ON PERIPNEUMONIA IN CATTLE. 
578 
When this is not the case, the disease comes on much more 
rapidly. 
Neither percussion nor auscultation is of much avail in an- 
nouncing the invasion of the disease. But, whenever the disease 
has made some advances, these means are not without their 
utility in informing us which side of the chest is affected or 
which the most so, and what progress the disease is making, or, 
on the contrary, whether a recovery is likely. And especially 
are these means of service, after apparent recovery, to enable us to 
ascertain how large a portion may be impermeable, and whether 
it be to an extent to render the animal unfit for work. The im- 
portant point to be come at is, to determine if the air penetrates 
or not into the minute and innumerable cells of which the lung 
is composed. 
An alarming symptom, and one that betokens a fatal termina- 
tion, consists in gradual distention of the belly. Flatulent col- 
lections may take place at the commencement of the disorder, 
while the animal continues to feed, but these soon become dis- 
sipated. When they make their appearance suddenly, they 
give no cause for apprehension. The meteorisation, of which I 
am speaking, is different inasmuch as it comes on late in the 
disease, at a period when for a length of time the animal has 
refused his food, and as the tympanitis of the belly increases by 
little and little without ever diminishing. The country people 
were well acquainted with this. They told me that of one 
hundred beasts that had it, not one was saved. Many beasts, 
however, died without evincing any meteorisation; so that it 
was by no means constantly present. 
I may also say as much of the odematous swellings under the 
belly, and of the swelling and pain of the joints, as well indeed 
of the offensive smell caused by the expired air ; not of the air 
coming from the nose, but of that issuing from the mouth. 
I have spoken already of the oedematous swellings of the 
breast and inferior part of the neck : these do not make their 
appearance until the disease has considerably advanced. 
The swellings and pains of the joints are no doubt infrequent; 
nevertheless, they are not less worthy our attention on account 
of the nature of the membrane diseased. The synovial capsules, 
be they tendinous or articular, having the greatest analogy of 
texture with the pleural membranes, which always contain a 
great deal of fluid, I wish to know whether disease of the syno- 
vial capsules did not manifest itself in the epizootic under notice. 
In shewing me one of his cows which had perfectly recovered, 
and was very fat, M. Majouene, farmer at Aurillac, remarked 
to me, that this cow had been lame for two months during her 
