522 Veterinary Medicine. 



fuse diarrhoea, and more limited ascites, but with greater nervous 

 disorder and delirium and such cases are likely to end fatally in 

 from two to five days from the onset of the severe attack. Cows 

 in full milk on the other hand may survive such violent access 

 for ten days or a fortnight, the elimination of the poison in the 

 milk perhaps tending to relieve the system in a measure. 



An excessive dose of the poison may doubtless produce a sud- 

 den, acute and fatal attack, but in the usual run of casual cases, 

 and as strikingly shown in the experimental ones, the progressive, 

 chronic cirrhosis of the liver has been steadily paving the way 

 for the final fatal intoxication. 



Lesions in cattle. If the disease has ended fatally the most 

 striking feature of the carcass is the yellow discoloration of the 

 normally white tissues. There is usually marked emaciation yet 

 the abdomen is distended by an accumulation of a clear yellowish 

 liquid. A semigelatinous exudate often distends the spaces of 

 the adipose connective tissues, replacing the fat, in various parts 

 of the body, as subcutaneously beneath the chest and abdomen, 

 in the omentum, mesentery and sublumbar region, and in the 

 submucosa of the abomasum. The liver presents the most marked 

 changes. In the early stages it is congested and the gall ducts 

 and bladder replete with a thick, dark colored bile which is also 

 found in the intestines. In old standing, fatal cases the liver is 

 small, shrunken, with rounded margins, a dull, mottled slaty 

 blue color, and a very firm consistency ' ' like tough India-rub- 

 ber." Dark blue pitted areas are frequent. The capsule adheres 

 to the gland with great tenacity, and when torn off with the for- 

 ceps leaves a very irregular surface, while portions of the liver 

 substance remains adherent to the detached capsule. When cut 

 the hepatic substance feels tough, resistant, leathery, almost 

 gritty, and under the microscope the fibrous framework is found 

 to be greatly increased and thickened, at the expense of the acini 

 which have degenerated and undergone absorption. Johnson 

 has seen ulcers of the mucosa of the abomasum, and sometimes' 

 petechise are scattered through the lungs, pleurae, pericardium, 

 peritoneum and nervous system in connection with the general 

 intoxication. 



Symptoms in sheep. Sheep eat the young ragwort more readily 

 than cattle and seem to enjoy a comparative immunity from its 



