ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
769 
of alcohol from beet-roots, who fattened from 80 to 100 head 
of cattle on the residue of his distillery, the animals being 
permanently kept in the sheds. On the 2l3rd of November, 
1868, the malady suddenly broke out, and in less than twenty- 
five minutes one ox and two cows died. The author, who 
was sent for immediately, had neither time to diagnose 
the malady or to devise a remedy before the malady de¬ 
clared itself on several other animals in the same shed. 
He at once ordered the remainder of the animals, sixty- 
two in number, to be removed out of the sheds; he had 
then time to attend to the six attacked, two of which 
were menaced with as sudden a dissolution as the three first. 
At the sight of the vital depression of these animals, a 
thought struck him that they might be threatened with syn- 
copy, it being an admitted fact that ruminants in general 
are not endowed with much vital reaction, and that they un¬ 
expectedly die without a moment^s notice. A quantity of 
vinegar being at hand, it was ordered to be used in friction 
on the head and other parts of the body, until more active 
remedies could be procured. Bleeding was also resorted to, 
and though one animal supported it to the amount of two 
litres, in the next hardly was the vein opened than death 
appeared imminent. After the application of about a litre 
of vinegar to a cow of the Britanny breed, she began to 
shake her head, though at first she had taken no notice of 
it, and she soon recovered. To another which had fallen, 
notwithstanding the efforts of the men to keep her on her 
legs, the affusion and frictions of the vinegar which had just 
begun to be applied were continued for a quarter of an hour. 
As soon as she felt the effect of it she got up, walked a few 
paces, and began to feed. As to the remaining four, as soon 
as they began to defend themselves against the application of 
the vinegar, they were cured. 
The first symptom of the malady is a collapse, against 
which the animal instinct resists till the last moment, to pre¬ 
vent the relaxing of the muscles and maintain the standing 
position, the act of lying down being generally followed by 
speedy death. The eyes are sunk and weeping, the muzzle 
icy cold; paleness of the mucous membrane ; pulse imper¬ 
ceptible ; while the beatings of the heart are just perceptible 
at times, and at others abrupt. 
The autopsy presented a singular contrast, viz. the mucous 
membrane in general was pale and bloodless, while at the 
anus it w^as of a dark red; there was no discharge from the 
nostrils, but from the anus there was a sanguineous discharge 
resembling iron rust; the vulva in the cows was of the same 
