4 New Disease of Cattle. 
237 
diagnose the onset of the affection by a falling off in condition 
before the diarrhoea had set in. As a rule, when once the 
diarrhoea had begun, it persisted until the end, the rate of loss 
of condition being proportional to the profuseness of the 
diarrhoea. Beyond these two symptoms, emaciation and 
diarrhoea, there was never any marked disturbance of the 
normal functions until near the end, and the appetite was 
good throughout. 
Lesions . — The disease is essentially one of the intestines, 
and indeed, the other organs of the body do not usually present 
any alteration apparent to the naked eye. Moreover, the 
alterations within the intestine are themselves not of a very 
conspicuous character, and it is quite certain that they might 
easily be overlooked. As a rule, both large and small intestines 
are involved in the disease, but there is some reason to think 
that the small intestine is primarily affected, and the alterations 
in it are usually most pronounced. As a rule a variable length 
of the small intestine next the stomach is unaffected. Even 
before the intestine is cut its walls give to the fingers an 
impression of abnormal thickness, and when an affected piece 
of bowel is slit open the mucous membrane which lines it is 
found to present an appearance which is most characteristic of 
the disease. The abnormality of this appearance lies in the 
fact that the surface of the membrane shows a coarse wrinkling 
or corrugation. When a cut is made across the bowel wall 
it becomes apparent that it is the internal coat or mucous 
membrane which is increased in thickness. This thickening 
of the mucous membrane is, in the case of the small intestine, 
as a rule, not associated with any very marked inflammatory 
congestion. In the large intestine the thickened and wrinkled 
mucous membrane usually shows more congestion, and not 
infrequently small haemorrhages are present. An important 
point to be noticed is that in none of the cases examined was 
there any ulceration or formation of actual nodules such as 
may be found in genuine tuberculosis of the intestine. 
The lymphatic glands of the intestine, and especially the 
mesenteric group, are perhaps a little larger than normal, but 
here, again, the abnormality is not at all pronounced. When 
the glands are incised their substance appears pale and watery, 
but beyond this the naked eye detects nothing unusual. 
These intestinal and glandular alterations appear to consti- 
tute the whole of the alterations peculiar to the disease. In one 
of the animals examined post mortem a tuberculous lesion was 
found in one of the glands of the chest, but this observation 
does not point to any relationship between tuberculosis and 
the disease now under consideration. The animal simply 
happened to be the subject of both diseases. 
