ON INFLAMMATORY FEVER IN CATTLE. 
571 
fiammatory fever” is, that at the outset it is a febrile condition of 
system, induced by causes beforementioned, occurring at a crisis 
when the expenditure of vital power is not commensurate with 
the amount of nutrition the animal receives; and that the fibrinous 
constituent of the blood is so altered in the first place by plethora, 
and in the second place by disease, as not to be efficient in retain- 
ing the corpuscles within their natural channels. But I also am 
of opinion that the disease may occur simply from plethora, with- 
out much fever being present, from the same causes as apoplexy 
and haemorrhagic diseases in general so often take place in such a 
condition of system. If the disease were purely an inflammatory 
one, surely the emphysematous tumours would be more painful 
than we find them, and from the extent the internal organs are 
generally affected, we should, more commonly than we do, recog- 
nize symptoms usually betokening pneumonia, pleurisy, enteritis, 
&c. But no; the cases from beginning to end (of course, with 
some exceptions) present the regular types of fever through their 
various stages; and the rapidity with which they generally termi- 
nate appears due to the removal of the blood corpuscles from the 
circulating fluid, and their deposition throughout the system, in 
tissues and organs whose functions they mechanically interfere 
with, naturally causing decomposition, which results, in some 
situations, in the emphysema so characteristic of the disease. 
Treatment . — There are few diseases, not of a malignant nature, 
the cure of which is so often and so far beyond our power as this. 
Rarely can the veterinarian recover a case, and this may be ex- 
pected from the nature of the disease : he cannot act sufficiently 
early upon the circulatory system to counteract those effects to 
which its condition tends, and towards which it has often far pro- 
ceeded before he is called. The comparative absence of pain leads 
the owner to overlook the malady till it has made irreparable ra- 
vages, and causes him to lose the opportunity of abstracting blood, 
the necessity of which is implied by the nature of the disease, at 
the time such a step would have been beneficial ; for it can be of 
no service when extravasation to a large extent, and necessary 
collapse, have supervened. If treatment be undertaken here, diffu- 
sible stimulants must be first used, which, inducing re-action, blood- 
letting may be employed. Active purgation by saline medicine 
is always advisable, tending, as it always materially does, towards 
allaying fever. If the case is more protracted, and the tumours 
have ulcerated, they must be well exposed and plentifully washed 
with nitric acid, largely diluted, or with nitrate of potass in solu- 
tion. Spt. eth. nit. will be found useful to administer internally. 
If recovery progresses, there is mostly great tendency to diarrhoea, 
or even dysentery, which must be guarded from proceeding to an 
