INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 517 



blood is thoroughly mixed with the matter, staining it evenly, instead 

 of being mixed with it in the form of clots. At the commencement of 

 the complication the animal may be subject to chills, which may 

 again occur in the course of the disease, in which case, if severe, an 

 unfavorable termination by gangrene may be looked for. If gan- 

 grene occurs if is shown by preliminary chills, a rapid elevation of 

 temperature^ a tumultuous heart, a flaky discharge from the nostrils, 

 and a fetid breath; the symptoms are identical with those which 

 occur in gangrene complicating other diseases. 



Complication of the hrain. — At any time during the course of the 

 disease congestion of the brain may occur ; at an early period if the 

 fever has been intense from the outset, but in ordinary cases more 

 frequently after three or four days. The animal, which has been 

 stupid and immobile, becomes suddenly restless, walks forward in 

 the stall until it fastens its head in the corner. If in a box stall and 

 it becomes displaced from its position, it follows the wall with the 

 nose and eyes, rubbing it along until it reaches the corner and again 

 fastens itself. It may become more violent and rear and plunge. If 

 disturbed by the entrance of the attendant or any loud noise or 

 bright light, it will stamp with its fore feet and strike with its hind 

 feet, but is not definite in fixing the object which it is resisting, 

 which is a diagnostic point between meningitis and rabies and which 

 renders the animal with the former disease less dangerous to handle. 

 If fastened by a rope to a stake or post, the animal will wander in a 

 circle at the end of the rope. It wanders almost invariably in one 

 direction. The pupils may be dilated or contracted, or we may find 

 one condition in one eye and the opposite in the other. 



The period of excitement is followed by one of profound coma, in 

 which the animal is immobile, the head hanging and placed against 

 the comer of the stall, the body limp, and the motion, if demanded of 

 the animal, unsteady. Little or no attention is paid to the sur- 

 rounding noises, the crack of a whip, or even a blow on the surface 

 of the body. The respiration becomes slower, the pulsations are 

 diminished, the coma lasts for variable time, to be followed by 

 excesses of violence, after which the two alternate, but if severe the 

 period of coma becomes longer and longer until the animal dies of 

 spasms of the lungs or of heart failure. It may die from injuries 

 which occur in the ungovernable attacks of violence. 



Complication of the feet. — The feet are the organs which are next 

 in frequency predisposed to congestion. This congestion takes place 

 in the laminae (podophyllous structures) of the feet. The stupefied 

 animal is roused from its condition by excessive pain in the feet and 

 assumes the position of a foundered horse; that is, if the fore feet 

 alone are aflFected, they are carried forward until they rest on the 



