Hereditary Diseases of Cattle. 
81 
however, by no means exempt from the deposition of tubercle, 
and even in phthisis occurrina;- in adults tubercular matter is often 
found to a greater or less extent on the surface of the various 
mucous membranes, in the liver, and in the mesenteric glands 
and peritoneum. 
When tuberculous disease occurs in early life, the matter is 
chiefly deposited in tlie mesenteric glands, and affects the lungs 
to a comparatively small extent — a form of the disease very 
common amongst calves of stock in which the usual form of con- 
sumption exists, and very liable to prove fatal shortly after birth, 
or aljor.t the time of weaning. The presence of morbid matter 
in these glands causes irritation, fever, and general derangement, 
impairs digestion and assimilation, and sjieedily causes death by 
arresting alimentation. 
The malady known by the various names of dysentery, rotten- 
ness, shooting, or bloody flux, is a hereditary disease resembling 
in many respects consumption, and, like it, often occasioning 
much loss to the farmer. It often appears in stocks predisposed 
to consumption, in which it continues for perhaps one or two 
generations, and then again gives place to consumption. The two 
diseases also frequently co-exist in the same individual : thus 
many cattle affected by phthisis are eventually carried off by a 
dysenteric attack, while tubercles in the lungs and elsewhere are 
commonly found on post-mortem examination of patients dying of 
dysentery. The causes of the two maladies also appear the same, 
the development of one or other depending upon the liability of 
the bowels or the lungs to become the chief seat of the disease. 
Both consist in a breaking up of the system, and both are attended 
by fatal exhaustion and debility. The earliest symptoms of 
dysentery often pass unobserved. The dung is liquid, and 
evacuated with straining, and, if examined, is found to contain 
considerable portions of hay, straw, or other food hurried thus 
undigested through the alimentary canal, in consequence of its 
impaired action and morbid irritability. The appetite, though at 
first little affected, soon becomes entirely lost or very capricious, 
the animal one day eating ravenously, and the next unable to eat 
at all. There is a rapid falling off in condition. The general 
staring and ragged appearance incidental to animals of a dysen- 
teric diathesis is also greatly augmented. The skin is hard, bound, 
to the ribs, and very scaly, especially about the belly and udder, 
and wherever the hair is thin and silky, a circumstance which 
depends upon the vitiated secretions of the skin and liver. The 
pulse is full, but easily arrested by the pressure of the finger. 
There is a good deal of fever, indicated in cattle by dryness of 
the mouth and muzzle, alternate coldness and heat of the horns, 
ears, and extremities, and impaired appetite and rumination. In 
VOL. XV. G 
