History of Animal Plagites. 495 



place in one or two clays, and even In from ten to twelve hours ; 

 some have had the neck covered with small tumours (boutons), 

 and this usually indicated a fortunate termination to the disease. 

 Beasts that were fat perished most promptly ; cows which were 

 in low condition, or lean, seldom died; but these were in small 

 proportion. According to the reports of the oldest agriculturists 

 in the country, thirtv-five years before this period there reigned in 

 the same locality a similar disease, which carried off nearly all the 

 cattle ; this epoch corresponds to the years 1744 and 1745, which 

 were deadly to the horned stock over nearly the whole kingdom. 

 'The dissection of the dead gave the following results : — i. 

 The abdomen was usually distended like a balloon. The ex- 

 tremity of the rectum was everted, forming a kind of violet, mush- 

 room-like tumour containing purulent and putrilicd fluid ; the 

 epidermis was easily removed in those animals which had been 

 dead for twelve or fifteen hours. The eyes were covered with 

 mueosities; the nose was excoriated, and the mouth, as well as the 

 tongue, was covered with a foul matter; the body, indeed, was very 

 fetid in all its parts. 2. The brain did not present anything 

 remarkable, except in some animals which had been examined, 

 when its ventricles were found filled with an abundance of lymph. 

 The posterior parts of the mouth were very little inflamed, but 

 this region was filled, more or less, with the same kind of fluid 

 that was discovered in the bronchial tubes. The commissures of 

 the nostrils were in a healthy state; the parotid, maxillary, and 

 sublingual glands were a little inflamed, and looked as if they 

 had been macerated in serum. 3. The only observation made 

 in the region of the neck, showed that the vesicatory setons 

 passed through the dewlap, did not, as a rule, operate well in those 

 animals which died; the cellular tissue in their neighbourhood 

 was in a relaxed and infiltrated condition, and this extended to 

 the anterior aspect of the thorax. 4. The axillary glands ap- 

 peared to us infiltrated like the parotids. 5. The trachea always 

 contained a large quantity of foamy mueosities, in whuh con- 

 cretions similar to broken-iip membrane were nuxicl. 'Ilie 

 liuinc membrane appeared to be inflanud iu ni.nu' instances. 

 6. The lungs were distended as if with ;iir; tin- large lobes were 

 usually but little affected, but tbe small anterior lobes were 



