CEREBROSPINAL MENINGITIS 
547 
We will endeavor to give a brief outline of the symptoms as 
they occur in succession, causes as far as known, post mortem 
appearances, etc. 
Animals, being deprived of the power of speech, cannot com¬ 
municate to us their sensations, as pain in the head, spine, etc., 
which w*e know to be prodomes of diseases of the nervous cen¬ 
tres ; and pain is not always produced by pressure on the verte¬ 
brae ; consequently, the disease usually has made considerable 
progress, and the products of the inflammation of the membranes 
of the spinal cord, or the extension perhaps of the inflammation 
to the cord itself (myelitis) of some portion of the spinal tract, 
causing loss of power of the muscles supplied by the nerves of 
the part, is the first intimation that we have of its existence. 
The symptoms by which we recognize the disease appear sud¬ 
denly, and they denote that some portion of the spinal tract is 
first affected, and is more marked throughout the career of the 
disease than the inflammation within the cranium as a rule, as the 
disease appears to affect first the membranes of one part of the 
cord, extend to the remainder, and involve the head in its course, 
but at a later stage. The attack may begin in one of two ways, 
though their terminating stages in fatal cases are similar. 
In one of the two modes of attack, and the rarest form, the 
animals appear unsteady in action, and in the course of a few 
hours are prostrated from an inability to use the posterior extrem¬ 
ities, the sphincters are relaxed, the muscles of the anterior parts 
of the body, neck and head will usually be found in a state of 
tonic spasm (trismus and opisthotonos, the condition of tetanus 
or lock-jaw), the pulse will be found quickened but soft, breathing 
accelerated. The change that occurs between this condition and 
death is the extension of the paralysis from behind forwards until 
it becomes apparently complete; a condition of coma or insensi¬ 
bility usually precedes death by several hours. 
The second of the two modes of attack we wish to call especial 
attention to, as it is the way the majority of cases are first affected, 
while to an ordinary observer there appears to be little, if any¬ 
thing, amiss with the animal. At first, there is an inability to 
swallow fluids i in the course of a few hours to a day, there is a 
