THE LATE EPIDEMIC DISEASES AMONG HOUSES, &c. 279 
in particular by commencing in the air-passages. The effusion, 
however, in the pericardium would not, in that case, be so great, 
neither would it be so regular as your’s appears to be. 
If I am correct in the view l have taken of the nature and 
progress of the disease, I think you will at once perceive why 
some variety of treatment will be required at particular stages of 
the malady, and also why, in many cases, the disease must prove 
fatal, from the progress it has made before aid is called in. 
First, it is frequently fatal, because inflammation in the serous 
membranes, unless checked in the earliest stage, speedily runs on 
to an effusion of lymph and serum ; and this, when it has taken 
place, instead of being checked or removed by bleeding and the 
other means necessary and efficacious in preventing it from taking 
place, is rapidly increased by those very means, and that nearly 
in proportion to the activity with which they are adopted in the 
advanced stages of the effusion. 
In the second place, as the effusion into the pericardium most 
commonly proceeds from the inflammation having attacked the 
portion of that organ which is reflected over the heart (rather than 
from the inner surface of the bag), and almost as a matter of 
course extends to the substance of the heart itself, the treatment 
will, in proportion to the degree in which the heart is involved, 
require a more careful diagnosis, and, at the same time the diffi- 
culty of treatment is increased. 
In the third place, the difficulty of the treatment will be in- 
creased by the inflammation having, at the same time, or nearly 
so, attacked the bronchi, and afterward extended to the cellular 
tissue of the lungs. 
A disease which is essentially an inflammation attacking 
organs of so much importance in the animal economy must al- 
ways be attended with great danger, and this is much increased 
by the symptoms being, in the early stages, rather obscure, or, at 
least, not such as are likely to attract the attention of the ordinary 
attendants on cattle; consequently the disease has generally made 
considerable progress before the veterinary surgeon is called to 
the case, who must modify his treatment according to the stage 
in which he finds the disease, or the particular parts which it has 
attacked. 
The symptoms you mention appear to me to be those of the 
disease in its advanced stage and more complicated form ; but I 
think you will learn, if you have an opportunity of examining 
an affected stock, that some of the cattle are a little off their feed- 
ing — that their respiration is somewhat restricted — that there is a 
kind of fixed contraction of the muscles of the abdomen and of 
the ribs, or the animal has a lank collapsed appearance. The 
