598 Veterinary Medicine. 



blood elements. Yet in the cases reported by the Bureau serious 

 lesions of the intestines were rather the exception, and some sub- 

 jects showed scarcely any lesion. 



The liver is usually enlarged, averaging three to five pounds 

 heavier than in a healthy ox of the same weight. In these en- 

 larged and congested cases it is of a deep yellowish brown color, 

 and often shows yellow spots on the darker ground. Micro- 

 scopically each acinus has a bright yellow centre from which yellow 

 radiating canals diverge to join the peripheral gall duct. In the 

 superficial or portal portion of the acinus, the hepatic cells are 

 granular from fatty change, yet the nucleus is usually still 

 recognizable. Toward the central zone it may have disappeared. 

 The further this has advanced, the softer, the more easily pitted 

 and the more friable the liver. The congestion of these radical 

 gall ducts with the dense colored bile, displays the structure o'f 

 the acini in a clear and beautiful way, which no injection can ac- 

 complish. When the affected tissue is teased out and placed under 

 the microscope the inspissated contents of the bile canaliculi may 

 be seen as yellow cylindroid casts sometimes bifurcated to repre- 

 sent the union of the two canals. If stained in Ehrlich's acid 

 hsematoxylin, the necrotic elements refuse to take the stain so 

 that the contrast between the dead and the living tissues is en- 

 hanced. Patty degeneration is common in the liver of healthy 

 beef cattle so that this is less significant than the congestion of 

 the acini, and the phenomenal distension of the radical gall ducts 

 with inspissated bile. 



The gall bladder is usually full ( Y^ pint to i quart or more) , 

 and its mucous membrane congested and sometimes petechiated. 

 The bile is thick and viscid, like tar, it may be yellowish green, 

 darkening on exposure and contains haematoidin crystals and 

 abundance of flocculi showing bright yellow or orange by trans- 

 mitted light and reddish brown by reflected light. 



The spleen is always enlarged, often enormously so. From an 

 average weight of 1.5 lb. to 1.7 lb. for a 1000 lbs. ox, it will rise 

 to 2, 7 or even 10 lbs. One measured 27 inches long by 7}^ 

 inches wide and in the centre 3 inches thick (Rauch). Even in 

 apparent health the Gulf coast cattle have spleens averaging 

 about 2}^ lbs. 



The spleen is gorged with blood which appears purple as seen 



