ABSTRACTS AND REPORT. 159

Clinical examination of these young animals revealed the following symptoms: Marked wasting, dulness, discharge from the eyes, paleness of the mucous membrane of the mouth, conjunctivitis with muco-purulent discharge, markedly accelerated pulse, rapid respiration, diarrh cea, enlarge· ment of the lymphatic glands of the neck, temperature 41'5 ° to 41"8 0 C. The most striking characteristics, however, were the lesions of the skin, for over the belly, neck, ribs, head, and even the feet, the skin was the seat of t::r}thema resembling that of scarlatina, and was dotted with innumerable vesiculo-pustules, as large in some cases as a pea or even a French bean. These pustules were yellowish-\\hite in colour, surrounded by a swollen, red, and prominent margin. Some were isolated. others were confluent or in course of formation; other~, again, had become transformed into blackish, somewhat thick crusts . On removal of these crusts the skin revealed ulcerating wounds which bled very readily.

The pustules contained a yellowish-white liquid, the vesicles a transparent liquid. The eruptions in general closely resembled those vesiculo-pustules sometimes seen on the skin of dogs suffering from distemper.

The disease continued for fifteen to thirty days, the mortality was low, and none of the six little pigs used for the purposes of experiment died. At Funuulea, however, the disease was much more virulent, fifteen out of thirty animals dying-.

Those sent to the Veterinary College all recovered, proving that the chances of survival are greatly increased when the animals are placed under favourable hygienic conditions and restricted to a milk diet.

The mortality is largely due to complications resulting from infection of the skin-wounds.

Bacteriological Examination.-In the liquid from the vesiculo-pustules, the ulcers, and the crusts, numerous microbes were found, though in cultures the bacillus pyocyaneus proved most common. Inoculation of rabbits with liquid from the pustules only resulted in the _development of a small local abscess.

From the preceding the author concludes that the young pigs were suffering from a contagious, eruptive, vesiculo-pustular disease, which he names "porcine variola," his experiments having shown that it was neither swine erysipelas. pneumo-enteritis, no! infectious pneumonia.

As the disease usually results in recovery, it has not attracted much attention from owners.

It probably occurs in many countries, but the most peculiar feature is that it was described in Hungary in 1906, i.e., in the same year in which it was studied by the author and discussed at the Society of Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest. (Poenaru, Arhiva Veterinard, April 1907, p. 67.)

A METHOD OF PROLONGING LOCAL ANlESTHESIA BY ASSOCIATING ADRENALIN WITH LOCAL ANlESTHETICS.

COCAINE having been in common use for a considerable time as a local amesthetic, certain drawbacks to its use have been discovered, and attempts have been made both to diminish its toxic effects and to prolong its anresthetic action. This object is in large measure attained by the addition of a small quantity of adrenalin. which checks the absorption of the drug and prolongs its local effects for some hours. This addition was suggested by Foisy, and is now generally practised in the German and French hospitals; but. as it has not come into general use in veterinary medicine, the authors

160 ABSTRACTS AND REPORT.

have undertaken an investigation with the object of popularising its employ­ment.

As a rule, cocaine solution is so rapidly absorbed that in half an hour the local anresthetic effects pass away, the cocaine being destroyed as it is absorbed by the blood; but if the dose injected is very large and absorption rapid, or if the animal is very susceptible to the drug, symptoms of poisoning may occur. As, therefore, both the evanescence of the anresthesia and the toxic effects depend on this rapid absorption, both would be avoided could we diminish the rate at which it proceeds, a result now proved possible by the addition of adrenalin.

Adrenalin is a general and local vaso-constrictor. Injected under the skin, even in relatively large doses, it produces no general symptoms, an effect due to its local influence on the vessels checking absorption. This discovery has been employed for the purpose of preventing the cocaine solution being taken up by the blood and thus prolonging its anresthetic action.

An experiment on rabbits shows this very well. If one injects a toxtc dose of cocaine into a series of rabbits the animals begin to show poisoning within a very short time, and sometimes die within ten minutes. A series 01 control animals, however, which have received a similar dose, but with the addition of adrenalin, show no symptoms for about twenty minutes, and even when they commence, the signs of poisoning are much less acute. The toxic symptoms may last for several hours, the animals eventually recovering, or dying from poisoning after a delay of twelve to eighteen hours.

The action of the adrenalin is very well indicated by these experiments. On account of its constricting action on the vessels it checks the absorption of the cocaine. In some animals absorption is still sufficiently active to produce death by subacute poisoning. In others it is so slow that the poison is eliminated as fast as it is absorbed, and death is thus averted.

Experiments were also made on horses, the solution being injected along the course of the plantar nerves, one limb being injected with a simple solution of cocaint", the other with cocaine solution containing adrenalin.

The pure solution produces in about fifteen minutes an anresthesia which lasts from twenty to forty minutes. The anresthesia produced by the mixed solution also commences in about fifteen minutes, appears more complete than that due to the simple solution, and persists for two and a half to three hours.

The mixed solution seems quite innocuous, and produces no toxic effects even in animals generally very sensitive to cocaine. The authors recommend the following solution :-

Hydrochlorate of cocaine. Hydrochlorate of adrenalin (I in 1000)

Distilled water

25 to 30 centigrammes 5 drops 10 cc.

To produce anresthesia of the foot one half of this solution is injected along the course of each plantar nerve.

The solution can either be made freshly, or if kept in the dark can be preserved for some time. It should be discarded if discoloured or turbid. (MM. Dupuis et Van Den Eeckhout, Ann. de MM. Vet., May 1907, p. 271).