REPORTS ON THE INFLUENZA 
544 
symptoms indicate returning good health ; and I have observed 
the disease in some sheep pass through the different stages in a 
very mild manner. It is a curious fact, that, although bleeding 
the ewes in lamb was found to produce premature labour, yet 
the disease or high fever which accompanied it, when bleeding 
had not been resorted to, seemed to produce the same effect 
in many of the ewes, several of which recovered from the disease; 
and this circumstance also obtains among females of the human 
race, as pregnant women attacked by influenza are apt to mis- 
carry, and the flooding is in some cases fatal. 
In many of the sheep that recover from this disease the gene- 
ral debility induced on the system remains for a long time; and 
in all the animals recovering from the disease, the high state of 
fever which accompanies the attack occasions them to lose all 
their wool, which very soon falls off, leaving the poor animals 
perfectly naked. 
This epidemic catarrh differs from the common catarrh in the 
abruptness of its incursion, severity of its symptoms, and the 
rapidity of its transition ; but varies in the severity of its symp- 
toms according to the constitution of the animal, and is liable to 
occur at every season of the year when atmospherical changes 
are prevalent, which variability, I had frequent opportunities of 
observing, is very commonly the case in this colony. 
D ISSECTIONS. 
On the examination of the bodies of the sheep which died 
from this epidemic, the cause of death was found to proceed 
either from inflammation of the immediate membranes of the 
brain, or from pulmonary disease. On examining the brain, the 
dura-mater was healthy; but on laying it back, the arachnoid 
membrane was found with its bloodvessels highly injected, both 
on the convexity of the hemispheres at the decussation of the 
optic nerves, and sometimes even in the interior of the ven- 
tricles. In some cases I observed a quantity of serous fluid 
secreted under the membrane, and a small quantity of similar 
fluid was found effused in the lateral ventricles. Occasionally the 
vessels of the pia-mater were found injected. The tunics of 
the cerebral nerves — especially the olfactory — displayed a beau- 
tiful ramification of injected bloodvessels encircling them. The 
sinuses of the brain were filled with clotted blood. The substance 
of the brain exhibited no trace of diseased structure. The fron- 
tal sinuses displayed indications of intense inflammation having 
existed, a sero-purulent matter being secreted, or the cavity was 
found filled with black coagulated blood. The whole of the 
nasal cavity presented, in every case, the most intense redness, 
