186 
TUBERCULAR ABSCESS IN A STIRK. 
On the ninth day , distension had again recurred ; the plug 
in the canula was removed, and the tympany had disappeared. 
Repeat Chloride of Sodium, Gentian, and Ginger. The bowels 
were open, and the animal fed tolerably well, ruminated, and 
appeared to slightly improve up to the twelfth day, when the 
canula was removed ; the distension soon reappeared, and the 
animal became much worse, with bowels constipated, &c. 
She was again relieved by Ol. Lini c. Sp. Arom. Amm. 
On the thirteenth day , better. Gave Carb. Amm., Gentian, 
and Ginger : attention to her forage. 
On the fourteenth day , from my first visit, 1 found the 
animal much worse ; distension of the rumen had re-appeared, 
making the respiration difficult ; auscultation failed to detect 
any abnormal sound connected with the increased respi- 
ratory murmur, nor was any dulness elicited on percussion : 
from which results, and the occasional disturbance only of 
the respiratory process, I w T as led to consider that the lungs 
were not the seat of disease. During the whole of the 
time I had attended upon this animal, I had perceived a 
gradual loss of tone in the pulse, a stealthy decay of consti- 
tutional vigour, and an automatic waste of the animal tissues, 
a falling aw ay, over and above what might be anticipated from 
the loss of function on the part of the digestive apparatus . 
Hence I was led to prognosticate very unfavorably, and 
even to predict a fatal termination ; basing this opinion upon 
the probable existence of some asthenic structural disease of 
some important viscus or viscera, intimately connected with 
the digestive organs, either by a mutual dependence upon 
each other’s function, sympathetic connection through identity 
of some nervous agency, or from contiguity of structure or 
situation : all of w hich would alike interfere with the due 
performance of the healthy functions of those important 
organs ; first, by tasking them with more than their ordinary 
share of labour; secondly, by directly or sympathetically 
affecting their functionary appointment ; lastly, by mechanical 
obstruction. 
After the animal had lingered on for some days, during 
which time it w T as necessary to keep the canula w T ithin the 
rumen, to prevent death from asphyxia, she w r as destroyed. 
Upon instituting a post-mortem examination, somewffiat to 
my surprise it was found that the whole of the abdominal 
viscera presented an uniformly normal aspect, the character 
of each viscus being healthy- of itself, excepting the com- 
paratively blanched appearance of the three anterior stomachs. 
The muscular textures of the rumen and reticulum were pale 
and flaccid ; the omasum was perfectly empty, not containing 
