244 SHEEP HUiSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



The thorax also contained considerable fluid, which escaped witliout ad- 

 measurement. 



I now exanriined the bronchial tubes, the lower portions of the windpipe, 

 3Bsophagi!8, &c., and found them all in an apparently, heallhv condifion. 

 Befoie tracing these passages to the throat, I removed the upper ])f)ition 

 of the skull and carefully examined the brain and its investing mem- 

 nranes. All seemed in a perfectly normal state. I then made a longitu- 

 dinal section down through the middle part of the whole head, as is shown 

 in fig. 49, and the seat and character (if the fatal malady stood at once 

 revealed ! 



The mucous membrane lining the whole nasal cavity, highly congested 

 and thickened throughout its whole extent, betrayed the most intense in- 

 fiammation. At the junction of the cellular ethmoid bones with the cribri- 

 form plate, (in the ethmoidal cells,) slight ulcers were forming on the mem- 

 braneous lining ! The inflammation also extended to the mucous mem- 

 brane of the pharynx, and say three inches of the upper portion of the oeso- 

 phagus. Here it rather abruptly terminated. 



Cane 8th. Old, in lamb. External appearances as in preceding cases — 

 abdominal parietes liealthy — all the viscera apparently healthy. The in- 

 flammation of the mucous membrane lining the nasal cavity, pharynx, and 

 upper portion of oesophagus, as in Case 7th, only not quite so acute — no 

 ulcers on the membrane. 



Cases 5th and 6th reviewed. The heads of these two subjects having 

 neen accidentally preserved, I examined them, and found the inflammatory 

 action of the mucous membrane same as in cases 7th and Sth. Nor have I 

 a particle of doubt that the same would have been found the case in all 

 tlie preceding subjects, had they been examined. 



Nosology and Treatment. — I had little difficulty in coming to the conclu- 

 sion that the primary and main disease was a species of catarrh. It evidently, 

 however, differed I'rom oidinary catarrh in its diagnosis, and in the (sxtent 

 of the lesions accompanying both the primary and symptomatic dis- 

 eases. 



In no case, even in the first attack, did I notice anything — the fever— 

 the accelerated pulse — the redness about the eyes and nostrils — the cough- 

 ing, etc., accompanying an ordinary severe attack of catarrh. And it was 

 for this reason that I was misled as to the seat of the malady. From the 

 very outset, according to my observations, the type of the disease was 

 typhoid — sinking — rapidly tending to fatal prostration. 



How to reduce the local inflammation of the membrane lining the nasal 

 cavities, I was at a loss to determine. I was satisfied that there was too 

 much debility to admit of an antiphlogistic course of treatment. Still, to 

 make myself sure, I bled in .hree or four cases, and, as I anticipated, it 

 evidently accelerated the fatal catastrophe. Blistering could not be brought 

 near to the seat of the inflammation, excepting on the nose, and independ- 

 ent of the extreme difficulty of treating a blister on a spot so constantly 

 exposed to dirt, the rubbing of hay, etc., in winter feeding, I believed it 

 could have little effect, on an account of the thick nasal bone intervening 

 between it and any -portion of the inflamed membrane. And, moreover, 

 the greater portion of the inflamed membrane rested on bones detached, 

 except at one extremity, from all connection with the nasal bone. I blew 

 Scotch snuff" (through paper tubes) up the nostrils of some of the sheep, 

 for two objects — I, to Temove, by sneezing, the mucus, which mechanical- 

 "', and evidently injuriously, obstructed respiration ; and 2, to produce a 

 lew action, by which, an increased mucous secretion would be excited, 

 «iid thus the congested membrane relieved. But, farther than this, I re- 



