378 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



of variable intensity preceding the appearance of any local 

 disturbance. The patients lose their appetite, and now and 

 then show signs of slight colic. They are melancholy, feeble, 

 dejected and the thermometer testifies to an increased tem- 

 perature. On the next day there appears a doughy and pain- 

 ful tumefaction, that rapidly increases in size. In Lucet's 

 observation the tumefaction has developed on the head to 

 the extent of disfiguring the animal. The head resembled an 

 irregular, swollen- mass which concealed all the prominences. 

 In Malzew's horses, the tumefaction which first appeared on 

 the lips extended rapidly to the different parts of the face, 

 neck and chest, and resulted fatally in a very short time. 

 Cases observed by Semmer had an absolutely analogous as- 

 pect. The patients presented tumefaction of the lips which 

 rapidly reached the cheeks, throat and lower parts of the 

 neck. 



In the ox and in all bovines identical manifestations 

 occur. Lucet reports that he saw the characteristic 

 tumefaction commence at the left maxillary spine, spread 

 rapidly over the same side of the face, throat dewlap 

 and breast. These symptoms were accompanied with 

 intense fever, suppression of the lacteal secretion and 

 suspension of the appetite and rumination. During the days 

 following, the general symptoms become more aggravated, 

 the temperature rises to 40, 40.5, or 41.2 degrees C, the 

 tumefaction spreads to various points of the body and the 

 animal succumbs. According to Nuvoletti the bovine vari- 

 ety of the disease presents much more analogy to human 

 erysipelas than that of the other domestic animals. The in- 

 fection generally proceeds from a lesion of the mouth or 

 nasal mucosa. The tumefaction is hot, sensitive, oedematous, 

 but not crepitant. It starts at the lower extremity of the 

 head and reaches the neck and shoulders and sometimes dis- 

 plays small, purulent foci. 



