Sessional_Paper_1906 — Page 299

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November 1st, 1904.-The animal has lost flesh. It eats little but has no diarrhoea. There is no epigastric tenderness. The knee-jerks are present, but the weakness and stiffness of the hind legs has become progressively worse.

On rapid forward progression the animal staggers considerably. There is no œdéma.

November 7th 1904. The condition of the animal remains the same. It has occasional rigors. Food is all but refused. There is no diarrhea.

December 1st, 1904.-The animal cannot walk. The hind legs are in a condition of spasticity. The knee-jerks are present and exaggerated. There is no diarrhoea. The temperature has remained normal since the commencement of the experiment.

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January 12th, 1905.-The animal died to-day. From the date of the last examination, the pig had become progressively weaker, was quite unable to walk, but ate its food and had no diarrhœn. There was never any den, and the knee-jerks were always present.

Post-mortem Examination.—This was made within four hours after death. The body was very emaciated, and on cutting open the cadaver the subcutaneous tissues were found bathed with a yellowish watery fluid, and they themselves presented a mucoid appearance. There was about 20 c.c. of clear watery fluid in the pericardial sac. There was no pericarditis. The heart shewel a mucoid like infiltration near its surface under the epicardium. This was especially well marked at the auriculo-ventricular groove and along the course of the main coro- nary vessels. The cardiac muscle was soft, yellowish in colour, and very flabby. Both ventricles were dilated, with a small amount of compensating hypertrophy of the wall of the left ventricle.

The lungs were normal apart from a small amount of œdema.

The pleural cavities cach contained about 30 ele. of clear watery fluid There was no pleurisy.

The spleen was not enlarged. Its capsule shewed irregular thickenings due to localised growths of connective tissue. The spleen pulp was firın, dark in colour, and beset with firm bands of fibrous tissue. It was not congested.

The liver was in a condition of cirrhosis of the interlobular type, and its naked-eye appearance was not unlike a miniature of the hob-nailed liver met with in the human subject.

The kidneys were auæmic but otherwise normal.

The stomach shewed small areas of hæmorrhagic extravasation scattered over the mucosa. Towards the cardiac end a patch of hæmorrhagic mucous membrane was found. It was about the size of a dollar-piece, and raised above the general surface of the remaining mucosa. It had thickened edges, and its surface was covered with yellowish necrosed material in the form of a membrane. This was difficult to remove from the underlying area. The latter was found to be red and congested. In general this patch appeared to be of the nature of a slowly spread- ing chronic ulceration.

The duodenum and remaining mucosa of the intestines were normal.

The peritoneum was normal to the naked eye and the mesenteric glands were not enlarged. There was no visible change in the pancreas, and the pelvic viscera were normal. A small quantity of clear yellow fluid, namely, about 40 c.c. was present in the peritoneal cavity.

The heart blood and the spleen substance were examined microscopically after staining by LEISHMAN'S method, but nothing was found.

Bacteriologically the blood and the spleen were negative apart from the pre- sence of a few colon-like bacteria which were obviously of post-morten origin.

A microscopical examination of the sciatic nerves of the animal by the osmic ac'd method shewed no evidence of Wallerian degeneration.