44 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 



During the extreme heats of summer, on the other hand, 

 the plague manifests .all its European violence. The 

 breathing becomes short, rapid, and. labored, each ex- 

 piration is accompanied by a deep moan or grunt, audi- 

 ble at some distance from the animal. The nostrils and 

 even the comers of the mouth are strongly retracted. 

 The patient stands most of its time, and in some cases 

 ■without intermission, its fore legs set apart, its elbows 

 turned out, and the shoulder-blades and arm-bones, 

 rapidly losing their covering of flesh, standing out from 

 the sides of the chest so that their outlines can be plainly 

 seen. The head is extended on the neck, the eyes prom- 

 inent and glassy, the muzzle dry, a clear or frothy liquid 

 distils from the nose and mouth, the back is slightly 

 raised, and this together with the spaces between the ribs 

 and the region of the breast-bone are very sensitive to 

 pinching, the secretion of milk is entirely arrested, the 

 skin becomes harsh, tightly adherent to the parts beneath 

 and covered with scurf, and the arrest of digestion is 

 shown by the entire loss of appetite and rumination, the 

 severe or fatal tympanies (bloating), and later by a pro- 

 fuse watery diarrhoea in which the food is passed in an 

 undigested condition. If the effusion into the lungs or 

 chest is very extensive the pallor of the mouth, eyelids, 

 vulva, and skin betrays the weak, bloodless condition. 

 The tongue is furred and the breath of a heavy, feverish, 

 mawkish odor, but rarely foetid. Abortion is a common 

 result in pregnant cows. 



CouESE. Teemination. 



In summer, when the disease shows its greatest vio- 

 lence, the mortality is not only high, but early. Cattle 

 will die after a few days' illness from the great prostra- 

 tion attendant on the enormous effusion into the organs 

 of the chest, the impairment of breathing and the im- 

 pairment or suspension of the vital functions in geueriil 



