158 Oattle Problems. 



portion of their expirations : it is known that a man exhales 

 half a cubic foot of carbonic a.ci6.per hour when still, while 

 a confined cow, of average size, exhales five times as much. 

 And huddling, inactive, indolent hogs probably exhale 

 twice as much per hour to each 300 lbs. of their weight. 

 Captive wild animals, that are closely confined, many 

 of them soon die of consumption, because their activity of 

 breathing, and oxygen supply, are so much reduced by 

 confinement. 



The great over-proportion of excretory matter in the 

 blood of inactive cattle or hogs, makes it so poisonous 

 after some time, that sound, healthy tissue can no lon- 

 ger be formed from such a bad quality of blood. The 

 lungs of the cows being irritated, and the air-cells prob- 

 ably being reduced in size by irritation of the lung mem- 

 branes, some of this excretory matter, carried in by the 

 venous blood, gets entangled, and lodges in the air-cells of 

 the lungs. A nucleus being thus formed, the quantity of 

 excretory matter in the air-cells, in parts of the lungs, is 

 rapidly increased by affinitive attraction, and consolidated 

 by the chemical cohesion that succeeds. In this way parts 

 of the lungs in cows become more or less rapidly solidi- 

 fied, the breathing capacity of the lungs being thereby 

 proportionately reduced. The size of the air-cells through- 

 out the entire structure of the lungs is probably reduced 

 by inflammatory irritation and swelling at the same time. 

 And in a little while after this accretion of poisonous mat- 

 ters has filled the cells in parts of the lungs, this cause, 

 and the great irritation throughout the organ, reduces the 

 breathing capacity so rapidly and so much, that the affect- 

 ed animal dies of suffocation. 



This result is due immediately to a deficient supply of 

 oxygen, the deficiency of oxygen being caused by long- 

 reduced or much prohibited exercise. 



Cows may also die from gradually-increasing inflamma- 



