190 TUBERCULAR ABSCESS IN A STIRK. 
ill-defined substance, called tubercular matter ; and that such 
also was found within the walls of the abscess to a large 
extent. From such a state of things, and what could be 
gleaned of the animal’s origin and history, we are justified in 
concluding her to be of a tubercular diathesis; having 
stamped on her chart of life the disposition in her organic 
functions to produce and deposit from the blood the tuber- 
cular matter above described. 
Although the lungs are usually the seat of the ravages from 
the deposition in this peculiar diathesis, producing phthisis 
pulmonalis, it does not follow that such need always be the 
case ; for experience has shown that, when this idiosyncrasy 
is possessed, the matter may be deposited in a variety of 
situations, and thereby produce phthisis (or wasting), ac- 
companied by a variety of symptoms : for instance, on the 
surface of membranes, both mucous and serous; in the 
substance of the brain or spinal chord, and their me- 
ninges ; in areolar tissue, in glands, and secerning parts. I 
well recollect a case upon the same farm, of a stirk being 
affected with paralysis of one hind limb, inability to retain 
the faeces when in the rectum, incontinence of urine, and loss 
of power in the muscles of the tail. These all came on 
gradually, and nothing gave any relief. From the constant 
flowing of the urine, disease was set up about the vagina, 
excoriation of the skin, &c. The animal became a prey to 
flies and other parasites, wasted away, and was eventually 
destroyed ; when it was found that a deposition of tubercular 
matter had occurred in the theca vertebralis of the lumbar 
portion of the spinal cord. It was placed along the inferior 
and lateral part, so as to press against the motor column of 
the chord, on the side affected, and had caused a good deal 
of disorganisation of structure in that tract ; hence the loss 
of mobility in the limb, and the other symptoms. 
Even the case before us is an illustration in which the 
lungs were not affected ; but, where the deposition, no doubt, 
mainly occurred into the elaborating follicles of one of the 
bronchial lymphatic glands, where the matter accumulated by 
further accretion from the blood, until, by its pressure on 
surrounding vascular textures, it induced inflammation in 
them, resulting in the formation of a fibrinous case around 
the tumour, an effort of nature to envelope and isolate the 
disease, and limit to an extent its ravages ; while the aug- 
mentation and pressure of the tubercular matter within, the 
resulting inflammation and suppuration, the disintegration of 
the structure of the gland, and the softening or solution of the 
gritty matter, progressed. Thus we get a sac whose in- 
