CATTLE. 



vomicae in the lungs, and effusion in the pericardium. Every stomach 

 is inflal^ed, and the fourth ulcerated tlirough. The substance of the 

 liver is broken down. There are ulcerations generally of the smaller, 

 and always of the larger, intestines ; and in every part of the cel- 

 lular membrane there are large patches of inflammation running fast 

 into gangrene. 



There cannot be a doubt respecting either the nature or treatment 

 of such a disease. It is, at first, of a purely inflammatory charac- 

 ter, but the inflammation is so intense as speedily to destroy the 

 powers of nature. The capillary vessels must have been working 

 with strange activity, in order to fill and to clog every venous canal. 

 The congestion prevails in the cranium as well as in other parts, 

 and the distended vessels press upon the substance of the brain, and 

 that pressure is propagated to the commencement of the nerves ; 

 and hence debility, and staggering, and almost perfect insensibility. 

 As the congestion early takes place, the coma, or stupor, is early 

 in its appearance. 



The nervous energy being thus impeded, the power of locomotion 

 seems first to fail ; then general debility succeeds, and at length 

 other parts of the vascular system are involved. The mouths of 

 the excretory ducts can no longer contract on their contents ; hence 

 fluid is effused in the chest and in the belly, and in the cellular 

 membrane ; and hence, too, the rapid formation of others. The vital 

 powers generally are weakened, and in consequence of this there 

 is the speedy tendency of every excretion to putridity, and the actual 

 commencement of decomposition, w^hile the animal is yet alive. The 

 blood shares in this abstraction or deficiency of vitality, and hence 

 the disposition to ulceration, gangrene, and dissolution, by which the 

 later stages of the disease are characterized. 



Inflammatory fever, although not confined to young stock, is far 

 most prevalent among them. It appears principally in the spring 

 and fall of the year, for then we have the early and late flush of 

 grass. On poor ground it is comparatively unknown ; but the young 

 and the old stock, in thriving condition, need to be closely watched 

 when the pasture is good and the grass springing. If it be at times 

 epidemic, it is only when the season, or the eagerness of the farmer, 

 have exposed the constitution to an excess of otherwise healthy 

 stimulus, and when the animal is in a manner prepared for fever. 



When the early part of the spring has been cold and ungenial, and 

 then the warm weather has suddenly set in, nothing is so common 

 as inflammatory fever; but the change in the tempei-ature, or other 

 qualities of the atmosphere, has had only an indirect effect in pro- 

 ducing this ; it is the sudden increase of nutriment which has done 

 the mischief. When cattle are moved from a poor to a more luxu- 

 riant pasture, if the new grass be sufficiently liigh, they distend the 

 paunch almost to bursting, and hoove is the result ; but if thp 



