IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
529 
Species 2.— Diseases caused by the separation of the constitu¬ 
ent elements of the globules, with sanguino-serous efnsion into the 
cellular substance of the organs. Diastathemie (haarciaig separa¬ 
tion, and atfxci blood), separation of the blood. The author of the 
memoir has described under this name a remarkable alteration of 
the blood of some animals, in which the fibrine and albumen of the 
{^lobules separate themselves during life from the colouring matter, 
an alteration which he attributes to excess of work, or to bad or 
insufficient food. Accordingly, as these causes have acted sepa¬ 
rately or simultaneously, and also according to the constitution of 
the individuals, diastathemia develops itself more or less promptly 
with peculiar characters which M. Delafond has well observed, 
and which have led him to distinguish two species of it, the mild 
and the acute. 
The symptoms which indicate the distinction between these two 
alTectioris are described by the author with the minutest degree of 
care. We will state them as briefly as possible. 
At the commencement of the disease the horses—for the disease 
mostly belongs to them—are dull, and move slowly, and the per¬ 
spiration readily breaks out during their work. The conjunctival 
and the pituitary membranes are dark-coloured. The vertebral 
column is considerably bowed. The pulse is small and feeble. 
Soon afterwards a cold or hot oedema appears at the inferior part 
of the testicles, which are drawn up and let down every moment. 
Presently the cords become enlarged and painful, and yet the pa¬ 
tients preserve their appetite and digest their food readily. Their 
blood is of a red-brown colour. When it is collected in a trans¬ 
parent vase, it may be observed that the fibrino-albuminous and 
cruoric elements separate themselves with astonishing rapidity : 
the white clot is twice as large as the black one, and the serum 
predominates over both the one and the other. In proportion as 
the malady, which is almost always fatal, progresses, the horses 
become evidently and rapidly thin, and the alteration in the blood 
is more evident. At the expiration of eight or ten days the pa¬ 
tients are usually dead. 
Morbid lesions are found throughout the whole of the circulatory 
a[)paratus. The blood is composed of large clots in all the prin¬ 
cipal vessels, especially in the venae cavac, tlie right cavities of the 
is a multiplication of disease, leading to a great deal of repetition and of con¬ 
fusion. Instead of taking a few broad morbid characters of universal occur¬ 
rence, and considering many minor circumstances as accidental additions 
or omissions, almost the slightest variation of symjUoms or character is de¬ 
signated as a new disease. 'I'his is very pu/-/.Iiiig to us, and, if we dared to 
form an opinion, woidd occasion, now and then, a little confusion in our no¬ 
tions of our neighbours* pathology.—[Y.] 
