81 
o 
.'W' 
DISEASE OF THE LUNGS ANI) CHIEF ARTERIAL TRUNKS. 
way into the circulation, and were thus carried to the lungs 
and diffused throughout their substance. Numerous col¬ 
lections of these cells being thus formed, they by their rapid 
growth and multiplication eventually involved the whole 
of the lung-tissue, obliterating the air-cells, either by pressure 
from without or by filling them up internally, thereby 
destroying the lungs as breathing organs. When this 
abnormal process was completed to an extent incompatible 
with the functions for which air is admitted to the lungs, 
death necessarily took place. 
The development of this disease must have been so con¬ 
tinuous and steady that, could its existence have been deter¬ 
mined during the life of the animal, I can fancy that its rate 
of growth might almost have been ascertained by the gradual 
increase in the number of respirations per minute ; for, as the 
capacity of the lungs to admit air became less, so would the 
respiration be in proportion quickened, to compensate for 
the loss of their aerating surface. In supposing that the 
same pathological changes in the structure of important 
organs like the lungs would be accompanied with nearly the 
same symptoms, allowance, of course, must be made for 
variations in the age and condition of the animal affected, as 
well as the temperature in which he is placed and the 
management which has been observed towards him, circum¬ 
stances which ought always to be considered when the 
symptoms of similar diseases are compared one with another. 
There is one point in which the disease of the lungs in 
Mr. Littler’s case slightly differs from that described in the 
May number of the Veterinarian , viz., that in the centre of 
most of the little masses of diseased deposit which pervade 
the substance of the lungs a few granules of calcareous 
matter were found, giving to these spots a yellowish aspect. 
I am inclined to think, however, that this peculiarity is 
simply the result of the disease in this case being in a more 
advanced stage; local circumstances having favoured a con¬ 
tinuance of life for a little longer period. 
This case is also rendered the more interesting from the 
fact that, in addition to the abnormal state of the lungs and 
mesenteric glands, the left side of the heart and the blood¬ 
vessels connected therewith were affected with a disease 
which, although apparently dissimilar from that existing 
in the lungs, I am inclined, nevertheless, to think was 
closely allied to it. 
Mr. Littler has referred to this affection, and described it 
as atheromatous, which designation to a very great extent I 
agree with. Without doubt it is one of the stages of the 
