CATTlE DISEASE IN CHINA. 
135 
surface studded with small circular ulcers of some depth 
which appeared to mark the situation of the solitay glands. 
The position of these glands was indicated here and there in 
many cases by a raised blue or purple spot about the size of 
a No. 2 shot, in the centre of which the small orifices of the 
glands were frequently to be seen. A peculiar appearance, 
somewhat resembling the special lesion of Enteric Fever, 
was noted in a few cases ; in these the cavities of the glands 
were filled with a cheesy looking substance which protruded 
from their mouths appearing as yellow spots on the mucous 
surface. I have frequently noticed bluish black points, of 
about the size of a large pin's head and of tolerably firm con¬ 
sistency, partially adherent to the surface of the lining of the 
bowel, and have regarded these, correctly or incorrectly, as 
the extruded contents of the glands. The special appearances 
in connexion with the intestinal glands were not always ob¬ 
served. So far as my observations go they are confined to 
the solitary glands. 
The Liver , spleen and kidneys appeared to be healthy in 
every case. The contents of the gall bladder are occasionally 
altered in colour—from the natural clear green to a dirty 
yellow. The nervous centres were never examined. The 
blood in everv case of advanced disease was fluid, and dark 
in colour. 
Some observers have described peculiar appearances re¬ 
vealed by the microscope in the muscular tissue of animals 
destroyed by Cattle Plague. Without denying the im¬ 
portance of such investigations, circumstances have directed 
my attention rather to the practical question whether or not 
it is possible to detect by ordinary inspection the diseased 
condition of the beef taken from the carcase of an animal 
suffering from this complaint. A disease which runs such a 
rapid course cannot be supposed to cause such an absorption 
of fat as would give a marked character to the meat, and ex¬ 
perience proves that it does not do so. Decomposition sets 
in early, but this is a fact of no practical significance. When 
the animal is not slaughtered until disease is so far advanced 
as seriously to affect the heart's action, and to occasion ex¬ 
tensive morbid change in the mass of the blood, the beef may 
be expected to present an altered (darkened) colour, due to 
the stasis or even extravasation of imperfectly aerated and 
partially decomposed blood, but the existence of even this 
probable morbid alteration has not been as yet satisfactorily 
proved.* As the result of my experience during the past 
* The native butchers, as Dr. Thin tells us, slaughter the animal as soon 
as the disease is unmistakeable. 
