WEST OF SCOTLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 429 
pressure on the intercostal spaces causes pain, and as the disease progresses 
the breathing becomes short and laborious, the saliva flows more copiously 
from the mouth, the animal refuses all food for some days, and at last dies 
exhausted. If the cow is in calf, she generally aborts; and if she has gone 
beyond the fourth or fifth month, it is a very unfavorable occurrence. 
During the progress of the disease, if the cow lies, it is almost always on the 
diseased side. There is one symptom I have not mentioned that you will 
discover at a very early stage of the disease, and often when there is no 
suspicion of the animal being affected. By placing the ear on the left side 
of the thorax, the heart will be heard to have a peculiar jerking, grating 
sound, which is accompanied by a throb. By this symptom I have been 
able in an infected byre to discover the disease when the animal was feeding 
and seemingly in her usual health. On auscultating the chest, we find the 
respiratory murmur is somewhat louder at first; in a few hours a distinct 
crepitus is heard. This soon disappears, and we hear a loud tubular sound, 
accompanied by a soft mucous rale; and as the disease advances, there is an 
entire absence of sound generally over the base of one lung, or the greater 
part of both lungs. Percussion elicits a dull sound over the affected parts 
of the lungs, or over the chest generally. The treatment I have generally 
pursued may shortly be stated. I cause the animal, if it can be done, to be 
separated from all the others, and put into a comfortably warm, well-venti¬ 
lated, loose box. Counter-irritation in its most active form to the front 
and sides of the chest; small and repeated doses of Eleming’s tincture of 
aconite, the bowels to be regulated by small doses of laxative medicine and 
nutritious opening food, such as boiled turnip, bran mashes, and, best of 
all, green food, if it possibly can be procured. This I follow, when the 
more active symptoms subside, by tonics, such as the preparations of iron, 
gentian, and ginger; and when much debility exists from the first, or super¬ 
venes afterwards, I give stimulants, such as porter, wdiisky, and other 
alcoholic fluids. On a post-mortem examination, if the disease has run 
its natural course, we find the lungs consolidated throughout, and infiltrated 
with a more or less coagulable substance. The surfaces of the pleurae adhere 
in many places, and contain in the cavities large quantities of serum, 
mixed with flakes of coagulable lymph. The pericardium presents similar 
appearances to the pleurae, and generally its cavity is nearly filled by a dropsi¬ 
cal effusion. The thorax in most cases also contains large quantities of a 
dropsical fluid. This disease I consider to be a specific and very acute 
inflammation of the fibro-serous membranes of the thorax, accompanied 
by a low typhoid type of fever, which does not admit of depletion and 
other reducing means that we generally adopt to check inflammatory action, 
and owing to the important and vital organs being affected, the disease 
pursues its fatal course unchecked, and death is the result in the vast majority 
of animals attacked. 
Mr. Anderson , Y.S., Glasgow, rose and referred to some interesting facts 
which had been observed in Mr. Harvey’s extensive establishment at Port 
Dundas. Mr. Harvey is renowned as the proprietor of the most extensive 
town dairy in Scotland, and necessarily pays great attention to the best 
means of averting excessive losses by such a disease as pleuro-pneumonia. 
Last year he sent to England, and bought 100 young cows. These he at 
once subjected to the influence of contagion by placing them in byres with 
animals severely affected with the disease. By this means many became 
affected; and, indeed, Mr. Harvey believes that all take it, some in a mild 
and almost inperceptible form, and others are fatally attacked. He placed a 
certain number in a very roomy well-ventilated byre, in which abundant 
space was left between the animals; and the conditions seemed most favora¬ 
ble to a healthy condition of the cows. The remainder were huddled 
xxxiv. 32 
