o34 
S. STEWART. 
kets many are injured. These injuries vary from slight bruises 
to extensive contusions of the soft parts and fractures of the 
ribs, vertebrae or bones of the extremities. Ten to thirty hours 
after infliction these injuries are manifest in the live animal by 
swelling and puffiness over the seats of contusion, and if exten¬ 
sive the animal moves about very stiffly, as though foundered. 
If the ribs are broken the injured side is protected as much as 
possible by muscular rigidity on that side. If a femur, ilium or 
vertebra is fractured, .the animal will be unable to rise, and 
■ must be hauled from the car or yards to the slaughter house in 
a cart. Sometimes cattle get down in an over-loaded car and 
cannot get up, owing to the crowded condition of the car. They 
are trampled on by the others and after much struggling become 
discouraged and will not get up ; or during a rainy or an icy 
period cattle slip, violently .separating the hind legs at right 
angles to the median line of the body, rupturing the muscles in 
the pubic region, perhaps fracturing or dislocating the femur or 
other bones. These animals are known as “ downers.” When 
slaughtered the cases of severe injury of more than twenty-four 
hours’ standing do not bleed so freely nor so perfectly as a sound 
animal. When the skin is removed contusions recently inflicted 
are easily discerned, the subcutaneous connective tissue and fat 
being infiltrated with blood escaped from ruptured capillary 
vessels. If the contusions be extensive as when a bullock gets 
down in a car and is repeatedly trampled upon, the fat and con¬ 
nective tissue of the back and sides of the body are torn and 
pulpified to such a degree that the skin is removed from the in¬ 
jured parts by very slight traction, and the surface of the body 
IS discolored over large areas. The contusions may extend 
deep into the muscular structures, even through the thoracic or 
abdominal walls, being accompanied by haemorrhage into the 
parts, pulpification of the muscle structures and sometimes frac¬ 
ture of ribs. If the injured animal be not slaughtered before 
febrile conditions are established, the injured tissues will become 
infiltrated with an exudate, varying in color and consistence 
from a gelatinous amber-colored serum to a thin, dirty fluid, 
