532 
DISEASES OF THE BLOOD 
and pulmonary irauspiration, and irom the excrementitial matter, 
which is often of a bloody character. The fixed virus resides in 
the blood, and in the serous material which the tissues of sick 
animals contain. The contagious property of these liquids, long 
since known, has been demonstrated anew by many experiment¬ 
alists, especially by MM. Dupuy, Barthelemy, and Leuret, who 
have made some important researches on this subject. 
Ptlohtmie foudroyante appears all at once, and without any 
precursor signs. It is accompanied by symptoms which denote its 
serious nature, and it always terminates in death. Although the 
whole mass of blood becomes diseased, yet the effects of the septic 
principle are manifested especially on the vascular organs, as the 
lungs, the brain, the liver, the spleen, &c., and they produce a 
crowd of varied symptoms. The animals often die within a few 
hours of the first attack. It is rarely that they pass over the 
second day; and the blood drawn from the jugular of an animal 
affected with this malady is of a deep black colour; it is also ropy, 
and runs slowdy. It is one or two degrees below the usual tempe¬ 
rature of the atmosphere, and stains the hands deeply with red. 
When it becomes completely cold it still remains liquid, or is but 
half coagulated, and readily transforms itself into a species of 
thick purulent matter of a black colour. When exposed to the 
air, at an ordinary temperature, for about five or six hours, it begins 
to exhale an infectious odour, Avhich denotes the principle of pu¬ 
trefaction. If, by means of washing, we endeavour to separate 
the fibrine Avhich this blood contains, we obtain only a small pro¬ 
portion of this organic matter, under the form of minute granula¬ 
tions. The colouring matter is united with a small quantity of 
serum, and forms with it a black fluid resembling Indian ink 
mixed with a little water. 
The carcasses of these animals become putrid remarkably quickly, 
and in a few hours after death a variety of infectious gaseous pro¬ 
ducts escape from every part of the body. Effusions of blood 
beneath the skin, forming black patches of different sizes, are ob¬ 
served in every organ, and particularly in the vascular tissues. The 
blood which fills the right cavities of the heart is liquid; that in 
the venoe cavm is black, liquid, ropy, and foetid, and the vessels 
which contain it are stained red by the deposition of the colouring 
matter. 
Although pelohemia is considered as, generally speaking, in¬ 
curable, the author recommends that it should be combatted on its 
first appearance b}’ tincture of quinine, the water of Rabel, and 
camphorated spirit Less powerful applications would be of no 
avail. 
As to carhyncyh; ■' p'Pohrmia, it bears considerable analogy to 
