Symptomatology. 39 



standing. The color of the serum is light yellow instead 

 of orange of the normal. But in the incipient stage 

 this distinction is not marked. 



Haemoglobin.— At the outset of the disease one finds 

 very little alteration in the haemoglobin of the blood, 

 i.e., 60o/o-70o/o estimating with Gower's haemoglobino- 

 meter, instead of 709^-85?^ as is found in the blood 

 of the healthy horses. As the disease advances the 

 haemoglobin gradually decreases to 25 9^ -15 9^. 



Shape and kinds of the red blood corpuscles.— In 

 the biginning of the disease one can find hardly any 

 alteration in the red blood corpuscles. As the disease 

 advances, they gradually lose their power of resistance. 

 A number of microcytes, and a small number of ma- 

 crocytes and poikilocytes are found. Haematoblasts have 

 not as yet been demonstrated. Few morphological 

 changes occur in red blood corpuscles, the notable thing 

 being their enormous decrease in number. 



Number of red blood corpuscles — At the incipient 

 stage the number of red blood corpuscles is almost the 

 same as in the normal blood. But in the patient in 

 anemic phase, which is characteristic of the disease, the 

 number decreases with striking rapidity. It is not in- 

 frequent in extreme cases that the number of red blood 

 corpuscles are reduced to one-seventh of the average 

 physiological number (1,120,000 in 1 c.mm.). 



Number of leucocytes.— Leucocytes also decrease in 

 absolute number but not so much as the red blood cor- 

 puscles do. The ratio of red blood, corpuscles to leucocy- 

 tes, therefore, is always greater than prevails in normal 

 blood. It is not infrequent that the number of leucocy- 

 tes reach over 10,000 in 1 c.mm. 



Kinds of leucocytes. —Usually a comparatively large 

 number of neutral polynuclear, transitional and eosino- 



