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EEPOET OF A DISCUSSION ON SPLENIC xVPOPLEXY 
IN CATTLE AND SHEEP. 
The last Meeting of Weekly Council, July Qth, 1862. The Earl of 
Powis in the Chair. 
Professor Simonds said the remarks he was about to make with 
regard to the nature and probable causes of this disease — Splenic 
Apoplexy — the name of which he would explain presently — were 
to be considered as simply preparatory to the reading of some 
reports in relation to an appearance of the malady in Somersetshire. 
The attention of the Council was first called to the matter about six 
months since by Sir William Miles ; and, as the veterinary officer 
of the Society, he received instructions to inA-estigatc the facts of 
the outbreak. On his return from the neighbourhood he prepared 
liis report, having ascertained that the occupiers of the farms were 
no better acquainted with the causes of the malady than they were 
at its commencement. As there were good reasons to believe that 
certain pastures on two farms in particular gave origin to the 
disease, and as he also had found that the water in the district was 
of a peculiar character, he had recommended that a further inves- 
tigation should be made by Dr. Voelcker, as chemist to the society, 
and by Professor Buckman, botanist, of the Eoyal Agricultural 
College of Cirencester, both of whom had prepared reports, which 
v/ould be read to the meeting. The chief business of the day would, 
therefore, be the reading of these reports, which, with the discussion 
that would follow, might possibly throw some light on the causes- 
of the outbreak. 
This disease, which affects both cattle and sheep, had been 
designated splenic apoplexy because, on making a post-mortem 
examination, the spleen was found to be enormouslj- engorged with 
blood ; and there are some persons who regard tlais engorgement as 
the chief cause of the fatality of the affection. He thought, however, 
that, on looking a little deeper into the matter, pathoUigists would 
be inclined to regard the sudden filling of the spleen as the effect 
of a pre-existing morbid state of the blood, and not the cause of a 
change in this fluid, and if so, "splenic apoplexy" might bo con- 
sidered a misnomer. The disease was in reality one in which some 
of the constituents of the blood, from various causes, underwent 
peculiar changes ; and in consequence of the disturbed state of tho 
organism thereby produced, the blood was brought to a standstill 
in tho spleen — hence the largo increase of its bulk. This being 
the case, the chief use of retaining the term " splenic apoplexy " is 
to distinguish one blood disease from another. 
In all parts of the country a large quantity of cattle and sheep, 
and even pigs, are lost from affections which clearly belong to 
tho blood. In eomc of these cases several of the constituents of the 
