pleuropneumonia (ploronumonia)

[NL., Gr. πλεύρα, the side, + πνεύμων, lung: see pleural and pneumonia.] A specific contagious disease, peculiar to cattle, affecting the lungs and the pleura, supposed to be caused by some form of micro-organism. It was recognized as far back as the eighteenth century, and now occurs in all the countries of western Europe, in the United States, in southern Africa, and in Australia. The lo es which it causes are frequently enormous. The disease first appears in the interlobular ti ue of the lungs, whence it invades the pleura and the lung-ti ue proper. The latter becomes solidified, and dark-red in color, which varies in later stages. The interlobular ti ue becomes thickened into broad yellowish or grayish bands, which give the cut surface of the lungs a peculiar marbled appearance. The disease may be limited to a single lobe or involve one entire lung. A lung becomes very heavy, weighing in some cases over fifty pounds. The disease appears after a period of incubation of from three to six weeks with a feeble cough, which grows more troublesome from week to week. There is slight fever, a ociated with partial ce ation of rumination and milk-secretion. The back is arched and the head is stretched out horizontally during fits of coughing. After a period of from two to six weeks the animal may recover, or the disease may enter a second or acute stage, in which all the symptoms mentioned become greatly aggravated. This stage may last two or three weeks, ending fatally in from 30 to 50 per cent. of all the IMG:content-0428.jpg:[graphic][merged small] pleuropous (plöʻro-pus), a. [ of the skin, which forms a kind of parachute. See cut under Galeopithecus. Pleuropygia (plö-rō-pij'i-ä), n. pl. [NL., mat a. pleuropygial (plö-ro-pij'i-al), a. [