the cause, for men who 

 have died of hunger, or were so injured by some violent disease 

 that they could not take food, have usually the gall-bladder 

 dilated. Sometimes, also, we have observed an emphysema 

 under the skin, often on those parts on wliich the animal has 

 lain; this is only an efl^cct of the putrefaction {poi/rrl/i/rc). We 

 have the same eflfect exhibited in the fat, which is often in a corrupt 

 state in those animals that have died of the contagion; yet 



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