14 
Pathological Contributions. 
SPLENIC APOPLEXY. 
Since the publication of our last number we have received 
information of the appearance of this fatal disease in several 
and widely separated parts of the country. In every out¬ 
break the disease has proved very fatal, and in many it 
appears to have been connected with the remarkably mild 
and humid state of the weather, which has led to the cattle 
being kept in the pastures far beyond the ordinary period. 
The pathology of splenic apoplexy is not well understood, 
nor the operation of the proximate causes which give origin to 
the malady. The immediate pathological change seems to con¬ 
sist of a fermentative action being induced in the blood, which 
is supposed by some pathologists to depend upon the existence 
, of bacteria in the circulating fluid. The term splenic apoplexy 
is likely to induce a belief that the malady essentially 
consists of a morbid condition of the spleen, and that death is 
due to a suspension of the function of this organ. On the 
contrary, the engorged state of the vessels of the spleen would 
appear to have little influence in causing the death of the 
animal, and to be merely the effect of a changed state of the 
blood. Death seems rather to depend on cerebral impair¬ 
ment. Curative measures are for the most part unavailing, 
but future attacks in a herd may sometimes be prevented by 
the daily use of antiseptics, particularly the hyposulphite of 
soda. 
DEATH OF LAMBS FROM FILARI^ BRON- 
CHIALIS. 
Great losses are being sustained by many farmers from 
the wide diffusion of the Jllaria broncliialis. Contrary to 
what ordinarily occurs, many of the animals give no evidence 
of bronchial disease, by a quick breathing, cough, prostration 
of strength, wasting, &c., lasting for several weeks, but die 
after about two or three days’ illness from active congestion 
of the lungs. It is more than probable that the humid state 
of the weather has much to do with the modification of the 
pathological changes. Such animals in addition to a general 
congestion of the lungs, present a nodulated condition of 
