The Rot ill Sheep. 
139 
The morbid states of the liver which we have attempted 
to describe are, without doubt, chiefly due to the presence 
of the entozoa within the biliary ducts. Kiichenmeister has 
correctly observed, that " the first consequences of the flukes 
in the liver are dilatation and catarrh of the gall-ducts, and 
destruction, by pressure, of large portions of the parenchyma of 
the liver in the vicinity of the enlarged ducts." No kind of food 
or location, however prejudicial, could possibly per se produce 
such structural changes in the liver as belong to rot ; but it can 
be easily understood that an organ like this, whose office at 
one and the same time is to depurate the blood by its excretory 
function, and to assist in the assimilation of the food by its 
secretory function, being so extensively diseased, must ultimately 
cause emaciation and death of the animal, without regarding 
the distomata as an additional cause in producing a continued 
drain on the system of the sheep. 
To return to our description of the autopsy. The viscera of 
the chest, in common with every other organ of the body, give 
evidence of anaemia. Some serous effusion exists in the cavity, 
which, however, is mostly devoid of colour, limpid, and trans- 
parent. In quantity it is considerably less than that met with 
in the abdomen. Little or no fat is present about the heart ; and 
that which does exist is of a slightly yellow colour. The walls 
of the heart are flabby and pale. The blood contained in its 
cavities, as well as that in the large venous trunks, is watery and 
imperfectly clotted. The lungs, apart from other diseases of these 
organs which may co-exist with rot, do not present any special 
lesions. Like other parts of the organism, however, they give 
evidence of general anaemia. In our section on the pathology of 
rot, we have fully discussed the opinion of Mr. Blacklock, as to 
the malady being a tuberculous one of the lungs, and therefore 
need not repeat our arguments against the correctness of this 
statement. 
The condition of the brain and its meninges agrees with that 
of the body generally. A larger amount of fluid than ordinary 
is present in the ventricles of the brain, and the vessels of the 
meninges are indistinctly seen in consequence of the watery cha- 
racter of the blood within them. Such, then, are the general j90S^- 
mortem appearances of rotten sheep. 
We have, however, many proofs that affected sheep often die 
long before this general break-up of the organism is accomplished. 
This is particularly the case at the commencement of winter, 
and on the occurrence of white or hoar frosts. Such animals 
sink from passive congestion of the lungs, the tendency to which is 
given by the altered condition of the blood from a change in the 
