A healthy male ass, three years old, was procured, and, with the
assistance of Mr. Mayer, was made the subject of the following
experiment, on the 23rd of September, 1848. Three drachms of pus were
collected from an issue in the chest of a horse, which laboured under
inflammation of the lungs. The pus thus obtained was quite pure and
sweet, and having been warmed, was injected, by means of a syringe,
into the left brachial vein of the ass. The animal lay quiet, till
nearly the whole of the pus was injected; it then struggled, and a
small quantity of the pus may have been lost. When the operation was
completed, the sides of the vein were brought together with a pin, and
the animal was allowed to get up. The vein above the opening could
now be felt as a hard, unyielding cord, as high as it could be traced
with the hand; but upon gentle pressure being made, so as to propel
the blood in the course of the circulation, the hardness completely
disappeared. The vein which, immediately after the operation, was hard
and prominent, no longer presented anything remarkable to the touch.
The animal now moved from side to side, as if inclined to lie down.
Two hours and a half after the operation, the pulse, which naturally
was 36, had risen to 60; and the respiration from 12 per minute had
increased to 26.
_September 24th._ Pulse 52; respiration 20; mouth hot; ears cold. In
the evening the pulse became 48 and the respiration 16; he coughed
occasionally.
_25th._ Pulse 48; respiration 12; some dullness of countenance, but he
is lively and occasionally playful. The left fore-leg is swollen; the
ears are very cold. In the afternoon he was killed, and the blood was
allowed to flow from the body.
_Post-mortem appearances._ The wound in the left leg opened directly
into the brachial vein, which was filled with lymph and a thin pus
for a very short distance, both above and below the external opening;
immediately above this, the vein was healthy, nor was there any
appearance of disease in any of the other veins of the limb, nor in
the veins leading to the heart. The glands in the axilla were swollen.
The lungs were found studded irregularly in different parts, with
circumscribed spots of livid congestion: these existed both upon the
surface and in the substance of the lungs; they were generally about
the size of a filbert, but in some places they occupied a single
lobule, and were accurately circumscribed by its outline.