410 DISEASES OF THE GENITAL ORGANS. 



they strike the abdomen with the hind legs. More rarely it is 

 announced by symptoms of cerebral irritation : the patients bellow, 

 mount into their manger, and show all the symptoms of a more or 

 less intense agitation ; we may observe epileptiform convulsions, 

 convulsive contractions of the muscles of the face and neck, and 

 grinding of the teeth. After this initial period, which often passes 

 unobserved, the characteristic paralytic manifestations succeed one 

 another rapidly. The forelegs are bent; the general weakness 

 increases ; the animals seem exhausted, they stagger, fall upon the 

 ground, and often attempt to rise, exerting themselves without 

 success ; as soon as the paresis of the hind quarters has invaded 

 the whole body, they stretcli themselves upon their litter exhausted 

 the legs half bent or in an extended straight and stiff position. It 

 is generally in this condition that the veterinarian finds the patients; 

 besides sleepiness, apathy, and decubitus, other symptoms attract 

 his attention: the head is inclined laterally, it rests frequently upon 

 the costal wall, and if we endeavor to straighten it, it falls back to 

 the former position. The upper eyelid covers the ocular globe 

 (ptosis); cornea dull, sometimes vague, as in an animal in agony, 

 it is dry, non-sensitive, and in some cases wrinkled and furrowed ; 

 the pupil is dilated as in amaurosis ; the lacrymal duct is full of 

 pus, the eye is sunk in the orbit. The tongue is paralyzed, flabby, 

 and hanging ; as long as the salivary secretion continues it runs in 

 long threads upon the ground, the paralysis of the pharynx and 

 œsophagus no longer permitting deglutition. Respiration is pain- 

 ful, rattling and sometimes whistling (paralysis of the muscles of 

 the larynx) ; the nostrils are greatly dilated. At the examination 

 of the digestive apparatus we observe at first dysphagia, and later 

 a complete incapacity of deglutition, the cessation of the peristaltic 

 movements, constipation and meteorism, phenomena which are 

 produced by paresis of the muscular wall of the intestine, a paresis 

 which withstands the most energetic purgatives (even physostig- 

 mine). Micturition is suspended (paralysis of the bladder) ; the 

 urine is albuminous ; Nocard has constantly found sugar in it, 

 sometimes in a proportion of forty grammes per litre. The lacteal 

 secretion is exhausted ; the udder is flabby and wrinkled. As re- 

 gards the circulatory apparatus we have first as a constant symptom 

 the irregular distribution of temperature ; the horns, ears, and feet 

 are cold. The pulse is small, often imperceptible ; the number of 

 pulsations is from 50 to 70 per minute, later we can count as many 



