174 
S A NG U I N EQU S APOPLEXY. 
hind parts of the brain are gorged with blood. The cerebral sub- 
stance and that of the spinal marrow shews no material alteration. 
The circulatory Apparatus. — The pericardium sometimes con- 
tains a tolerably large quantity of blood, mixed with serosity. In 
all cases the right ventricle of the heart contains a great deal of 
more or less coagulated black blood — the left one not so much : the 
auricles also have their share. The fluid, which is almost always 
coagulated, gives to the external surface of these cavities a mar- 
bled hue of black and white, resembling gangrene. The vense 
cavae, the jugulars, the venae portae, and all their ramifications 
through the organs, are filled with black coagulated blood, in the 
form of cylindrical clots, lacerable with difficulty, and which throw 
up the arborescent appearance in strong relief throughout the or- 
ganic tissue. The internal membrane of the heart and the large 
arteries retain their natural colour. 
Such are, in general, the morbid lesions that present them- 
selves a short time after the death of sheep that have died of dis- 
ease of the blood ; but when the post-mortem examination is de- 
layed the body swells, decomposes, and rapidly putrefies. The 
flesh, the tissues, and, in fact, all the organs, reddened by this san- 
guineous effusion, become vermilion on being exposed to the air. 
The coagulated blood in the vessels alone preserves its consistence 
and its black hue. 
Nature and Etiology of the Disease . — Although not long ago 
many authors of high standing have given the names of gastro- 
enteritis , white, putrid, typhoid fever, in sheep, &c., to the disease 
of the blood that I have been describing, I am far from agreeing 
with them. Like M. Delafond, I consider that this disease has its 
seat in the circulatory system ; and, making use of his very words, 
I should say, “ that it is the result of a too great proportion of glo- 
bules, fibrine and albumen in the blood, and a too small proportion 
of water.” In order to prove the validity of this assertion, let us 
recall to mind those morbid phenomena which take place in the or- 
ganization from the commencement of the disease until the death 
of the patient. Thus, in the first period, we have a manifest injec- 
tion of the capillary vessels generally ; an injection which out- 
wardly betrays itself by the redness of the skin, and of the visible 
portions of the mucous membranes. Secondly, a thick coagulable 
blood, which rapidly forms itself into firm, dense, and highly-co- 
loured clots, and in which the serosity is, in a manner speaking, 
imprisoned. Afterwards, or at the second stage, this rich and 
abundant blood, on account of the plethora of the vessels in which 
it is congested, effuses itself over the organs, spreads upon and 
penetrates them ; then it is that the phenomena of decomposition 
ensues. At the third period or stage the constituent elements of 
