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LETTERS ON PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 
Letter II. 
Dear Sir, — I wrote my letter of yesterday in great haste, my 
time being fully occupied just now in attendance upon patients, and 
making a general dissection of two calves affected with pleuro- 
pneumonia, resulting from suppressed or very imperfectly developed 
scarlatina. 
I said that pleuro-pneumonia was the result of suppressed scar- 
latina. Now, 1 could wish to say that it may also be the result of 
an imperfectly developed attack of scarlatina. It may also appear 
as a sequel to scarlatina ; for we know in that disease there is a 
predisposition to inflammation of the serous membranes, the pleura 
in particular. Wet and cold being applied ere the skin and other 
organs have recovered their tone, may give rise to pleuro-pneu- 
monia. General dissections will throw much light upon this 
hitherto mystified disease. Up to this time the examinations have 
been pretty much confined to the thoracic cavity : such examinations 
need to be general, that is, the various viscera, the integument, the 
glands around the throat, the mouth and fauces, all these ought to 
be looked into, for each in turn will exhibit the previous existence 
of scarlatina. Such I find to be the case in two young calves now 
under dissection. Calves will be found to afford a ready means of 
exploring this disease, and the younger they are the better. If the 
scarlatina has been suppressed or driven in with them, they are 
attacked with severe diarrhoea about the fourth day, and it gene- 
rally proves fatal at the expiration of eight or ten days, sometimes 
more early. I find this disease prevalent just now with calves, 
and from the diarrhoea attending it farmers have regarded it simply 
as a bad form of “ scour.’’ The disease proving fatal in such a 
short space of time with calves, will enable us, I doubt not, to arrive 
at a satisfactory conclusion, both as to the real cause and nature of 
the disease. In these animals we can recognise the very early 
lesions of different tissues, and have not occasion to feel much 
puzzled as to the tissues primarily affected. 
I remain, dear Sir, 
Truly your’s, 
Henry Draper. 
Thursday Morning. 
*** Mr. Draper will find most opportune to his desires Mr. 
Walton Mayer’s “Few Remarks” on the subject, one so vitally 
interesting to us all. — E d. Yet. 
