GLOSS-ANTHRAX, BLAIN, OR BLACK TONGUE. 197 



cases, literally suffocated. This is the Blain, or Gloss-anthrax — 

 inflammation of the tongue, or black tongue. 



On examination, the tongue is apparently enlarged, but is, in fact, 

 only elevated from its bed between the maxillary bones ; and the 

 cause being examined, large vesicles or bladders, red, livid, or purple, 

 are found running along the side and base of the tongue, and particu- 

 larly towards its anterior part. These bladders are strangely la^id in 

 their growth ; become of a very great size ; quickly break ; and form 

 deep alcerations. Others immediately arise in their immediate neigh- 

 borhood, of similar character, but of still larger size. Sometimes the 

 animal dies in twenty-four hours from the first attack ; but at other 

 times fever rapidly succeeds, of a typhoid or malignant kind. In a few 

 cases these bladders have been found on the upper part of the tongue, 

 and even nearer to the top of it than to the frsenum. The tongue 

 soon becomes really enlarged, and particularly when the lateral or 

 inferior parts of it are the seats of disease. General inflammation of 

 it speedily follows, and that part of it on which the ulcers first 

 appeared, becomes mortified, and may be cut into, or cut away, 

 without the animal expressing the least degree of pain. Incisions 

 into the tongue are not followed by blood, but they bring to view 

 tissues decomposed at some points, and black at others, and bearing 

 the marks of incipient gangrene. 



The primary seat of the disease is the membrane of the mouth 

 beneath or above the tongue. Dissection has proved the membrane 

 at the base of the mouth to be the pai-t primarily concerned. 



Examination shows intense inflammation, or even gangrene ef the 

 part, and also inflammation and gangrene of the oesophagus, the 

 paunch, and the fourth stomach. The food in the paunch has almost 

 off'ensive smell ; that in the manyplus is hard and dry. Inflammation 

 reaches to the small intestines, which are highly inflamed, with red 

 and black patches in the coecum, colon, and rectum. We cannot 

 speak with confidence as to the cause of this disease : indeed, it is, in 

 a great majority of cases, unknown. We have seen it at all seasons, 

 and under all circumstances, — in stall-fed cows, whether newly 

 bought, or those used to their situation and in pasture. When it 

 becomes epidemic — when many cases occur about the same time, 

 and over a considerable extent of country, and in town dairies as 

 well as country ones, it is usually in the spring or autumn. Most 

 epidemics of an inflammatory character occur at those periods, for the 

 process of moulting is then going forward, and the animals are, to a 

 certain degree, debilitated, and disposed to inflammatory complaints ; 

 and these assume a low and typhoid, and then a malignant,^ form, 

 much oftener and much more speedily in cattle than in other domes- 

 ticated animals. There appears to be a deficiency of courage and 

 nervous energy in cattle, compared with the horse, and a consequent 

 inabUity to contend with disease. This afi'ords a key to the progress 



