248 Veterinary Medicine. 



Complications. Most complications are in the direct line of 

 septic infection. Among the most common are hepatic abscess, 

 gangrenous pneumonia, and extensive gangrene of the intestinal 

 walls. In man arthritis, paralysis, parotitis and other secondary 

 affections are seen. In the animal as well we may expect ne- 

 crotic centres in any organ, from the supervention of a general 

 septicaemia. 



Lesions. The carcasses putrefy with extraordinary rapidity 

 being as a rule pervaded by septic microbes and their toxins. 

 The blood is of a deep red, loosely and imperfectly coagulated, 

 and accumulated in the veins and subcutaneous connective tissue. 



The large intestines are the special seat of the disease, the 

 walls being found hypersemic, with concentration especially on 

 the mucous surface which is red, congested, infiltrated, tumefied 

 so that it is easily detached under pressure by the finger, or 

 broken down into a putrid pulp. At other points the epithelium 

 or the whole mucosa has been detached leaving ulcers, varying 

 from mere erosions to the deep and even perforating sores, 

 through which the putrid contents escape into the abdominal 

 cavity. At other points the surface is covered by necrotic 

 masses surrounded by a swollen margin of living mucosa. 

 Elsewhere the eschars have been detached and the granulating 

 base and margin have contracted into more or less perfect 

 cicatrices. The contents of the affected bowel may be largely 

 muco-puxulent, or it may be mixed with blood, with eschars and 

 putrilage from the sores and at times with small packed masses 

 of food, but in all cases it is very putrid and repulsive. It al- 

 ways contains the elements of blood and exudation, together 

 with many microbes, the predominance of individual species sug- 

 gesting the main factors in the pathogenesis. Peyers' patches 

 and the solitary glands are often the seat of infiltration and 

 ulceration. Virchow points out that in man the lesions are 

 largely concentrated in the flexures of the colon in which the 

 ingesta is longer delayed, and the very convoluted arrangement 

 of the viscus in cattle may be one reason of their special pre- 

 disposition to the disease. 



The small intestines are exceptionally implicated, and the 

 abomasum red, congested, ecchymosed and even ulcerated. The 

 mouth and pharynx are often congested, with erosions and 

 ulcerations on the gums and tongue. 



