59S 
EXCISION OF THE HIES. 
On the 28th, the cow was turned, as usual, into a lucern field, 
where she was accustomed to feed. There were no appearances 
of danger, or even of disease about her; but at noon she was 
found dead. 
'‘29M.—She was opened, when the following lesions were ob¬ 
served :—'fhe borders of the wound were covered by a great 
number of maggots, which had buried themselves in the fasciae 
of the muscles. All the surface of the left pleura, in contact 
with the air, was of a deep greyish black. It w'as covered with 
an immense quantity of larvae, which were in clusters, two inches 
thick, at the bottom of the pleural sac. Every portion of the 
costal and pulmonary surface, where these larvae were found, 
was covered with a false membrane, hard, fibrous, yellow, and 
having considerable resemblance to the cervical ligament. It 
was in this pseudo-membranous substance, varying from two to 
three lines in thickness, that the larvae had formed the cells in 
which many of them w'cre contained. There was no fluid in the 
pleural cavity, for the counter-opening was dis])Osed so as to fa¬ 
cilitate the escape of that which wmuld otherwise have accumu¬ 
lated there. It was impossible to dislinguish the pleura, for, 
instead of that membrane, the internal face of the ribs was covered 
with a substance, two lines in thickness, black externally, white 
beneath, and resisting like the oldest fibrous induration. The 
pulmonary surface presented the same aspect. It adhered strong¬ 
ly to the eight first ribs, by means of a fibrous production similar 
to that by which the ribs were covered. An adhesion of the 
same kind was found between the sixth and seventh ribs, ante¬ 
riorly to the wound. 
“A deep longitudinal incision through the whole extent of the 
left lung displayed the lesions of that organ. The diaphragmatic 
surface had lost a little of its ordinary development. We found 
some crepitating lobules not altered in structure, but they were 
surrounded by a serous infiltration of the interlobular cellu¬ 
lar tissue. As we advanced, we found a sudden contraction of 
the lungs, some of the lobules of which were red and hepatized. 
The infiltrated fluid between had increased, and, becoming first 
gelatinous, and then fibrous, extended itself more and more, 
and compressed and strangled the lobules. The parenchymatous 
substance of these offered some fibrous points, which, increasing 
in number, united themselves together, and confounded the lo¬ 
bules with the fibrous structure which had at first surrounded 
them. Other lobules, without offering any of these grey and 
fibrous points, were red, hard, elastic, and homogeneous. Such 
was the state of the left lung immediately behind the heart, and 
where it was scarcely three inches in thickness. 
From a level with the centre of the heart to its anterior extre- 
