ON CHOLERA IN DOxMESTICATED ANIMALS. 223 
in the morbid discharge, a consequence of an irritable membrane; 
the secretion varying according to the state of excitement in the 
secreting membrane. The state of the membrane will also be 
regulated, in some measure,according to the discharge; because, 
if that is very copious, it operates as a powerful means of depleting 
the system: there will therefore be, in most or all instances, 
only the effects of the excitement left on the membrane, instead 
of increased vascularity, because the discharge (the depletion) 
may reduce even the inffarnmatory action and appearances from 
which it at first sprung ; so that a softening of the mucous mem¬ 
brane, which is an effect of the irritation, may be all that is left in 
those cases where the discharge is copious. If, then, the discharge 
is so powerful as to reduce the inflamed state of this part, it must, 
at the same time, both by drawing the fluids to the interior of the 
body, and at once discharging them, as it were, wholesale, rapidly 
P roduce a shrinking of the features and a haggard countenance. 
must also remark, that, by the great increase in the activity of 
this membrane as an eraunctory, there will be such a deficiency 
of the blood, that the kidneys, which at all times seem to regulate 
its quantity and quality, will have nothing to secrete from; there 
being, in consequence of the other drain, a want of fluids in the 
system, and hence the absence of the secretion of urine, and the 
contracted state of the bladder. 
By referring the disease to the mucous membrane of the small 
intestines, we can still further explain the symptoms which oc¬ 
cur, because it is well known that irritation in the bowels, in 
other cases, produces derangement of the nervous system. 
Hence we find convulsions in dogs from the effects of worms in 
the small intestines, and many other causes. Indeed, it is scarcely 
necessary for me to illustrate the circumstance of derangement 
of the bowels, causing affections of the brain and nervous 
system; and if that is once admitted, then, I say, it is by no 
means surprising to find spasms produced in the extremities as 
an effect of derang-ement of the bowels. 
That this is an effect and not a cause of disease of the bow'- 
els, I think, is clearly proved by the circumstance of the diar¬ 
rhoea being the common precursor, ** the premonitory symp¬ 
tom,’’ of the more formidable stages of the disease. 
Again, as an effect of the system being robbed of the vital 
fluid by the purging, and the tendency to syncope consequently 
induced by the operation of intestinal irritation on the brain, 
and the disturbance produced by the cramp, we are enabled not 
only to account for the blueness of the skin, but also for many 
of the post-mortem appearances. 
When a muscle is thrown into considerable action, as we may 
