CAMELS WITH SOUTH AFGHAN EXPEDITION, 1878 - 9 , 711 
and interference with natural functions had prevented its 
being carried further on for the purpose of being properly 
digested and prepared for assimilation. In one case only 
did I find that the liver participated; in that one, however, 
tubercles existed, which would be the result of disordered 
circulation. 
The deductions to be drawn from the foregoing are that 
the want of nutrition produced debility, and such deteriora¬ 
tion of blood as to prevent the lungs, which it has been ex¬ 
plained are so intimately associated with the circulation, 
performing their office properly, the result ultimately being 
absolute disorganisation of those organs themselves. In ad¬ 
dition to this the paralysed condition of the digestive organs 
had been sympathised with by the respiratory, as we have 
seen they are capable of doing through their connection by 
means of the pneumogastric system of nerves. Practically, 
want of proper food, accompanied by exposure, so debilitated 
the camels as to predispose them to disease, and the severe 
cold, together with trying changes of atmosphere, excited 
disease of the lungs of an acute or quickly killing character; 
latterly the continued want of proper nutrition, although 
not associated with extreme exposure, induced chronic or 
more lingering disorder, which in many animals, although 
they were for a time equal to a certain amount of exertion, 
caused death when they were called upon for extra efforts, 
and the rate of mortality amongst them, exactly correspond¬ 
ing to the length of the marches, confirms the idea. Mr. 
Kettlewell suggests that the chronic diseases of the lungs 
might be of a scorbutic (scurvy) character, the result of de¬ 
praved and impure blood through a deficiency of vegetable 
acids. A reference to the nature of scurvy in the human 
subject favours the notion; sailors, when deprived of 
vegetables at sea, are prone to scurvy; so may our camels 
have suffered from a similar deprivation in Afghanistan. 
One remarkable result of my post-mortem investigations was 
that the pleura or covering of the lungs and chest was in no 
instance involved. In most animals this membrane is nearly 
always included when the lungs themselves are attacked, 
and in this particular instance, where the chest was so 
especially exposed, it could hardly have been anticipated 
that it should have escaped; but such appears to be a pecu¬ 
liarity in the camel, for my personal observation was imme¬ 
diately endorsed on my mentioning the fact to Mr. Kettle- 
well, who had himself noticed the apparent anomaly. It 
will be gathered from the foregoing that disease of the lungs, 
then, was pre-eminently the most fatal; that some died of 
