LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 141 
cally) on the subject, as to render i t worthy of your special attention 
for the short time it will occupy in reading. 
I must now ask you to proceed carefully with me to consider 
the disease we are met together this evening to investigate, viz.: 
. i 
Inflammatory Fever, or Black Quarter. 
This is without a doubt one of the most important diseases that 
can be offered for the consideration of our profession. It is a well 
known and very prevalent disease amongst our young stock, 
generally attacking those from six to eighteen months old, and is 
occasionally observed in aged cows; but these cases are very rare. 
It is variously known among agriculturists in different localities as 
“Black Leg, Black Quarter, Joint Felon, Quarter Ill, Quarter Evil, 
Blood Striking,” &c., all of which denote the peculiar character of 
the disease which is usually characterised by lameness of one leg, 
followed by swelling and gangrene or mortification of the part 
affected. 
Black Quarter must be regarded as essentially a disease of the 
blood, and may be defined to be “ Congestive typhus accompanied 
with a local determination,” the same disorganized blood exuding 
through the coats of the blood-vessels and becoming lodged in the 
cellular tissues in the neighbourhood of the congestion, whether 
subcutaneous, intermuscular, or internal. The vital fluid has 
become altered in quality, and too highly charged with the elements 
of nutrition. Hence, the balance, so to speak of the nutritive 
elements is destroyed, and the waste of the system does not progress 
in proportion to the supply of the nutritious materials. From this 
cause there is an abnormal accumulation of both the red corpuscles 
and fibrin of the blood, which becomes deteriorated in quality, and 
consequently unfit to carry on the purposes of life. This disease is 
considered by some authors to be of an inflammatory character, and 
thus giving it the name of inflammatory fever; but this is disproved 
of by its sudden onset and rapid progress, and especially by the 
absence of inflammatory appearances, which are only developed in 
those cases which survive for several days, and in which the 
extravasated blood, acting as a foreign body, excites inflammation 
in the living tissues with which it lies in contact. 
All investigations that have been carefully conducted, point 
directly to the conclusion, that the blood of animals affected with 
this disease is deficient in the most important element, fibrin, there¬ 
fore slow to coagulate—the red corpuscles being separated into 
integrant parts without undergoing any chemical action—this con¬ 
dition of the blood also occurs in cattle suffering under the disease 
known as Red or Black Water. 
f 
Carnes of Black Quarter . 
The predisposing causes of this disease are according to the 
proceeding views, anything that induced too rapid a growth in the 
young animal, such as rich and succulent food, the natural result 
