44 
THE EDINBURGH VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
obstruction. So completely closed was the passage along the 
oesophagus in some cases, that not even the most mucilaginous 
fluids could be swallowed, and any attempts to administer them 
were attended by expressions of intense pain, and coughing threat- 
ening suffocation, so that the cows were compelled to remain with- 
out food. This, in addition to the existence of pneumonia, neces- 
sarily induced great debility, and placed any curative attempts 
under great disadvantage. The means of relief lay, therefore, 
chiefly in external applications. Some of the cases recovered, but 
most of them terminated fatally. The duration of cases of this 
nature was short, from two to four days being the usual period of 
their continuance. 
With respect to epizootic pleuro pneumonia in its usual form, 
it may be observed that, although only about one-fifth of the cases 
reported recovered, yet, as the disease very frequently occurred in 
animals that were in good condition, the owners generally sold 
them instead of incurring the risk of medical treatment. The cause 
of the great fatality of this disease appears to lie chiefly in its ex- 
tremely insidious mode of attack, which leads owners of cattle to 
suspect little is amiss, until structural derangement of the lungs 
has run on to an extent that will not admit of remedy. This 
change of structure is caused by an effusion of lymph and serum, 
especially the former, which causes such a striking characteristic of 
the disease, and the peculiar tendency to its formation appears to 
depend on the sub-acute character of the inflammatory action ; for 
it is well known that inflammation, not too intense in its nature, is 
most favourable to the effusion of lymph, and, generally, it is not 
until the disease has existed some time, and some of its conse- 
quences taken place, that the practitioner is called in. 
As illustrating the similarity of operation of predisposing and 
exciting causes of disease among animals of the same species, it 
may be mentioned, that about the time when pleuro-pneumonia 
was most prevalent in the dairies, the dromedary at the Royal 
Zoological Gardens became ill, and died of the same disease. In 
consequence of want of proper care on the pait of the keeper, no 
assistance was rendered to the poor animal until within a few days 
of her death. The symptoms presented, when first seen, were 
exactly similar to those in neat cattle, and on dissection her chest 
contained a great quantity of serum. 
As two of the cases of “ tetanus” are considered convalescent, we 
shall not say any thing respecting them until next month. 
William Dick. 
