160 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



to run together and to gravitate downwards into the limbs 

 and the lower parts of the trunk, where they form extend- 

 ed, tolerably smooth swellings, pitting on pressure and 

 subsiding abruptly into the soimd skin at their upper mar- 

 gins. The membrane lining the nose usually shows dark 

 blood spots and patches, ineffaceable by pressure, even at 

 this early stage, sometimes indeed before any swelling of the 

 skin, but always as the disease advances. Similar spots may 

 be seen on the skins of white animals. The urine is usu- 

 ally dense, thick, ammoniacal and often brownish-red. 

 Shivering often marks the period of effusion but there is 

 at first little change of pulse, temperature, breathing or 

 appetite. As the swellings increase, the animal becomes 

 unable to see, to eat, or even to move, almost, and breath- 

 ing may be carried on only with the greatest difficulty, 

 through the swollen and closed nostrils. Transverse 

 cracks and yellowish liquid oozing, appear ia the bends of 

 the joints ; little blisters with yellowish or bloody con- 

 tents rise, especially in the hollow of the heel behind the 

 pastern, and, bursting, continue to discharge. Yellowish 

 serum or dark blood may ooze from the general surface of 

 the swelling ; patches of skin die, drop off and leave un- 

 healthy, weak sores with a serous discharge ; the exuda- 

 tions may even soften the muscles, and loosen and detach 

 the tendons from the bones leading to turning up of the 

 toe or other distortions. Sometimes the superficial swell- 

 ings suddenly subside, and unless a critical diarrhoea or 

 diuresis occurs, serous infiltration of some internal organ 

 like the lungs or bowels is apt to ensue, cutting off the pa^ 

 tient suddenly, with great oppression of breathing or vio- 

 lent and persistent colicky pains, and, at times, a bloody 

 fcetid diarrhoea. 



The symptoms and dangers vary with the seat of the 

 effusion. The result is most favorable when this is under 

 the skin, the main danger then being from suffocation, ex- 

 tensive death and sloughing of skin, and softening and de- 

 tachment of tendons and ligaments. Unless improvement 



