59i 
NOTES ON SO-CALLED SLOW FEVER. 
sound. Then comes the second stage: this effusion of the per¬ 
icardium does not become acute, but assumes a chronic form 
and remains in this state until hydropericardium and dropsy in 
general of the system carry off the animal by exhaustion. 
: ometimes the y die in the first stage, but not often, and death 
is caused by the symptoms I have given. The second stage, and 
t is ls the P erl °d at which I am generally called, especially in 
the summer when the animals are at pasture. The owner in- 
foims me he has a case of slow fever he wants me to treat. 
The animal is very dull and weak, glass-eye, drags its feet as it 
walks, and the flesh seems to melt off its bones, and in three 
weeks it is a walking skeleton; they generally eat all kinds of 
ood fairly well, but in small quantities. I have seen several 
eat ravenously, bowels act about natural, fseces covered with 
slime, food well digested, and no bad smell, and are the right ' 
color, urine high-colored and loaded with salts of urea, and in 
small quantity. Respiration a little quicker than natural, mu¬ 
cous membrane very pale and anaemic, regurgitation of blood in 
jugular vein very plainly seen, pulse 75 to 100 per minute, tem¬ 
perature 94 0 to 106 U F., the extremities are warm and cold by 
tums, an d are not swollen until approaching dissolution. I 
have seen animals drop dead while eating, and to appearances 
been doing and eating well, and in one case light work the day 
before he died. There is no tendency to biliousness in horses 
or cattle like human beings when suffering from malaria, and in 
no case can I remember any symptom of an excess of bile on 
the system in any animal. Third and last stage , which a 
speedy dissolution is to be expected at anytime. First you no¬ 
tice a swelling of the legs, then sheath in the male, and mammary 
gland in the female often extending forward between the front 
legs, and then various complications set in and appetite fails, 
which hitherto has beenfairly good. I have seen the same animal 
suffering from hydropericarditis, hydrothorax and septic poison¬ 
ing at the same time, but the majority of animals die before they 
reach this stage. There seems to be a predisposition to pleurisy 
if exposed in any way. They generally stand until they die; 
