146 Veterinary Medicine. 



putrid fermentation goes on after their discharge of the faecal 

 matters, the air becomes more and more repulsive. The same 

 odor pervades the mouth and the breath and tongue is coated 

 with a whitish, grayish or yellowish fur. 



The fasces become more watery and slimy, with much casein 

 in course of putrefaction, and the patient is rapidly run down 

 by the profuse discharge and the general poisoning by absorbed 

 putrid products. In the worst cases this may prove fatal in one 

 or two days. 



When the illness is more prolonged the alvine passages which 

 at first number five or six per day, increase to fifteen or twenty 

 and are passed with more effort, usually leaving the anus in a 

 liquid stream. The color of the stools changes from a yellow to 

 a grayish yellow or dirty white, hence the common name of 

 white scour, and the fcetor is intensified. 



Appetite may be in part preserved for a time but is gradually 

 lost, and the subject becomes dull, listless and weak, indisposed 

 to rise and walking unsteadily when raised. A general appear- 

 ance ol unthriftiness, staring coat, scurfy, unhealthy skin, pallor 

 of the mucous membranes, arching of the back, tucking up and 

 tendernsss of the abdomen, excoriation of the margins of the 

 anus, and congestion of the rectum as seen everted during de- 

 fecation, mark the advance of the disease. Emaciation becomes 

 very marked, and weakness and prostration extreme. 



Fever usually sets in as the disease advances, as marked by 

 hyperthermia, hot dry muzzle, hot ears, accelerated pulse and 

 breathing. 



When the intestinal fermentation ' is extreme there may be 

 distinct bloating, more acute colicy pains, rumbling of the bowels 

 and a frothy and even bloody condition of the dejections. The 

 prostration may become extreme and the temperature reduced to 

 the normal or below. 



Death may result from inanition and exhaustion, or from 

 nervous prostration and poisoning. 



The affection may be complicated by purulent arthritis, peri- 

 tonitis, pneumonia, hepatitis, keratitis or laminitis. It may 

 prove fatal in from three to ten days. 



Mortality. This is always high. For foals it has been set 

 down at 80 per cent, of the numbers attacked, for calves at 54 



