PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
189 
existence of epidemic catarrh ; and veterinary surgeons, from this 
simple fact, appear hitherto to have regarded the former as an oc¬ 
casional or accidental termination of the latter rather than as a 
disease presenting specific characters, which it unquestionably does. 
Epidemic catarrh is one state—typhoid pneumonia another; and 
although the two, when observed, are frequently associated, yet 
their attendant phenomena are so very different, that careful 
observation is all that is required to establish the truth of what I 
state in the mind of every one at all interested in the question. 
During the last five or six years I have seen a great deal of this 
affection, and the cases which I now give present, as a whole, 
about as clear a history of its commencement, progress, duration, 
and termination (in such cases as end fatally), as, perhaps, could be 
selected. At the time I was called to the first case, we find the 
disease in the transitory state, or passing, as it were, from its first 
to its second stage ; this is clearly shewn, if we closely consider 
the morbid phenomena presented. On the 23d, the respiratory 
murmur is subdued; mucous rale soft. On the morning of the 
24th, the murmur is more dead, particularly on the right side; 
mucous rale louder, and pulse at 70. In the evening of the 
same day, we find the disease has reached its second stage ; and 
a portion, at least, of the right lung become solid, which is marked 
by absence of murmur, and increased difficulty and soreness when 
coughing. On the morning of the 26th, we have the veiled puff 
and fetor of the breath, which symptoms are clearly indicative of 
softening of the lung, attended with decomposition; while in the 
evening this is more clearly proved by the discharge of yeast-like 
matter from the nostrils. On the 27th we have the metallic tinkle ; 
which again is the unerring sign of further decomposition and 
excavation in the pulmonic substance*. Thus we find cause and 
effect so closely allied one to the other, that in no other case, per¬ 
haps, could its progress have been more clearly marked. At the 
period I was called to the second case, we find the disease more 
advanced. The absence of the respiratory murmur over at least 
one-third of the entire lung of the right side proves that portion 
of it to have reached its second stage, or to have become solid, 
* For a very instructive case, in which all these states were associated, see 
Veterinarian for 1841, page 177 : the case is given by Mr. Copeman. It 
is named “ Malignant Epidemicand it is the only case I have been enabled 
to find recorded in The Veterinarian from 1841 to 1848 inclusive. 
Arrange these associations thus :— 
Asthenic Enteritis 
Asthenic Gastro-Enteritis 
Asthenic Pleuritis 
Asthenic Bronchitis. 
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VOL. XXII. 
