Disease among Cattle. 553 
racters attending the cases under consideration. Others who have 
not, can scarcely form a true idea of this complaint. 
It would seem from what was observed in this post mortem 
examination, that the disease was not so sudden in its attack, 
and rapid in its progress, as w^ould appear from outward pheno- 
mena. It must have existed more than eight and forty hours, 
although facts outwardly seemed to indicate that the attack and 
whole course of it did not occupy twelve hours. Inflammations 
of this character are not developed in a night. Excravasations 
of blood may occur, and redness and swelling appear in a very brief 
period, but inflammations with ulcerations require time for deve- 
lopment; sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. This is an 
important fact to be borne in mind, for if it is admitted or proved 
that the whole course of disease is passed in one brief summer's 
night, very little hope can be held out for the successful employ- 
ment of remedial agents. 
From the foregoing observations I think I shall be justified in 
the opinion that the mucous membrane of the small intestines, was 
the seat of disease, and that the state of the spleen was a secon- 
dary result that arose from sympathy with the diseased parts. I 
do not know that the spleen has been found in the condition described 
in a similar disease in the human family. I have not observed 
it, and yet it is highly probable that swelling of the kind may 
exist. I may state that it is now proved that the office of the 
spleen is to secrete a fluid which is designed to aid in digestion, 
and particularly in the solution of fat, so that a person labor- 
ing under a chronic disease of the spleen, is unable to take fat in 
his food. A very striking case of the kind I have witnessed the 
past summer. The remedies for this disease must evidently be- 
long to the depleting class, and nothing to my mind bids so fair 
to be useful as free bleeding. A herd of cattle ought to be very 
carefully examined when cases of death occur among them, and 
if the nature of the disease partakes of an inflammatory character, 
bleeding the ailing ones at once may save them. Purgatives, 
however, would be injurious in inflammation of the intestines, 
and nothing but sweating and emolient drinks would be admis-- 
sible. 
In conclusion it is proper to observe that from the limited range 
of the disease, it was supposed that poison had much to do with 
the disease — but we are by no means warranted in an inference 
of the kind. There were really no phenomena which belonged 
to eflfects of any of the vegetable or mineral poisons. The fact 
is, we are totally in the dark, as it regards the cause of the appear- 
ance of many diseases. They occur often in small districts of 
country, as fatal visitants of the human family, and why not also 
of the lower orders of animals, whose organization is upon the 
