SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY ASSOCIATION. 883 
frequently found than not; this we can easily understand 
when we consider the perverted condition of the nervous 
functions generally, and more especially so if death has been 
produced bv choking from the entrance of foreign matter into 
the trachea. 
Hysteritis is seldom seen. Slight congestion of the vessels 
of the uterus, as it is natural to expect, will often he present. If 
life has been prolonged for over thirty-six or forty-eight hours 
after the attack, the muscles will be of a very dark colour, and of 
a peculiarly iridescent appearance. I am informed by Mr. 
Rutherford, the Inspector of the Fountain Bridge Abattoir, that 
he always finds this change very apparent: and when we look at 
the non-oxidized condition of the blood we can easily comprehend 
that such is the case. The brain or the spinal cord, when care¬ 
fully examined, will often afford evidences of distinct lesions 
having taken place, either in their meninges or within their 
structure. In violently acute cases we nearly always find clots of 
blood at the base of the brain, pressing on the medulla oblongata, 
or if this is not so, we have either extensive venous congestion 
with serous effusion, arterial impaction, or the presence of distinct 
emboles within the arteries. But our search must not be of a 
superficial character only, we must lay open every portion of the 
encephalon and examine it minutely, and we shall, in many in¬ 
stances, be rewarded by finding one or more clots of blood, or 
softening, with a brittle or atrophied condition of the coats of the 
arteries, the two latter conditions probably being the result of 
previous disease, or we may find effusions of serum into the ven¬ 
tricles. 
I have thought that I have detected a greater amount of vas¬ 
cularity in the vasa nervosum sometimes in post-mortem examina¬ 
tions of such cases. 
Treatment .—As we have several w r ell-marked stages of the 
disease, so must we adopt remedial measures according to the 
stage in which we find our patient when called upon to treat it, 
for it would be simply absurd to lay down one rule which should 
apply to every stage of the disease. 
If we are called upon when an attack is threatened, i. e. when 
the very earliest premonitory symptoms are presented (unfortu¬ 
nately, this is seldom the case), we must have recourse imme¬ 
diately to such treatment as is indicated by the circumstances or 
condition of the patient. If we find constipation as a probable 
eccentric cause, we must endeavour, boldly and promptly, to 
overcome it by administering a full cathartic dose of medicine, 
not simply Epsom salts or sulphur, but croton, calomel, and aloes 
followed by linseed or castor oil, as required. Epsom salts only 
nauseate and tend by their refrigerating properties, to paralyse 
