THE CIECULATORY SYSTEM. 215 



tain gas. Eeticulum^ containing sometimes clotted blood or 

 food intermingled witli blood, presents a fistula extending 

 to the pericardial sac ; sometimes several are present. The 

 walls of tbe passage are formed of lymph, which firmly 

 bmds the rumen, diaphragm, and pericardium together. 

 Generally the passage is blocked up with lymph. Fluid 

 may be present in the subcutaneous areolar tissue and in 

 the abdominal and thoracic cavities, attributable in the 

 two former to the impediment to the circulation, in the 

 latter case also to congestion or inflammation of the pleura, 

 such as is generally present. The mediastinal layer of 

 the pericardium is involved in this inflammation. The 

 fibrous layer is thickened by interfibrillar deposit, and 

 the two layers of the serous pericardium are the seat of 

 thick deposits of organised lymph, which is firmer as it 

 is more distant from the serous cavity. Hence it projects 

 into the latter as a flocculent layer, and in some places 

 the parietal and visceral layers are bound together either 

 over an extent of surface or by bands of lymph. An 

 amount of serous fluid, rendered milky by admixture of 

 lymph, or sanguineous, occupies the sac. Sometimes the 

 lymphy deposits have undergone cretaceous degenera- 

 tion and fatty change. Often a lesion of the heart 

 can be detected, and generally the foreign body is found 

 in the passage somewhere between the reticulum and 

 the heart- cavity ; it being more or less altered by 

 its strange journey. The muscular structure of the 

 heart is the seat of interfibrillar lymphy deposit, 

 and sometimes the fibrous bands of the cavities are 

 lacerated. 



Projphylaxis consists in the rigid exclusion of needles, 

 large pins, &c., from the dresses of dairymaids and other 

 female attendants on cows, also careful examination of the 

 food of the horned beasts. 



Curative measures are deemed useless in such cases, and 

 on diagnosis, immediate slaughter is to be suggested. A 

 French practitioner was recently successful in curing a 

 case by operation. 



In ' Yeterinarian,' vol. vi, p. 128, is recorded a case in 



