REMARKS ON A CASE OF PYEMIA. 
79 
these the two poorest of all. The grass itself is perfectly 
valueless as fodder,, at the same time the botanist and the 
scientific farmer well knows it to be an indication of poverty, 
and we cannot help wishing that the veterinarian practitioner 
possessed this kind of knowledge, as it might indicate to him, 
as it frequently has to us, the reason why cattle, it may be, 
are affected with scour upon pastures with the poorer grasses, 
which we immediately cure by removal to more healthy 
pasture. 
But it should also indicate how the pasture itself may be 
ameliorated. Farmers often speak of sour grasses, but when 
they do so they are far from meaning that they have acid in 
them. Still, herbage, as being innutritious, so far causes 
acidity, inasmuch as it does not properly digest, and hence 
much of distension and kindred complaints may arise. These 
matters of the nutritive value of grasses will be discussed in 
our next. 
REMARKS ON A CASE OF PYAEMIA. 
By A. E. A. Laurence, Bristol General Hospital. 
Seeing a case in your Journal for January which Mr. 
Sansom has recorded as pysemia, you will probably excuse a 
few remarks from me on his opinion of the malady. From 
the symptoms detailed, it is to my mind a clear case of dif- 
fused cellular inflammation, arising, no doubt, in the first 
place, from some injury to the cellular tissue beneath the 
skin, which was followed by the exudation of inflammatory 
products to such an extent as to press up the skin, separating 
it from its source of nourishment, and causing in consequence 
sloughing of it in places to allow the escape of the in- 
flammatory exudation, plus the debris of the cellular tissue 
in the form of shreddy pus, three parts breaking down first, 
which were more remote from the centre of circulation, and 
whose blood supply and nutrition would not be so well 
carried on as parts in the neighbourhood of larger vessels. 
The treatment in the human subject (and I see no reason 
why it should not be the same in animals) would be to make 
incisions about one inch long in various places on the limb, 
to relieve the tension of the skin and to allow the escape 
of the material exuded as a consequence of the inflamma- 
tion. 
After the incisions warm fomentations, good food, rest, &c. , 
