PNEUMONIA. 



521 



local lesions •which are found in the latter disease. All of the pneu- 

 monias throughout the whole course of the trouble are less marked 

 and less clearly defined. 



The symptoms may develop slowly or rapidly. If slowly, there is 

 fever and the animal gives a rare cough which resembles that of a 

 heavy horse affected with a slight chronic bronchitis; it becomes 

 somewhat dejected and dull, at times somnolent, and has a dimin- 

 ished appetite. This condition lasts for several days, or the disease 

 may begin with high fever, and the symptoms described below are 

 severe and develop in rapid sequence. The respiration increases to 

 24, 30, or 36 to the minute, and a small, running, soft pulse attains a 

 rhythm of 50, 70, or even more beats in the sixty seconds. The heart, 

 however, contrary to the debilitated condition of the pulse, is found 

 beating violently and tumultuously, like it does in anthrax and septic 

 intoxication. The mucous membranes of the eyes and mouth and of 

 the genital organs are found somewhat edematous, and they rapidly 

 assume a dirty, saffron color, at times approaching an ocher, but dis- 

 tinguishable from the similar coloration in influenza by the want of 

 the luster belonging to the latter and by the muddy, dull tint, which 

 is characteristic throughout the disease. 



Suddenly, without the preliminary rales which precede grave 

 lesions of the lungs in other diseases, the blowing murmur of pneu- 

 monia is heard over a variable area of the chest, usually, however, 

 much more distinctly over the trachea at the base of the neck and 

 directly behind the shoulder on either side of the chest. In some cases 

 the evidence of lung lesion can only be detected over the trachea. 

 The lesions of the lungs may be scattered through both lungs, in- 

 volving numerous small areas, or they may be confined to and more 

 or less fully occupy one or two lobes. Occasionally there is a general 

 involvement of both lungs. The body temperature has now reached 

 104° or 105° F., or in extreme cases even a degree higher. The de- 

 bility of the animal is great without the stupefaction or evidence of 

 cerebral trouble, which is constant with such grave constitutional 

 phenomena in influenza or severe pneumonias. The animal is sub- 

 ject to occasional chills, and on movement staggers in its gait. The 

 yellow coloration of the visible mucous membrane is rendered pale 

 by infiltration of the liquid of the blood into the tissues; the pulse 

 may become so soft as to be almost imperceptible, the heart movement 

 and sounds being at the same time exaggerated. The animal loses 

 flesh rapidly, and dropsies of the extremities, of the under surface of 

 the belly, or of the internal organs may show themselves. 



Terminations. — These symptoms may gradually subside after five 

 to eight days, with an improved appetite the 'inanition may cease and 

 the animal commence to nourish its impoverished blood and tissues; 

 the pulse becomes stronger and the heart more regular and less tumul- 



