Caseating Lymph- Adenitis of Sheep. 397 



dition and weight for two or three months, and the fact that casual 

 cases have been usually in old ewes rejected as being no longer use- 

 ful in the breeding flock, and put up to fatten argues a visible loss 

 of health and stamina which led their owner to turn them into mut- 

 ton. Yet this did not prevent improvement under liberal feeding 

 and the animals came to the knife in good flesh. When superficial 

 lymph glands are affected (prescapular, pharyngeal, precrural, 

 inguinal) more definite symptoms are found, the glands being en- 

 larged to the size of a hen's egg or even a closed fist, perhaps 

 giving a sensation of cheesy contents, and causing stiffness or 

 lameness by mterfering with the movements of the limbs. Under 

 a scrutinizing observation of the flock the extensive lesions of 

 internal organs could not be overlooked. Hurried breathing, 

 dyspnoea and cough under exercise, would point to deposits in 

 the lungs or mediastinal glands ; yellowness of the mucosae, im- 

 paired appetite and rumination might point to disease of the 

 liver ; frequent urination and stiffness and dragging of the hind 

 quarters might imply disease of the kidney. In a contaminated 

 flock, or on infected land a steady loss of condition on the part 

 of the mature animals only, might well suggest the presence of 

 this disease. 



Morbid Anatomy. The caseated centres are usually seated 

 in the lymph glands, but they are not always confined to these. 

 They may be found along the line of the pastern, metacarpus or 

 metatarsus, or elsewhere in the connective tissues. Norgaard 

 and Mohler figure a deposit on the upper surface of the sternum 

 in a deep pit excavated in the bone and I have found a similar de- 

 posit on the floor of the spinal canal, and quite frequently around 

 the pharynx in pampered Cotswold sheep. The glands that are 

 especially obnoxious to attack are the bronchial, mediastinal, 

 prescapular, precrural, superficial inguinal, scrotal, sublumbar, 

 deep inguinal, pharyngeal, and less frequently the suprasternal 

 and mesenteric. 



When recently invaded the gland is red, swollen and congested 

 but still firm. Its cut surface exudes a watery fluid. In this 

 there appear later several whitish centres of degeneration and 

 softening, which gradually increase in size and finally coalesce 

 into one common caseous mass, enclosed in a thick resistant cap- 

 sule. The contents have at first the consistency of thick cream, 



