INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 



teeth, and difficulty in the swallowing of liquids ; a tucked appear- 

 ance of the belly, mingling with the enlargement of the left flank — 

 and the whole of the belly is exceedingly tender. Until he is too 

 weak to raise himself, he is exceedingly restless, lying down, and 

 immediately getting up again, and with convulsive movements of the 

 muscles of the neck and extremities. The evacuation of the faeces is 

 entirely suppressed, or a little stream of liquid excrement forces a 

 passage through the hardened mass by which the rectum is distended, 

 and that which is voided has an exceedingly fetid and putrid smell. 

 This symptom is characteristic. The person who is accustomed to 

 cattle says that the beast is fardel-hound or sapped, but he often 

 mistakes the nature of the case, and fancies that diarrhoea instead of 

 costiveness exists. The urine becomes thick and oily and brown, and 

 has a peculiarly disagreeable and penetrating smell. As the disease 

 proceeds, the weakness and suffering increase, until the animal dies, 

 sometimes exhausted, but mostly in convulsions, and frequently 

 discharging a bloody fetid fluid from the mouth, the nose, and the 

 anus. 



Sometimes, when the disease has not been attacked with sufficient 

 energy, and often in despite of the most skillful treatment, other symp- 

 toms appear. The animal seems to amend ; the pulse is slower and 

 more developed — rumination returns — the patient eats a little — the 

 enlargement of the flanks subsides — the excrement, whether hard or 

 fluid, is more abundantly discharged : but the beast is sadly thin — he 

 is daily losing ground — his coat stares — the hair is easily detached — ■ 

 the skin chngs to the bones — he is sometimes better, and sometimes 

 worse, until violent inflammation again suddenly comes on, and he is 

 speedily carried off". 



On examination after death, the first thing that presents itself is the 

 engrororement of the sub- cutaneous vessels with black and coagrulated 



o o . . ^ . 



blood, and the discoloration of the muscles, softened in their consist- 

 ence and becoming putrid. The abdomen exhibits the eftusion of a 

 great quantity of bloody fluid ; eight, ten, and twelve gallons have 

 been taken from it. The peritoneum is inflamed — almost universally 

 so ; — there are black and gangrenous patches in various parts, and on 

 others there are deposits of flaky matter, curiously formed, and often 

 curiously spotted. The liver is enlarged, and its substance easily 

 torn ; the rumen is distended with food, generally dry, and its lining 

 membrane inflamed and injected, and of a purple or blue tint ; the 

 reticulum does not escape the inflammatory action ; the manyplus is 

 filled Avith dry and hard layers, which cannot be detached without 

 difficulty from the mucous membrane of that stomach ; the fourth 

 stomach is highly inflamed, with patches of a more intense character, 

 and its contents are liquid and bloody, particularly towards the pyloiic 

 orifice. The small intestines contain many spots of ulceration, the 

 lining membrane is everywhere inflamed, and they are filled with an 



