40 BOVINE PATHOLOGY. 



&c. The head having been skinned and disarticulated at 

 the occipital condyles, may be retained for examination of 

 the brain, eye, nasal chambers, &c., secundum artem. 

 The subsequent examination of solid organs, variations in 

 size, form, and structure must be noted and deter- 

 mined to be primary or secondary causes of death. The 

 contents of hollow viscera must be retained and examined, 

 and the capacity, form, and structure also placed on 

 record. Finally, a scientific summary of post-mortem 

 results, with conclusions deduced from them, should be 

 drawn up after each organ or tissue exhibiting disease 

 has been specially examined. 



Disease may assume various forms dependent upon its 

 method of appearance and the manner in which it runs its 

 course. Thus, aciite disorders are characterised by short 

 periods of attack and rapid morbid changes leading to death 

 or to resolution in a few days, whereas chronic cases last 

 for some time, changes occur more slowly and lead to 

 greater permanent alteration of structure. Such attacks 

 as are active in their phases, but chronic in their effects, 

 are termed Subacute. Different diseases generally affect 

 one or other of these characters. Certain blood diseases 

 are very liable to assume the chronic form, rheumatism, 

 for instance, while inflammations of important viscera, as 

 the lungs, heart, &c., are generally acute. When 

 a number of animals of the same species become 

 simultaneously affected with a disease which does not 

 seem to be confined to any special locality the outbreak 

 is said to be Epizootic, but if animals of various species 

 suffer from the disorder it is termed Panzootic. Enzootics 

 are those diseases which affect a number of animals in a 

 circumscribed locality. Thus, eczema epizootica is a 

 panzootic, pleuro-pneumonia zymotica is an epizootic, and 

 anthrax generally manifests itself in enzootic outbreaks. 

 The term Sporadic is applied to those disorders which do 

 not affect a number of animals simultaneously, but now 

 and then an individual becomes attacked, while a number 

 of others subjected to like conditions escape unharmed. 

 Most non-specific disorders assume the sporadic character. 



