MALIGNANT EPIZOOTIC CATAEEH. 321 



drooping — the eye kept more than half closed — the 

 caruncle, lids, etc., almost bloodless — a gummy, yellow 

 secretion below the eye — thick glutinous mucus adhering 

 in and about the nostrils — appetite feeble — pulse languid — 

 and the muscular energy greatly prostrated. Nothing un- 

 usual was yet noticed about their stools or urine. 



I now had all the diseased sheep removed from the flock, 

 and placed in rooms the temperature of which could easily be 

 regulated. I commenced giving slight tonics and stimulants, 

 such as gentian, ginger, etc., but apparently with no material 

 effect. They rapidly grew weaker, stumbled and fell as they 

 walked, and soon became unable to rise. The appetite grew 

 feebler — the mucus at the nose, in some instances tinged 

 with dark grumous blood — the respiration oppressed, and 

 they died within a day or two after they became unable 

 to rise. 



I proceeded to make post mortem examinations with great 

 care and deliberation — aided by Dr. Frederick Hyde, now 

 Professor of Anatomy in the Geneva Medical College. * My 

 minutes of those examinations . have already been partially 

 published in " Sheep Husbandry in the South ;" and they are 

 €[uite too long for insertion here. 



Laboring very strongly under the impression that the seat 

 of the disease would be found in the lungs, or some of the 

 abdominal viscera, no examination was made, in the first six 

 cases, of the interior organs of the head and neck. But 

 failing to discover any sufficient indications of primary disease 

 among the latter to account for the results, I, in the next 

 case, examined the bronchial tubes, the lower portions of 

 the windpipe, esophagus, &c., and found them aU in an 

 apparently healthy condition. Before tracing these passages 

 to the throat, I jemoved the upper portion of the skull and 

 carefully examined the brain and its investing membranes. 

 All seemed in a perfectly normal state. I then made a 

 longitudinal section down through the middle part of the 

 whole head, and the seat and character of the fatal malady 

 stood at once revealed. The mucous membrane lining the 

 whole nasal cavity, highly congested and thickened through- 

 out its whole extent, betrayed the most intense inflammation. 

 At the junction of the cellular ethmoid bones with the cribri- 



* To guard against any misapprehensions on this point, I may be permitted to 

 say that we had a well warmed room — all the proper instruments for making such an 

 examination — and several honrs were usually devotedto each case. 

 14* 



