544 
HA MO NT AND FISCHER ON THE 
and it also follows, from the same reasoning, that animals 
nourished by dry or succulent food will be less exposed to these 
inflammations. But in animals affected by the rot, the blood is 
fluid, and does not coagulate, while those that have been well 
fed have fibrinous high-coloured blood. Then, proceeding step 
by step, we shall be constrained to admit, that inflammation, 
characterized by redness, injection, &c. is most frequent in animals 
whose blood is aqueous and little coloured ! 
The rot, does it occur in elevated countries, and where the 
sheep feed on dry aromatic herbage ? The Bedouins do not 
fear it, while their cattle feed among the sands upon succulent 
healthy plants, and among which a portion of salt is usually 
found ; but if they are forced to encamp on the borders of lakes 
and canals, they are immediately attacked by the disease, and 
which again disappears when they return into the desert. Is it 
possible to produce inflammation by means of aqueous plants 
and water ? Redness, injection, and pain are the characteristics 
of inflammation—can they exist when the blood is aqueous, 
little coloured, fluid, and without fibrine? 
We pray M. D’Arboval to tell us, whether the rot in silk¬ 
worms is also the consequence of gastro-enteritis. 
In order to arrive at the conclusions which he has stated, the 
author of the Dictionary of Veterinary Medicine has been com¬ 
pelled to make facts bend to his pre-conceived opinions and 
views. In the living being he scarcely finds the slightest cha¬ 
racter of inflammation : in the dead body there exists none at 
all. He is, then, forced to find inflammation in the digestive 
passages, or to make one out of the humoural system ; and he 
maintains that all these changes of the fluids are consequent 
on those of the solids. 
It would seem, according to this author, that Chabert, Iluzard, 
Dupuy, and many other authors of the first reputation, have 
written mere nonsense when they classed the rot among the diseases 
of debility fles maladies astheniqnes). We rank not among those 
who are anxious to trace new paths; rather, we are content to 
profit by the observations of our brethren; and we would ask 
M. H. D’Arboval, whether the rot may not be an essential 
disease, dependent on a primitive thorough alteration of the 
blood ? 
The animals remain in the sheepcote, fed on dry provender of 
good quality; and the proprietors derive from them sufficient 
profit in the form of milk, flesh, and wool. These sheep 
are sent into a marsh, or to the borders of a lake or canal; they 
feed on tender plants covered with moisture—their health is 
undermined—they become dispirited, feeble ; in a word, they are 
