248 
HiEMATOSEPS I S, vulgo BLACKLEG. 
By W. A. Cox, jun., M.R.C.V.S., Ashbourne. 
During last spring I was called to attend a cow, which 
the messenger said was exceedingly lame in the near fore 
leg, the limb being swollen from the knee upwards, and 
that on pressing it a rustling sound was produced, as if it 
contained air. Although I went immediately, I did not 
arrive in time to see the cow alive. 
A post-morte?n examination was made, and on cutting 
through the skin a little above the knee an escape of fetid 
gas took place. The parts above the joint, extending up 
to the humero-radial articulation, were in a sphacelitic con- 
dition, and black in colour. 
The cow was five nears old, and had been bred on the 
place. She was also in fair condition. 
On my remarking upon the singularity of so old an ani- 
mal being the subject of this disease, several of the by- 
standers told me that a short time since a cow, seven years 
old , belonging to a person in the village, and which had been 
attended by my father, had died of the malady. Within 
these last few days a second animal, also five years old, be- 
longing to one of my employers, has likewise died from 
the same cause. 
[Cases of hsematosepsis usually occur in young stock, and 
generally in those which are under eighteen months of age. 
Well-bred animals, and such as are in high condition, are its 
most frequent victims ; and among these, in some parts of the 
country, the malady may be said to rage as a pest. We have, 
however, not unfrequently seen it in animals which were 
neither well bred nor had been well kept ; but then it has 
usually been associated with a recent and sudden change in 
the quality of the food : the giving, for example, of highly nu- 
tritious provender in large abundance. Our experience would 
lead us to conclude that its danger is in proportion to the age of 
the animal, being greatest in the young. It is evidently a di- 
sease of the blood, but its true pathology is somewhat obscure. 
In reply to our inquiries respecting these cases in old 
animals, we have received the subjoined communication from 
Mr. Cox, sen. 
“ The disease among cattle, and more especially among 
young ones, called by our authors black leg, garget soeed, 
