492 
J. C. METER, SR. 
nearest the aperture leading to the swine apartment fell victims 
to the ailment first. There it was where the materia precaus was 
most condensed, therefore more apt to unfold its deadly effect, 
while in the center and further off it was more diffused, thus the 
victims more scattered. 
According to my views, this morbidity belonged in the cate¬ 
gory of dyscrasie of the blood, as intimated in the post mortem 
report, the blood being dark, thick, clammy, with little inclination 
to cogulate—a reddish discoloration of the intima of the posterior 
aorta, and ecchymosis in and on the external surface of the heart. 
This vascular condition was found more or less in the slaughtered 
animals as well as on the cadavers, and might be considered a 
discriminating criterion. 
The tympanitis which was always present, varying in inten¬ 
sity and locality, and the partial dysphagia, indicated unmistakable 
participation of the nervous system. The sanguinous disturbance, 
however, was most conspicuous. To what other morbid function 
may the extreme desire of these animals to rub themselves be at¬ 
tributed than to the sensory organ, caused by alteration of the 
blood. 
Had not A. Westerner found the meninges inflamed in his 
patients, I would feel inclined to doubt my theory, especially since 
I read an article by Prof. Vogel, wherein the cerebrum showed 
very little or no morbidity. 
A few years after having made the above observations I had 
under treatment a cow with genuine spinal meningitis (Genicks- 
krampf) when I found myself induced to change my treatment. 
Therefore I searched the Pepertorium (rich in cattle pathology) 
expecting to find the desired advice. I met with cases correspond¬ 
ing to mine in symptomatology, but the therapeutics were want¬ 
ing. Thus I was not helped out of my dilemma. Nevertheless I was 
repaid, inasmuch as I found the very interesting article referred 
to above, by Prof. Vogel, on “ Spinal meningitis in cattle,” where¬ 
in all the inmates of a stable became affected almost simulta¬ 
neously ; the disease was of four to five days duration without 
febrile reaction. The post mortem examination revealed that 
neither the substance of the brain nor its meninges were much 
