450 Veterinary Medicine. 



plethora fails to produce the specific disease ; again, after trans- 

 fusion a plethora of albumen lasts for one or two days, but hsemo- 

 globinsemia sets in only in the first few minutes after the animal 

 starts out from the stable, (never after an hour or two at work) : 

 once more, excess of globules may last for a month, but with 

 steady work there is no danger of this disease, after the first mile 

 or two has been traversed, on the first day of the resumption of 

 labor. 



A similar plethora of albuminoids and globules may be induced 

 in a plethoric animal by a profuse diarrhoea, diuresis or perspira- 

 tion, the blood having been robbed of its watery constituents, 

 and concentrated especially as regards its globules and albu- 

 minoids, but hsemoglobinsemia never occurs as the result of such 

 an artificial concentration. On the contrary a free secretion by 

 the bowels or kidneys is of the greatest value in cutting short its 

 progress after it has set in. 



The doctrine of poisoning by haemoglobin produced by exces- 

 sive work and disintegration of the muscles is equally insufficient 

 to account for an attack. Excess of muscular work and of 

 muscle-decomposition-products, would not reach its maximum 

 within the first few minutes after the animal has started from the 

 stable, but, other things being equal, would increase with the 

 "continuance of work and the accumulation in the blood of a con- 

 stantly increasing amount of these products. The sharp line of 

 restriction by which the attack is limited to the initial period of 

 work, while it is never seen after hard work continued for hours 

 in succession, rules out this from the list of essential causes. It 

 may be that the products of muscular decomposition aggravate 

 the attack, but to set them down as the cause of the attack is to 

 beg the whole question and to contradict the truth that continu- 

 ous and severe muscular work with its consequent increase of 

 waste products is a direct bar to the development of the disease. 

 It should be noted in this connection that the increase in the 

 waste of nitrogenous bodies, as shown by the increase of urea, is 

 dependent far more on the amount of nitrogenous matters ingested 

 than on the muscle work or decomposition. In eleven hours just 

 before ascending the Faulhorn, Fick passed 21.686 grs. of urea 

 per hour ; in eight hours ascending the hill, 12.43 grs- per hour ; 

 and in six hours after the ascent he passed 13.39 grs. per hour. 



