mation of the epidermis, accompanied by shedding of the hair; (2) the production of small papula or nodosities, from which exudes a yellow viscid fluid which, in drying, forms with the hair crusts of variable thickness; (3) the eruption of little vesicles about the mufile, whose contents agglutinate the hairs and gives rise to brownishyellow crusts; (4) the formation of pustules (the so-called "variola" of Ramozzini) the size of a millet seed or small pea, frequently coniluent, and when ruptured and their contents desiccated, producing friable, yellow, or brown crusts, which adhere very slightly to the skin. The duration of the eruption is variable, but in general it does not entirely disappear until from two to four weeks after its manifestation. In some epizootics erysipelatous tumors have been remarked about the neck, dewlap, or flank. Gas is also developed sometimes in the subcutaneous cellular tissue, ordinarily in the region of the loins, shoulders, sides, or neck, and in rare cases over the entire surface of the body; its presence is recognized by a more or less voluminous tumor, which crepitates on manipulation. The next day after the appearance of the peculiar eruption upon the mucous membranes, there is a disinclination to eat and ruminate, and with cows a diminution and soon a total absence of milk. Two days after the manifestation of the above-described symptoms, marked changes in the general appearance of the diseased animal are apparent. It lies down very frequently; when standing it draws the hind legs forward as if suffering from colic. The look is distressed, the head drooping, the ears hanging, the breathing oppressed; the pulse becomes rapid and weak, the discharges from the eyes, the nose, and the mouth become thick and purulent, the breath fetid. The iris, which at the commencement of the fever is generally inflamed and cherry red, resumes its natural color with the increase of secretions from the lachrymal duct. Cows far advanced in pregnancy generally calve in this stage of the disease. On the second or third day diarrhea sets in. The feces, at first thin and watery, then thick and slimy, are filled with detached masses from the mucus surfaces, very fetid and more or less tinged with blood. When the diarrhea has lasted two or three days the disease advances with rapid strides. The animal is so weak as not to be able to rise, the evacuations of excrements are involuntary, the breathing is uneven and rapid, the beatings of the heart are no longer perceptible, the pulse becomes very feeble and the temperature rapidly falls. Death usually occurs on the fifth day from the first visible signs of the disease. Sometimes the course of the disease is so rapid as to reach its culmination within two days. On the average, 70 to 75 per cent. of the diseased animals die. Those that survive have not had the disease in its most malignant form. Once convalescent the animals recover very fast, but the diarrhea continues for several days after the disappearance of all other symptoms. In summer, when the cattle are grazing, the disease is less severe than in winter, when they get dry fodder and are kept in close stables. The symptoms and progress of the disease are the same with goats and sheep as with neat cattle, but the percentage of fatal cases is somewhat less. Many of the symptoms of rinderpest occur in the lung disease (pleuropneumonia), the malignant catarrhal fever, and the mouth-and-foot disease. The lung disease is distinguished from the rinderpest by the absence of the characteristic eruptions upon the mucous membranes; the malignant catarrhal fever, by the dimness of the transparent cornea, which in the rinderpest remains clear; the mouth-and-foot disease, by the ulceration of the foot, the less degree of fever, and its peculiarly rapid spreading from one animal to entire herds. PATHOLOGY OF THE DISEASE. Among the lesions observed after death there are several, though no more constant than several of the prominent symptoms, that materially assist in establishing a proper diagnosis. The age and general condition, the state in which the animals were kept before they were affected, their breed, the character and intensity of the disease, all appear to have some influence on the seat and seriousness of the lesions. These vary according to the period at which death takes place. Fleming says that if the animal is killed at the commencement of the malady, and the symptoms have been comparatively mild, there will nevertheless be found, on examination after death, such alterations in the mucous membranes as congestion and ecchymoses. The latter are more particularly observable on the free border of the mucus folds in the fourth compartment of the stomach (true stomach) and around the pylorus, although they also exist to a less degree in the small intestine, and often in the vagina. When, however, an animal has died from the disease, or been killed when it had attained a certain degree of intensity, the changes are more marked, the body becomes quickly inflated after death, and sometimes even before death occurs. The rectum is elevated and its lining membrane is tumefied and of a deep red color; the tail and hinder extremities are more or less paralyzed during life, and are therefore usually soiled by the feces. The skin exhibits the characteristic eruption, and in those places where there are neither glands nor hairs, as on the teats, it is injected in irregular patches of variable dimensions; the epithelium is thickened, soft or friable, and the integument is often cracked. On removing the skin the vessels which are cut are generally filled with a dark-colored fluid blood, and the flesh is red, blue, or violet-tinted. The peritoneum in some cases may be slightly injected or ecchymosed in patches. The whole of the intestines are generally greatly distended with gas, and in some cases the small intestine may be reddened. In the interior of the digestive canal are found the most marked evidences of the disease, though they are not always constant and equally intense in every portion of the mucous membrane. In the mouth, pharynx, true stomach, small intestine, and rectum, they are most frequently present. They are least conspicuous and often absent in the esophagus, the three first compartments of the stomach, and in the cæcum and colon. They may be so trifling as to resemble the lesions of a slight catarrh, while in other instances they are unmistakable and pathognomonic. In the mouth and pharynx are observed the alterations in the lining membrane and the epithelial changes. It is chiefly where there has been much friction or local irritation that they are most exaggerated, and deep erosions, with loss of texture of the derm of the mucous mem-. brane, may be noted. The esophagus is rarely affected, though it is not always exempt. In the rumen the quantity of food may be found a little larger than usual. The epithelium on the mucous membrane lining it and the next compartment may be more easily detached than in a healthy state, and a microscopical examination of the cells proves them to have undergone a similar change to those of the mouth. The mucous membrane in these compartments is also frequently injected in a general manner, though more deeply in some places than in others. It is not rare to find on this membrane round, oval, or irregular-shaped eschars, disposed separately or in groups, and varying in color from a dark brown to a greenish hue. The elimination of these eschars takes place gradually from around their well-formed borders, and cicatrization afterwards |