Dysentery of Cattle. 247 



the flanks and elbows, weakness, prominent, weeping, congested 

 eyes, and low moans when moved. Then follow hyperthermia, 

 at first slight, heat of the mouth without injection, epithelial 

 concretions or erosions and diarrhoea (sometimes there is strain- 

 ing without passage at first). Then follows a period of profuse 

 and fcetid discharge, with relaxed or open anus, the liquids 

 escaping involuntarily and smearing the tail, perineum, thighs 

 and hocks, and the protruded mucosa showing dark red conges- 

 tions and even commencing erosions. Colicy pains, slight at first, 

 have now become intense, and the right side of the abdomen is 

 very tender to the touch and fluctuates noisily when manipulated. 

 Appetite and rumination are lost. Salivation may be present, the 

 saliva falling in films to the ground. The buccal epithelium is 

 softened, loosened and easily detached by the finger, leaving raw 

 sores. The temperature which has risen slowly (not as in rinder- 

 pest abruptly) may reach 106 . The hair becomes dry, the skin 

 harsh, rigid, and firmly adherent to the deeper parts, and often 

 cold, while the muzzle is hot, dry and even cracked. 



At a still more advanced stage, the pulse is small, the tempera- 

 ture lowered, the animal very weak and unsteady and inclined to 

 lie, great emaciation, sunken glazed eye, drooping head, ears and 

 eyelids, and a general foetor from the skin as well as the dejec- 

 tions, which attracts crowds of flies. By this time there may be 

 passed only bloody mucus mixed with eschars, and having a 

 most repulsive odor. ^ 



It is a noticeable fact that the faeces are alkaline, and in man 

 the saliva is acid and destitute of its glycogenic properties, the 

 stomach secretions are alkaline and no longer peptogenic, and 

 the secretion of bile is arrested until improvement sets in. 



Course. Duration. Some mild cases recover in two or three 

 days, and in violent cases death may occur at this early date. 

 More commonly the disease continues for two or three weeks 

 before ending in death or recovery. Some merge into the chronic 

 form and may last for months and die in a condition of marasmus. 

 These last cases become mere walking skeletons, with pallid 

 mucosae, sunken eyes, scurfy hide-bound skins covered with 

 vermin, and the frequently everted rectum is congested- and 

 covered with ulcers and eschars. Mortality is from 50 to 80 per 

 cent. 



