PHTHISIS— LION. 
25 
19th . — The morphine has no effect, although the dose has 
been doubled ; and, hope having quite fled, I wish the scene were 
closed. Continue, however, to give the medicines, and particu- 
larly the morphine, if he can be induced to take them. 
21st . — He was living at 9 o’clock this morning : a quarter of 
an hour afterwards, one of the keepers, passing by, found him 
dead. From his manner of lying, he seemed to have fallen as he 
came out of the closed part of his cage, and to have died without 
a struggle. There was slight inflammation of the liver, but nei- 
ther in the spleen, kidneys, or intestines was there one trace of 
disease. The cause of death was in the chest. There was not 
the slightest ulceration — no vomica, which I thought I had 
discovered ; but considerable emphysema in the smaller lobes. 
With the exception of this emphysema, the whole lungs presented 
one uniform appearance — hepatization, apparently sufficient to 
render them impervious for breathing, but not that perfect cha- 
racter of induration which is often seen. There was much recent 
or existing inflammation of a sub-acute type. Innumerable 
minute tubercles filled the whole of this substance, all of them 
yielding to the slightest pressure, but none of them in a state of 
suppuration. The nature of the disease was plain enough; it 
was phthisis : — but when did it commence ? what was the state 
of the lungs when the illness first began ? when did the tuber- 
cles begin to form ? was their growth arrested in its earliest state 
by the iodine ? The animal had been seriously ill eleven weeks, 
and the tubercles, after all, were small and soft. Did the iodide 
of iron keep up or increase the inflammatory state of the lungs ? 
In one sense, it was necessary ; for when it was omitted, the 
animal refused all food, and there was utter prostration of strength. 
The acetate of morphine had very good effect in quieting the oc- 
casional and periodical spasms. My faith in the hydriodate of 
potash is somewhat shaken. It may protract the disease — it 
may alter its character ; but it did not save the patient, although 
the exhibition of it commenced at an early period of the malady. 
Were the doses sufficiently large? If I have another case, I will 
give double, treble the quantity I have been accustomed to give, 
if I can induce the animal to take it. How much good would 
one or two copious bleedings have done at the beginning ! — but 
that was altogether out of the question. 
vol. x. 
