1 8 THE GROUSE DISEASE chap. 



less disintegrating, and contain dark brown pigment 

 granules ; besides, numerous clumps of dark greenish 

 pigment masses are found in the spaces of the intra- 

 lobular capillary vessels, while the large vascular 

 branches are full of blood. Evidently in these cases 

 the disease is of longer standing than a few days, for 

 the capillary ' blood-vessels are not found filled with 

 blood corpuscles, as would be the case in recent cases, 

 but contain the remnants of disintegrated blood cor- 

 puscles, viz. masses of amorphous pigment. The 

 dark greenish-black condition of the liver is always 

 associated with great emaciation of the animals, and, 

 as is proved by microscopic examination, is associated 

 with a large amount of blood pigment, so that from 

 this we conclude that there must have existed, some 

 time before death, stasis in the blood-vessels, disin- 

 tegration of the blood corpuscles, and change of the 

 blood pigment. This is in agreement with what we 

 mentioned on a previous page as to the emaciation 

 of birds indicating that the disease must have lasted 

 for some time. In all instances, however, the liver 

 cells themselves contain brown pigment granules. 

 The kidneys are congested, in some instances leading 

 to haemorrhage into the tissue of the kidney. The 

 intestinal mucous membrane shows patchy congestion, 

 and the same is the case with its serous covering, 

 which in most instances is congested in many places. 



