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Title: On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment

Author: Honoré Bourguignon

Release date: June 22, 2011 [eBook #36496]
                Most recently updated: January 7, 2021

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Barbara Kosker, Bryan Ness and the Online
        Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net


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Produced by Barbara Kosker, Bryan Ness and the Online
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  ON THE
  CATTLE PLAGUE:
  OR,
  Contagious Typhus in Horned Cattle.

  ITS HISTORY, ORIGIN, DESCRIPTION, AND TREATMENT.




  BY
  H. BOURGUIGNON,

  Doctor of the Faculté de Paris, Fellow of the Société de Médecine
    de Paris; Laureate of the Institute of France, Member of the
    Legion of Honour, etc.




  "Scribo nec ficta, nee picta, sed quæ ratio,
    sensus et experientia docent."




  PHILADELPHIA:
  J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
  LONDON: J CHURCHILL & SONS.
  1869.




  TO
  MISS BURDETT COUTTS.


  MADAM,

The numerous services which you have rendered, and the interest you have
shown in the calamitous epizootic which at this moment decimates the
noble herds of England, have prompted me to dedicate the following pages
to you, satisfied that I am only giving public expression to the homage
felt for you by many of your fellow-countrymen.

I have the honour to be, Madam,

  With respect, your obedient servant,

  H. BOURGUIGNON.




PREFACE.


Nations, during the successive phases of their evolution on the globe,
in which they advance from a state of infancy and barbarism to one of
virility and civilization, from civilization to decadence or senility;
and from decadence to their final extinction, are liable to numberless
calamities.

These calamities are produced by moral causes, and are then called
social Revolutions; and in other instances from physical causes, and
then they are termed Cataclysms, Epidemics, or Epizootics.

In these crises, the initiative and devotion of individuals, the public
administration, and the application of knowledge acquired in the Arts
and Sciences, afford collectively an infallible criterion for
ascertaining the position which a nation occupies in the scale of
civilization, and the value of its religious, social, and political
institutions.

Calamities always leave behind them disasters and victims, but they
bequeath also a precious legacy. Nations which are called upon for fresh
and progressive efforts, find in the experience they have gained a new
source of strength and means of future greatness. I am convinced that
this will be the case with England; though, helpless for the moment, and
unable to stay the Cattle Plague which now ravages her entire extent,
she will in future be found better prepared to resist the inroads of
such a direful enemy.

No branch of human knowledge has been more rudely tested during the
present epizootic than medical science. Many persons have been astounded
at its helplessness; but if they had reflected at what a distance
medicine has to follow in the wake of the exact sciences by which it is
furnished with instruments for prosecuting its researches,--that
organic chemistry progresses but slowly,--that the Cattle Plague was
entirely unknown to the present generation of medical men in
England,--and that the means for its scientific and practical study have
been therefore wholly wanting, they would have been less surprised to
find that it is as difficult to cure the Cattle Plague as it, is to cure
phthisis, cancer, hydrophobia, and the cholera, against which medicine
but too often is of little avail.

In times of great national calamity it behoves every one to contribute
in proportion to his talents, fortune, or abilities, to alleviate the
effects of the common misfortune. The poor man's mite, and the honest
intention of the most insignificant, when added to the budget of common
efforts, have their relative value; and it is for these reasons that I
have published the following monograph on the Cattle Plague.

If it assists in any way to the extinction of the present epizootic, or
if it serve to point out the necessity of combining the study of
comparative pathology with that of medicine, I shall feel that I have
contributed something which may favour my claim to be enrolled among the
citizens of England.

This book, as may easily be seen, was originally written in my native
language. A few kind and obliging friends--more particularly Mr. Taylor
Sinnett, Drs. Clapton and Gervis, of St. Thomas's Hospital, and Mr.
Berridge, of the British Museum--have rendered me the greatest
assistance in the translation. Without the guidance of such competent
auxiliaries I could not have performed my arduous task.

I therefore beg to return to those gentlemen, and to all those who have
assisted me on this occasion, my sincerest and most grateful thanks.

  H. B.




CONTENTS.


                                                                 PAGE

  Introduction                                                      1


  FIRST PART.

  The History of the Contagious Typhus of the Ox, from
      the remotest Times down to the Present Day                    5


  SECOND PART.

  CHAPTER I.--On Typhus Disease in general, and the
      Typhus which affects the Ox in particular                    72

  CHAPTER II.--The Origin and Causes of the Ox-Typhus              84

  CHAPTER III.--Description of the Contagious Typhus
      of the Ox; its Symptoms, Course, Progress, &c.              140
          1. Symptomatic Characteristics                          141
          2. Lesions found in the Bodies after Death              163
          3. Diagnosis--Prognosis--Use of the Flesh of
               Animals--Danger of direct Absorption               173
          4. General Considerations on the Typhus, and
               Recapitulation of the Symptoms                     191

      CHAPTER IV.--Treatment of the Ox-Typhus                     206
          1 & 2. Means and Measures to be employed
               to resist the Causes of Contagious Typhus
               of the Bovine Species                              208
          3. Curative Medication                                  237
          4. Hygienic Measures to be taken against the
               Extension of the Contagion--Acts and
               Orders concerning sanitary Police Regulations      257


  THIRD PART.

  To Farmers and Graziers                                         281


  FOURTH PART.

  Suggestions on the Improvements to be effected in
      the Study of Medical Science, in order that we
      may be in a Condition to confront Disease generally,
      and Epizootic and Epidemic Diseases in particular           311


  APPENDIX.

  Various Documents                                               337




INTRODUCTION.


Everyone is talking of the CATTLE PLAGUE! But why should we
borrow this sinister and gloomy denomination from the middle ages and
from the people's vocabulary? Is this, then, an unknown and incurable
disease? Is this the first time that it has made its appearance on the
soil of Great Britain? To judge by the manner in which the diffusion of
this complaint has been met, accounted for, explained, and discussed,
one might imagine it was so; and yet the mere observation of its causes,
its symptoms, and its signs and effects on the bodies of the diseased
animals, besides a few references to the medical library, would easily
have testified that nature did not wait until the second half of the
19th century to generate a new distemper. No! Nothing new has appeared
for a long time in the worlds of space. The cosmic phenomena pursue
their perpetual course, and the organic phenomena, _à fortiori_, do the
same. Life, throughout the whole range of the animal kingdom, whatever
may be its changes and fluctuations, submits to the fixed and invariable
laws which hold dominion over health and disease. Our presumption and
ignorance alone can account for the astonishment we manifest, not only
when we witness great general calamities, but even when we look upon
those simple morbid derangements which organic matter, both animal and
vegetable, is continually undergoing on the globe, in the natural
progress of destruction and dissolution.

The habit we most of us have contracted of confining our observations to
the phenomena which strike our eyes, instead of fixing them on the
general causes by which these phenomena have been produced; the
forgetfulness of some, in others the want of acquaintance with general
and comparative pathology, have in this instance led many conscientious
inquirers to misapprehend both the nature and the treatment of the
cattle complaint. It is in vain that we have subdivided and classed
medical science--in vain that we have arbitrarily instituted a
veterinary medicine and a human medicine; nature, in her acts, has no
such subtleties. With nature, organic matter is organic matter, life is
life; and although it may be true that both organic matter and life
become more complex, and continue to rise in perfection till they reach
man, it is quite as true that the laws of pathology and physiology are
the same in all, and that it is just as difficult to cure the typhus of
the ox as that of man. As, therefore, it is because we overlooked these
fundamental truths, that the outbreak of the cattle distemper found us
unprepared, we must treat the subject with all the gravity which is its
due.

Let it not, however, be feared that the special fact of the _so-called_
Cattle Plague will be lost sight of amidst a crowd of scientific
generalities. No; collateral reflections, seemingly foreign to the main
argument, will concur to elucidate it; and all these rays of light will
converge to a common centre, reflecting, we flatter ourselves, some
evident facts and practical truths.

This work on the contagious typhus of the ox is divided into four
principal parts.

The first part contains the history of this typhus from the remotest
times down to the present day. It is divided into several sections.

The second part, which gives the description of the disease, is
subdivided into four chapters.

The first chapter treats of general typhus, in order that a perfect
understanding may be arrived at as to the name and definition of the
particular distemper which affects the ox.

The second relates to the causes and origin of the disease.

The third treats of its symptoms, its progress, &c.

The fourth contains its mode of treatment.

The third part gives some plain instructions for the benefit of farmers,
cattle-dealers, and dairymen.

The fourth part gives a development of the scientific means and
safeguards to be adopted, in order that this country shall never relapse
into that state of helpless panic to which a want of preparation exposed
it when the present epizootia began its ravages.




FIRST PART.

    _The History of the Contagious Typhus of the Ox, from the
      remotest times down to the present day._


I.

General, local, and particular causes of destruction are constantly
reacting on organized creatures, and these causes account for those
_epiphytic_ diseases which infest plants, the _epizootic_ diseases which
spread mortality among the brute creation, and the _epidemic_, which
strike and are fatal to the human species. Thus it is that we
particularize at present, in the vegetable kingdom, the disease which
has attacked the vines, olive-trees, and potatoes; in the animal
kingdom, the silkworm sickness, and the cholera, and the typhoid fever
of cattle: so that we may safely say, that one or other of these
diseases is always, at a given moment, raging in some part of the globe
among some species of animal, either birds, pigs, horses, sheep, horned
cattle, or, in fine, attacks man himself.

When, however, the peccant invasion falls only on the vegetables and
animals situated at our antipodes, we seldom hear of the ravages it
commits; and when we do, forgetful of the affinity which links together
all the organic beings on the earth and their mutual dependence, nothing
can exceed the indifference we show to these calamities. Then, when the
danger threatens us nearer home, or when the evil has invaded us, we
have recourse to quarantine as the grand preservative to shield us. But
this preservative remedy is most frequently deceptive--a mere illusion;
for the real plague, typhus and cholera, borne along by the winds of
heaven, pass over the longest distances and the highest obstacles, and
baffle all our calculations; teaching us, by their successive returns,
that we shall continually be exposed to their destructive havoc so long
as we neglect to eradicate the evil at its original source, that is, in
those countries from which it emanates.

And this is the place to observe, that the cholera morbus threatens to
keep a permanent footing in the English possessions of India, because
the public works, by means of which the great rivers used to be confined
to their beds, have not of late been repaired and kept in good order in
those countries; owing to which neglect, their waters overflow the
plains, leaving, when they subside, those pestilential deposits which
afford a perpetual incubation to the cholera.

We are induced to dwell thus on the general causes of these diseases,
because the sick plants, on which dumb animals feed, and the sick
animals, on which man himself feeds, have a continual relation of cause
and effect; and we shall have to refer to this subject and give it
weight, when we come to speak of the treatment of these diseases.

It is an important fact, which deserves our most pointed attention and
consideration, that the vital resistance inherent in the animal frame to
withstand the attacks of these contagious diseases, is very far from
being the same throughout the whole kind. Man, in this respect, is the
most favoured and best fortified; he is able, without much
degenerating, to inhabit any latitude, to go with a sort of impunity, if
his calling require him to do so, amidst the most pestilential
emanations, and to continue for hours inhaling their baneful fumes. We
could quote many striking examples of this resisting power in man. But
there is one which we have recently witnessed, and which all can
appreciate. We refer to the slaughter-house of the great Metropolitan
Market. Here we saw, in lumps and fragments, every variety of corrupt
_detritus_ of animals which had been seized with the contagious typhus;
we saw the animals, too, being felled and slaughtered and dissected, in
a high temperature which rendered the air so poisonous that we could
hardly breathe it; yet amidst all this infection the workmen employed to
move and handle these revolting wrecks appeared indifferent to the
scene, and quite in their usual health. No living animal besides man
could stand such a trial; no other could breathe for hours, and day
after day, like these workmen, an atmosphere so charged with decomposing
impurities.

We say, therefore, that man may expose himself, with less danger to his
life than any other animal, to those pernicious causes which produce and
develop contagious diseases. Next to him, with respect to this power of
vital resistance, come the omnivorous animals, then the carnivorous, and
last of all, the herbivorous, in which this faculty is very feeble
indeed.

This prime consideration, to be fully understood and appreciated by
unscientific readers, would require explanations beyond the scope of
this work. Let us, however, for the present establish the fact, that
herbivorous animals, such as sheep and horned cattle, offer but a very
weak resistance to the causes which generate infectious and epizootic
diseases, and let us do our best to prove it by demonstration; for if
this truth be once admitted, we shall therefrom deduce that it is the
duty of man constantly to surround these frail and delicate creatures
with special care and attention, if he wishes to prevent their being
decimated from time to time, and if he would likewise avoid the
consequent injuries to himself--the loss of health and money accruing
from this deterioration.

So long as the herbivorous or grass-eating animal is properly fed; so
long as he browses on fat pastures; so long as his blood retains those
physiological elements which are the prime condition of health, he can,
and does, resist the causes of most contagious maladies. But if a hot
summer and a long continuance of dry weather chance to curtail, in
temperate zones, the usual abundance of his fodder, then comes the fatal
change: the blood is impoverished, the secretions are debilitated, a
strange languor runs through the system, the vital resistance is
unnerved, and he becomes an easy prey to those noxious influences which
were encountered before without injury whilst his provision was
abundant.

This is a fundamental matter. We therefore beg leave to support and
justify our argument by borrowing some additional evidence from prior
labours of ours, accomplished at the Ecole d'Alfort, near Paris,
conjointly with Professor Delafond, whose name has so often been cited
in the public journals in connexion with the cattle plague.

All vegetables and animals; with the exception of _adult_ men, whenever
their health declines from any cause (but more particularly from
paucity of food), spontaneously generate microscopic parasites, or very
minute insects, the germs of which are inherent in their system. A flock
of fleecy animals, wasted by deficient food in dry and parched meadows,
becomes attacked in due time by a parasitical cutaneous disease, known
as the _itch_, which is enough, if not checked, to destroy the whole.
Now, all that is required is to remove this flock to a more fertile
soil, where there is plenty to feed them, and the disease will disappear
of itself without any treatment. Deficiency of food destroys the health
of animals, and abundance of food overcomes disease in them.

A sheep affected by this parasitical disease may, without any fear, be
placed in a flock of healthy sheep, for he will not propagate the
distemper; but if instead of being sound and healthy, the flock is in a
weak declining state, this contaminated animal will diffuse the disease
with frightful rapidity, and may cause their entire destruction. These
facts may seem startling, but we are only speaking after the
incontestable authority of experiments.

We selected six healthy sheep, which we kept well supplied with
provisions; we covered these healthy sheep with parasites (acari). On
every one of these sound, well-fed sheep, the microscopic animalculæ
died off without generating the cutaneous disease; for the blood, the
humours, and the skin of sound and healthy sheep constitute a soil
unfavourable to the propagation of these parasites, and actually starve
them to death.

After this first experiment, we subjected these six sheep to a deficient
diet; they grew lean, their blood was impoverished, and then all we had
to do was to lay upon them not thousands and thousands of these
parasites--as we had done in the first instance--but one solitary female
in a state of fecundity; and the parasitical distemper unfolded itself
so fiercely as to cause the death of three of these sheep on which the
test was allowed to run its course; whilst the other three sheep, having
been restored in time to a recoverable condition just as they were about
to drop off, were thoroughly cured, without any special treatment, by
the sole influence of good food and ordinary hygienic attention.

Other tests, similar to these experiments, were applied to dogs, horses,
and horned cattle. A lean and scraggy dog, covered with parasites and
eruptions, with eyes running foul humour, a dog which could neither run
nor stand, and which was reduced to the last stage of wasting marasmus,
was rescued from the jaws of death and thoroughly cured without special
treatment, by the sole influence of a rich restorative diet. This dog
afterwards became a fine hunting hound, beautiful in shape, and
admirable for his sportive attributes.

These experiments having been submitted to the judgment of the Académie
des Sciences in Paris, were honoured with its approval, and the reports
concerning them were printed at the Academy's expense, and crowned at
the competitive examination.

The vital resistance of horned cattle is so feeble, that those animals
which are periodically exhibited in the north of London, though
certainly chosen from among the most healthy and robust, could not herd
together in large numbers for the space of a month in the Agricultural
Hall at Islington, without sinking under infectious and contagious
diseases--almost one and all. Under the conditions in which we see them
in that Show, a single month would be sufficient to produce almost their
complete destruction; for even a single week, which is the usual
duration of their confinement, affects them so much as to render a large
proportion of them unhealthy.

Every one knows how apt cavalry horses are to sicken and die off during
a campaign. Every one has heard of the fearful ravages amongst the
horses of the Allied armies during the Crimean war, when many companies
were dismounted owing to this mortality.

Let us now transport ourselves in thought into the middle of those
immense steppes where vast and innumerable herds of herbivorous animals
are being bred for our supply, and consider what will be the effects on
their health and life if they should be afflicted with a scarcity of
forage, in consequence of this long dry summer.

It is unnecessary to say that there exist in Russia, in Hungary, in
Australia, in North and South America, and in many other parts of the
globe, large tracts of country which are still uninhabited, whose
uncultivated soil supplies with food great numbers of sheep and cattle.
These spacious tracts, known as moorlands or steppes, particularly
abound in Russia, on the banks of the Wolga, the Don, the Dnieper; in
Hungary, on the banks of the Danube; and also in South America, in the
republics of Venezuela, New Granada, Columbia, &c.

Now, in hot and rainy seasons these steppes teem with rich and luxuriant
verdure; the plants growing up in the marshes are prolific and abundant,
and even those parts of the wild moors which produce nothing but heath
are capable of feeding and fattening flocks and herds.

Under conditions so auspicious as these, animals may still suffer, but
in what way? By excess of food, or repletion. They are in general robust
and healthy, and thus fortified they inhale without detriment the
deleterious gases of oxygen with carbon, carburetted hydrogen and the
like, exhaled by the plants which grow out of the swampy soils. Thus
protected, too, they are proof against the fluctuations of the seasons,
and against every injury which threatens them; and their strong and
sound condition enables them to sustain the fatigues of their long and
arduous journeys, and to supply the rich countries of the West with
their flesh, fleece, and hides.

When the seasons have thus conveyed a due proportion of heat, water, and
electricity to the elements of the soil, both plants and animals conduce
to the comfort and health of man, and fulfil his expectations. But the
laws of nature are involved in mystery. Good and evil go hand in
hand--death and life travel close together--and a few years of
prosperous harvests are almost invariably followed by blight,
barrenness, and scarcity. Most men think only of the present time, and
this imprudence and want of foresight prevent farmers and great cattle
proprietors from collecting and holding in reserve the requisite stores
of sustenance to supply their sheep and oxen during these barren
seasons. Sickness then breaks out, and these helpless creatures perish
in vast numbers, to the detriment of their owners' best interests.

And truly, when continual rains cause the rivers to overflow, when the
plains are drenched and soaked, or when a burning sun scorches the
ground, herbivorous animals wander in vain from field to field in quest
of sustenance to restore their strength, or of pure and healthy water to
slake their thirst; their vital resistance dwindles away, deleterious
gases poison and bewilder them, their blood is debased, and as Ovid
says,

  "Corpora foeda jacent, vitiantur odoribus herbæ."

And since these mild and harmless animals, which seem to have been
created merely to clothe us, and to nourish us with their milk and
flesh, have not been endowed by nature either with the intelligence, or
the activity, or the cunning, or the invention, or the skill bestowed on
the omnivorous and carnivorous species, hard is their fate under the
pressing needs of hunger. Peaceful creatures, they browse in vain on
deleterious plants on a sterile soil; their external and internal
teguments now afford a favourable seat for the propagation of
parasites--for the _parasitogenia_; and soon after a general _adynamia_,
or relaxation of the fibres, delivers them up without resistance to the
morbific elements of the infectious diseases to which they are exposed,
where the languishing, the sick, and the rotting are herded together,
and they are carried off by hecatombs by this wasteful and devouring
typhus.


II.

We may readily conclude, from these general observations on infectious
and contagious diseases, that they must have existed in all former ages;
and if in our present advanced state of civilization they are so
destructive, we may be sure that in those remote periods they must have
been, both as regards man as well as the brute creation, the cause of
general extermination, in whatever parts of the earth they prevailed.
And indeed, whenever we refer to ancient or modern history, we are
continually struck with the analogy which exists between the epidemic
diseases signalized by the general name of PLAGUE, and which
decimated all the living beings, and those which more recently, and at
the present moment, have startled the world by their fatal effects on
men and animals.

Moreover, we cannot too often repeat the fact--in order that those
documents relating to the past which contain useful instruction may be
examined and searched into--that the physiological and pathological laws
which rule and determine the phenomena of organic matter, whether in
health or sickness, were, like the laws of chemistry, electricity, and
astronomy, originally established at the time of creation, and that
matter submits with passive obedience to the laws of transformation and
transubstantiation, which are the absolute condition of life. These are
the eternal laws of which a synthesis so admirable is furnished by the
Gospel, in this short injunction, "_Take, eat, this is my body; drink,
this is my blood._"

Now, if man, who is the sovereign master of this matter, did not take
care to regulate and modify it for his own benefit and the benefit of
all living creatures on whom his own life depends, as well as his wealth
and happiness; if he did not seek thereby continually to diminish the
sum of evil, and to extend the sum of good which it is his mission to
increase, he would violate these laws, which are inherent in matter, and
which have existed for his use since the creation of the world.

We must likewise believe that those PLAGUES which are spoken of
in the Bible, those which Homer alludes to, that which is related by
Plutarch, and which succeeded the general drought in 753 before Christ;
those mentioned by Titus Livius, Virgil, Ovid, and other Latin authors,
the most virulent of which plagues raged in the years 310, 212, and 178
of the Foundation of Rome, resembled the epidemics or plagues which are
witnessed in our own day.

The plague of 212 swept away all the inhabitants of Sicily, cattle as
well as men; that of 178 destroyed all the priests, who sought in vain
for victims free from the contagion, to offer them up as sacrifices to
the offended Gods.

Cecilius Severus gives a most striking description of a pestilential
disease which, in 376 A.D., swept away all the cattle in
Europe. Judging from his account of that scourge, we may fairly believe
that the distemper he has described was identically the same as the one
which has just broken out in England. "A universal distaste, sudden
dejection, vertigoes, spasmodic tension in the limbs, _a painful_
_swelling of the lower belly_, violent affections of the nerves, sudden
death--everything shows the presence of a pestilential ferment, which
irritates the solids, infects and vitiates the fluids, which is the
cause of the putrefaction of the humours, manifested by the swelling of
the lower belly, which in that case depends on a putrid fermentation so
as to disengage air."

A piece of iron, representing the sign of the Cross, was heated in the
fire, and when red-hot was applied to the forehead of the sick animals;
and this remedy was looked upon at that time as the most effectual they
could apply.

Grégoire de Tours makes mention of an epidemic, the result of a long dry
summer, which, in 592, was very fatal in its havoc, sparing no living
creature whatever.

André Duchesne, in his "History of England," speaks of an epidemic
which, in 1316, during the reign of Edward II., owed its origin, on the
contrary, to a long season of rains.

The celebrated physicians Ramazzini and Lancisi relate that in 1711, an
ox which had been imported from Hungary, that constant focus of typhus,
displayed the most deadly form of the cattle disease, in the Venetian
territory, although no alteration in the air or waters had been observed
in Italy, and the seasons had been regular and the pastures abundant.
The contagion spread into Piedmont, where it carried of 70,000 head of
cattle; thence it extended to France and Holland, each of which
countries lost 200,000 of these animals. The trade in hides introduced
the distemper into England, where it proved no less fatal. It was the
same in the other countries of Europe.

In this disease, the intestines of the affected cattle were, as in the
present epizootia, inflamed, and strewed over with livid spots and
ulcerations, and the blood, though apparently fluid in the body of the
animal, _coagulated directly after it had issued from the vein_.

Herment thence concludes, that this epizootia is nothing more than an
inflammation of the blood. Lancisi advised his contemporaries to put to
death without pity every animal which was affected or seemed to be
affected with the disease; and it was in England that this spirited
resolve was first acted upon.

The three counties of Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey arrested the course
of this contagion in less than three months, by adopting this measure;
whilst in the rest of the stricken counties of Great Britain, and
likewise in Holland, where this decisive course was not taken at all,
the disease prevailed among the cattle for several years. Since that
time, it has been insisted on by some authors, that the barbarous
process of general extermination offers the most effectual remedy which,
in our present state of ignorance and improvidence, we could have
recourse to, in order to check the diffusion and the duration of this
fell disease.

The learned Goelicke describes an epizootia which was witnessed in 1730,
at Frankfort-on-the-Oder. His narrative, written with a masterly hand,
might very properly be applied to the disease which we are now
considering; and the treatment recommended by this earnest and vigilant
observer is so wisely deduced from the symptoms, that even in the
present day we might take that treatment as a model.

We could have borrowed much more largely from this source of
biographical researches had we not deemed that these quotations would be
sufficient for the purpose we had in view in this work. But from these
authorities we think it may justly be concluded, that infectious and
contagious diseases among horned cattle have frequently appeared from
the remotest times down to the middle of the eighteenth century.

All these attacks of epizootia were a frequent and severe cause of
suffering and misery among animals and men; but the ravages which they
left behind them were of slight importance each time, if we compare them
with those attending the epizootia which towards the year 1746 affected
the animal kingdom. This dreadful scourge lasted ten years, and swept
away nearly the whole race of horned cattle throughout Europe. It was
closely studied and thoroughly understood in its causes, its symptoms,
and its treatment by the scientific authors of that day, and those
writers, more judicious than we, did not designate the malady by the
title of PLAGUE. This particular visitation deserves to fix our
attention in an especial manner, not only on account of its striking
resemblance to the disease which now makes us all so anxious, but
because it induced two English physicians, Malcolm Flemming and Peter
Layard, to write on this disease two accounts or statements which are
equal, if not superior, to all the volumes which have since appeared on
the subject of the Cattle Disease. There is no help for it, and our
pride must bend itself to the acknowledgment: these two men, our seniors
by a century, were men of quite another stamp. Their expositions,
enriched with quotations from the Greek and Latin authors, abounding in
facts, ingenious insights and inferences, are far superior in merit to
the multitude of voluminous works which have been written and published
since then. It would be easy to prove that these two sagacious inquirers
far better understood than we have done the real nature of this cattle
disease, and that we must be grateful to them for first opening the way
which all of us must take in order to discover the preventive and
curative means of which we are still ignorant.

Let us observe, in passing, that these two physicians, who appear to
have been scarcely known, enlightened by the effects of the inoculation
of small-pox, then practised from man to man, appear to have first
conceived the idea, now practised in Russia, of preventing the
propagation of the contagious cattle disease by means of inoculation;
and we may raise the interest of this remark by reminding the reader
that their experiments to inoculate cattle were made in 1757, eight
years after the very year which gave birth to the future inoculation of
man with animal virus by the celebrated Jenner. By this it would appear
that the twofold honour of applying the method of inoculation as both
preventive and curative means in respect of contagion in cattle, and as
the preventive means by the variola of the cow to resist the ravages of
the small-pox in man, is the indisputable claim of English
physicians.[A]


III.

Very little is known of the origin or first outbreak of the epizootia
which produced such fearful ravages in the middle of the eighteenth
century. Some suppose that it first appeared in Tartary, where it
occasioned a disorder twice as extensive in its pernicious effects as
any similar distemper which had been known up to that time. Thence it
passed into Russia, from which it spread on one side into Poland,
Livonia, Prussia, Pomerania, and Holland, and from that country into
England; on the other side towards the East, it invaded the Turkish
Empire, Bohemia, Hungary, Dalmatia, Austria, Moravia, Styria, the Gulf
of Venice, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, the banks of the Rhine, and
Denmark.

But another opinion has assigned Bohemia as the source from which this
destructive epizootia took its rise, and its supporters allege that
during the siege of Prague the cattle feeding in its plains had been
deprived of their usual fodder by the continual _razzias_ of the French
to supply their own cavalry.

Be this as it may, this virulent cattle disease having at length
assumed the proportions of a public calamity, the several governments
were obliged to take it into serious consideration, and the medical
faculties and most celebrated physicians began to make it the subject of
their studies and reports. In France, therefore, the professors of the
faculty of Paris and Montpellier, suspending every other pursuit,
devoted their most assiduous care and attention to dumb animals.

Sauvages, the Dean of the Faculty at Montpellier, drew up a most
philosophical and learned account of the prevailing disease, in which,
like Stahl, he forgot probably for a moment the part which, in the
progress of distempers, he ascribes to the soul.

The professors of Paris, very famous in their day, but who, having left
behind them no works so valuable as the "Nosologia" of Sauvages, are now
completely forgotten, likewise addressed the result of their inquiries
and lucubrations to the King.

Doctor Leclerc was sent into Holland, whence he brought back a Memorial,
which was a reflex of the opinions he found current in Denmark, and
which has been transmitted to us in the _Memorials of the Royal Society
of Science at Copenhagen_.

It is evident from the reflections found in the writings of Malcolm
Flemming, Layard, and other competent observers, that this formidable
epizootia was in its character identical with the one described by
Ramazzini and Lancisi in 1711; and we feel warranted in saying, after
having examined every work of any importance which has treated of that
visitation, that it resembles the disease now prevailing among cattle,
in its march, in its symptoms, and in its gravity. We believe that these
three visitations constitute but one and the same malady, occurring at
three different periods. This appears to us a most important fact, for
if such be the case, the tentative treatment of that time deserves our
most particular attention. Consequently, a few retrospective glances may
perhaps be permitted us, in considering the subject of cattle disease.

The medical professors (including several English physicians), who
observed and described the epizootia of 1745, divided the same into
three periods.

The duration of the disease, when it passed through all its phases up to
the death of the affected animal, consisting of from ten to twelve days,
they usually ascribed to each of these periods or stages an average
continuance of three or four days.

_1st Period._--After a few days of latent incubation, which the observer
could not suspect, the sick animal betrayed signs of the morbid state
which was about to declare itself, by his careless feeding, by drooping
his head, and by exhibiting the deepest dejection of spirits in his
attitude and look. Rumination, already imperfect, soon ceased
altogether, the appetite failed, the horns, ears, and hoofs were cold,
the hair grew stiff, the tongue and mucus looked white; the eyes were
tearful and fixed, the hearing obtuse, whilst, in the cows, the supply
of milk diminished. In cases of unusual gravity, transient shiverings
testified to a serious disturbance in all the animal functions. These
shiverings were followed by a violent fever, the blood became inflamed,
the breath hot, the respiration hurried and sometimes attended with
slight coughing; when, if too violent a repercussion was transmitted to
the nervous centres, the pressure on the vertebral line became
intolerable, and the animal, seized with vertigo, and almost delirious
with pain, would fall during this first period, as if struck by
lightning.

The same phenomena are sometimes observed in the typhoid fever of man,
which offers moreover some analogy with the contagious typhus of the ox;
but as the ox and the horse have likewise the real typhus fever, they
may some day supply us with the preventive virus for that fever, in the
same manner as the cow now supplies us with the preventive virus for the
small-pox.

_2nd Period._--In most cases the disease pursued its course with greater
or less regularity; the sick animal experienced gnawing pains or
twitchings, and spasmodic shootings in the limbs, apparently attended
with pain. His thirst was insatiable, but he had no appetite, the
functions of the bladder and intestines were impeded, then diarrhoea
supervened, accompanied with dry, fetid, and sometimes bloody excreta.
Thick viscid mucosities dripped from the nostrils, mouth, and eyes. The
dorsal regions and the loins were constantly aching, headache and
sleeplessness were permanent. The animal continued either standing or
lying down, and if he wanted to rest, he could not bend himself
gradually, but would fall like an inert mass to the ground.

_3rd Period._--Diarrhoea was continual, becoming more fetid every day,
the wasting of flesh made rapid strides; the cellular tissue beneath the
hide was filled with gas along the vertebral channels and under the
abdomen; the nostrils were stopped up with mucosities, the animal could
only breathe through the mouth, puffing and blowing aloud as he drew in
the air; and at last pustular eruptions showed themselves on various
parts; but as this depurating crisis was insufficient, the poor beast,
in this final period of the attack, fell a sacrifice to it between the
seventh and twelfth day. If he chanced to be lying down his agony was
slow, but if standing, he would sink upon himself, and expire at once.

In this dreadful epizootia, very few of the smitten cattle survived--not
more than four or five in a hundred; and in these favourable cases, the
symptoms presented certain signs and critical phenomena of a happy omen.
In these rare exceptions, the pulse did not exceed seventy, the
beatings of the heart were always perceptible, the patient did not
refuse to drink, the continuous fever exhibited no aggravation at night,
pustular eruptions and tumours appeared on the dewlap and the fore
limbs, and the epidermis over the mouth and nostrils peeled off about
the twelfth day.

When dissected, the bodies offered to view the following alterations,
the same having already been observed by Frascator during the prevalence
of the epizootia in 1514, and by Lancisi and Ramazzini during that which
was so fatal in 1711. The mucous glands of the mouth were livid, and
occasionally excoriated; the bronchial tubes were obstructed with
mucosities; the lungs, besides being partially congested, were sometimes
emphysematous, that is, inflated with compressed air. Of the four
stomachs, the rumen was full of food, the reticulum, the omasum, and the
abomasum exhibited purple or livid spots, according to their place. The
thin intestine and the thick intestine showed either a general
injection, scattered livid spots, or ulcerations, according as the fever
had worn the exanthematous or typhoid form; for the mucous membrane of
the digestive channels, and especially that of the intestines, displays,
like the external tegument in man and the brute creation, divers forms
of inflammation, analogous with the measles, the scarlatina, and the
small-pox; so that, if the typhoid fever in man, which is nothing else
than the small-pox of the intestines, is so frequently cured, it is
because the general morbid condition, the fever, often conceals
different intestinal lesions, albeit they seem to be similar in the
general symptoms, which taken collectively constitute the disease.

The flesh of these diseased animals was blackish, and devoid of blood;
the animals which fed upon it, if uncooked, sickened afterwards, or
died. The wrecks of the bodies, and more particularly the skin,
sometimes retained a strength of contagion so deadly, that the mere
exportation of them was enough to cause its propagation, and to this
cause was at that time attributed the outbreak of the contagion in
England.

An extraordinary case of this pernicious influence, which is related by
Hartmann, who observed this epizootia at its decline in 1756, will give
an idea of the subtlety of this malignant virus.

A farmer who had lost an ox in consequence of that virulent distemper,
buried it in one of his fields. The following night a bear smelt the ox,
raked it up with his feet, ate a portion of the flesh, and a few days
after, the beast of prey was found dead in a neighbouring wood by a
peasant in the parish of Eumaki. The skin belonging to this bear was
magnificent. The peasant flayed the animal and carried home his skin in
triumph. But his triumph was short; for that same night the poor
countryman fell ill, and died two days after the attack. The magistrates
of Wiburg, having heard of this occurrence, sent orders to have the
infected skin burned. Meanwhile, the skin had been given to the curate
of the place as a compensation for the offices of burial; but his
cupidity having persuaded him that this fine skin could not have
destroyed the peasant whom he had just buried, he did not burn it at
all, but induced another peasant to clean and dress it for him. This
simple fellow and two other clodpoles, who assisted him in the
preparation, fell ill, and all three of them died in the course of a
few days. A new and peremptory order now came from Wiburg to burn this
skin, to burn the house in which it had been dressed, to burn even the
presbytery itself, should it be deemed necessary. The skin had already
passed through several hands. However, the curate being still reluctant
to part with it, took it home again. "Can it be possible," said he to
himself, "that this skin has really proved fatal to life? What can have
been the cause, I wonder?" At the same time he rubbed it in his hands
and smelt it. Unlucky curate! A few days afterwards he himself was taken
ill and died. (_Memoirs of the Academy of Stockholm._)

A native of Clermont Ferrand, in the department of Puy de Dôme, in
France, the birth-place of Pascal, one day finding an ox which had died
of the epizootia, stripped off the skin and carried it away. After his
return home, the black typhus, and then gangrene, broke out on one of
his arms, which had to be cut off, and the patient died of the effects
of the amputation.

A butcher having slaughtered an ox smitten with this typhus, sold the
flesh for meat to some soldiers of the Regiment Royal Bavière, then
garrisoned in one of the towns of Languedoc. All those who partook of
this meat were seized with diarrhoea, dysentery, and fever, and
several of the sick soldiers very nearly died. The butcher, whose
avarice had caused all this mischief, had richly deserved some exemplary
punishment, and some of the sufferers proposed that he should be hanged
outright, but the majority, more clement, sentenced him to be beaten
black and blue with horsewhips.

The popular saying, _when the beast is dead the poison is dead_, being
generally true, the virulence of the contagion, in the above instances,
possessed venomous properties of an exceptional character, for if every
sick animal slaughtered by the butchers and sold to the consumers, or
those which had been flayed for the sake of the skin, had contained so
murderous a virus in their tissues, the number of victims to the
contagion among the human species would have been appalling. And in that
case, too, similar sacrifices would be witnessed at present, for it
cannot be doubted that, in the actual state of the meat market in
London, the people are now in the daily habit of eating the flesh of
cattle which are diseased.


IV.

Physicians of different countries have naturally bestowed much time and
care in considering and discussing the nature of this epizootia, because
they have felt that a satisfactory theory and appreciation of its
principal phenomena, might afford the medical faculty a rational basis
for some special treatment.

Layard and the physicians of Geneva have considered this cattle disease
to be _a malignant fever with an eruptive tendency_.

In the estimation of the faculties of Paris and Montpellier, this cattle
disease, considered in its symptoms, was nothing more than _a malignant
fever essentially contagious_, the action of which appeared to tend
exclusively towards the skin, and therefore it was rational to provoke
external eruptions and deposits which, as they matured, diverted from
the centre the greatest part of the morbific matter.

_The treatment_, to which, above all, we invite the reader's attention
(more particularly that of medical men), necessarily varied according to
the period of the disease. It was sometimes preservative, sometimes
curative, as the case might be.

_The Preventive Treatment._--The farmers and cattle-breeders, whose
herds were still exempt from the contagion, mindful of the advice which
they received through the public press, took very particular care of
their cattle during this season of epizootia: they rubbed them over with
a brush, and washed them at least once a day; they sheltered them from
the inclemency of wind and rain; they took their milch cows, which until
then they had kept shut up in unhealthy cow-houses, into the open air of
the fields; they washed and fumigated the stables; they examined the
quality of the fodder and of the other articles of food; they added
marine salt to their drinking water, or poured salt water over their
forage; and above all, they took care that no foreign animal commingled
with their flocks and herds.

Some physicians, on their side conscious of the duty which devolves upon
them in such seasons of calamity, instead of resting satisfied with
recommending remedies, betook themselves boldly to the work, and studied
the disease experimentally in respect to its propagation and prevention.

Thus, for instance, certain Dutch physicians, in 1754, wishing to know
whether the morbid matter would transmit the disease by inoculation,
made incisions in the necks of some oxen, cows and calves, inserting in
the wound a little tow saturated with the morbid secretions discharged
from the eyes and nostrils. This direct inoculation having been
practised on seventeen animals, transmitted the disease to them all in
the course of a few days.

The English physicians having been made acquainted with these
experiments, applied them to a more practical purpose, no longer to
discover whether the disease could thus be transmitted (for that had
been proved), but to find out (what was far more important) whether this
fearful distemper could be prevented and kept off.

Malcolm Flemming, in 1755, merely suggested the idea of inoculation as a
preventive means, without proceeding to a course of experiments to
ratify his opinion. He intimates his notion in the following terms:--

"I apprehend that inoculation will stand the better chance of bringing
on the distemper, if the subject it is performed on is as young as
safety will permit, the vessels being then most absorbent, and the
animal economy most easily put into disorder.

"But even in case the inoculation of calves should be found so
successful as universally to prevail, the method I recommend will not be
altogether useless; for, by being properly modelled and adapted to
circumstances, it may, I am persuaded, prevent contagion, and likewise
act as a preparative in any epidemical affection of the inflammatory
kind, not only in horned cattle, but likewise in all other quadrupeds
that civil society may think worthy of preservation, and even in the
human species."

Layard, in 1757, devotes the seventh chapter of his work, "The Means to
prevent the Infection," to the consideration of the preventive
treatment, in which he says:--

"No one will think of bringing the infection into any place free from
it, merely for the sake of inoculating their cattle; but if the
contagious distemper be in the neighbourhood of a herd, or break out so
as to endanger the stock, the grazier or farmer may, by inoculating his
cattle, with proper precautions, at least secure his stock, since he can
house them before they fall sick, prepare them, and have due care taken,
knowing the course of the distemper.

"Sir William St. Quintin, the Rev. Dr. Fountayne, Dean of York, and
other gentlemen have succeeded in inoculation: in Holland it has both
failed and succeeded. These gentlemen all inoculated with matter taken
from the running of the mouth, nose, or eyes. Professor Swenke mentions
that the beast from which he took the matter was recovering from the
distemper. A circumstance to be attended to is this:--had matter been
taken after the crisis, from a tumour, boil, pimple, or scab, either on
the back near the spine, or on the legs, the pus would have proved much
more elaborated, subtle, and infecting than that which, flowing with the
mucus of the nose, must necessarily be, in some degree, sheathed by this
glutinous excretion, though I am well aware how putrid and acrid it is
rendered by the disease.

"That nothing may be omitted which in any shape can contribute to the
success of inoculation, due attention should be paid to the constitution
and state of the beast, no less in this practice on the cattle than on
the human species. Undoubtedly the young, healthy, and strong bid fairer
for a good issue than the old, sickly, and feeble; each of these
different constitutions demand a particular treatment, even in the
method of preparation; and however trifling it may seem to many--the
urging a necessity of preparation--I will venture to affirm that I have
seen excellent effects arising from a rational preparation, and fatal
events from want of preparation. I have likewise been witness of
unfavourable turns, merely from an injudicious preparation.

"The beasts which are sanguine require moderate bleeding; those that
have but a small share of blood must have none drawn. The strong must,
besides moderate bleeding and purging, be kept on light diet, and their
body kept open. Thus, scalded bran, mixed with their hay and chaff, will
cool them. The weakly, and such as are inclined to scour, must be kept
on dry fodder, and have peas and beans given them to strengthen them. A
mess of malt, or a quart of warm ale, with a few spices, will be very
suitable for them.

"Whatever diseases the cattle may be affected with, if time will permit,
they are first to be removed.

"The cattle to be inoculated are first to be well washed, rubbed dry,
and then curried, to remove all the filth from the hair and skin. Then
they are to be placed in a spacious barn or stable, where the air is
temperate and no cold can come to them. There they are to be prepared
according to the direction already given, foddered with good sweet hay,
and watered with clear spring water; and if the distemper be not near,
they may be turned out into the air, near the barn or stable, and may
stay there a few hours in the middle of the day.

"When it appears that the cattle are in perfect health, free from any
infection or disease, brisk and lively, neither costive nor scouring,
and chewing their cud, then the operation may be safely undertaken, and
henceforth they must be confined to the barn.

"Since there is observed to follow the greatest flow of the contagious
and putrid particles separated from the blood, wherever the infectious
matter makes an impression at first, particular care must be taken not
to inoculate near such vital parts as the heart and lungs, nor near the
womb, if a cow with calf be inoculated; for, though rowels are properly
applied in the dewlaps to draw off the pestilential humour from the
breast, and in other cases beasts are frequently rowelled in the
flanks,--yet, in this operation, as matter is inserted by these channels
into the neighbouring vessels, those vital parts, or the womb, might
become the chief seat of the disease, and the event prove fatal.

"To prevent such accidents, human beings have been inoculated on the
arms and legs, and now-a-days the arms are found sufficient. I would
recommend that the cattle should be inoculated about the middle of the
shoulders or buttocks, on both sides, to have the benefit of two drains.
The skin is to be cut lengthways two inches, deep enough for the blood
to start, but not to bleed much. In this incision is to be put a dossil
or pledget of tow, dipped in the matter of a boil full ripe, opened in
the back of a young calf recovering from the distemper. It may not be
amiss to stitch up the wound, to keep the tow in, and let it remain
forty-eight hours. Then the stitches are to be cut, the tow taken out,
and the wound dressed with yellow basilicum ointment, or one made with
turpentine and yolk of egg, spread on pledgets of tow. These dressings
are to be continued during the whole illness, and till after the
recovery of the beast, to promote the discharge; and then the wound may
be healed with the cerate of lapis calaminaris, or any other.

"On the third day after inoculation, the discolouring of the wound,
whose lips appear grey and swollen, will be a sign that the inoculation
has succeeded; but the beasts, as Professor Swenke informs us, did not
fall ill till the sixth day, which answers exactly to the observations
daily made in the inoculating of children. Yet the Professor adds that
on the third day a costiveness came on, which was removed by giving each
calf three ounces of Epsom salts.

"No sooner do the symptoms of heaviness and stupidity appear than the
beasts must have a light covering thrown over them, and at night
fastened loosely. They must be rubbed morning and evening, and curried,
till the boils begin to rise; warm hay-water and vinegar-whey must be
given plentifully. Should the beasts require more nourishment, dry meat,
such as cut hay, with a little bran, may be offered. I should be very
cautious in giving milk-pottage, even after the boils and pimples had
all come out, for fear of bringing on a scouring. However, this caution
is proper, that whenever milk-pottage be given, the vinegar-whey is to
be omitted for obvious reasons. In cases of accident, the same attention
is to be observed in the disease by inoculation as in the natural way,
and the medicines recommended are the same I would use; but by
inoculation there seldom is a call for any, so favourably does the
distemper proceed through its several stages.

"The crisis being over, it will be proper to purge the cattle, to air
them by degrees, and to have the same regard in the management of them
as is laid down in the chapter on the method of cure."

Such are the recommendations which Layard has prescribed for those who
have to practise inoculation as a preventive treatment; it would be
difficult to offer an example of greater prudence or precision.

A certain number of oxen were, by means of this inoculation, protected
against the attack of the cattle disease; and this mode of treatment
was, as we shall afterwards explain, adopted in Russia. Unfortunately,
this rational and preventive treatment was discovered only at the end of
the epizootia, when already upwards of six millions of horned cattle had
fallen a sacrifice to the contagious fever.

_Curative Means._--When the first course of the disease had left no
doubt of the attack, the sick animal was subjected to an appropriate
diet, and restricted to liquids either as medicinal decoctions, or as
alimentary beverages. The decoctions consisted of whey mixed with a
little vinegar, and nitred hay. The broths, or alimentary beverages,
consisted of a decoction of bread, and of water mixed with bran and
meal, whether of barley, oats, or wheat.

At this stage of the curative process, the majority of physicians
recommended one or two bleedings, in order to abate the violence of the
fever, and of the congestions near the nervous centres and the lungs;
and as constipation prevailed at the time, they strove with the same
object to empty the digestive passages, the intestines, and the
stomachs, notwithstanding the difficulty that exists to produce this
result in ruminating animals.

The purgatives employed consisted of a decoction of senna, mixed with
prune juice, with a little rhubarb or fresh linseed oil, infused in
their drink, or applied as a clyster in warm water slightly salted.
Those who practised polypharmacy administered at night a mixture of
nitre, camphor, red-lead, and rhubarb, in half a pailful of warm water;
and greatly did they boast of the active influence of this beverage.

Some practitioners even endeavoured, in the first stage of the malady,
to accelerate its action on the skin by giving for that purpose warm
drinks, and by covering the cattle with woollen cloths, to promote
perspiration; but it was generally admitted that the sick animals
preferred cold drinks, and that they were particularly fond of
acidulated whey.

In the second period of the distemper, the same drinks were continued,
adding thereto some theriac or Jesuit's bark, in order to lessen the
frequency of the diarrhoetic evacuations. They also provoked the
depurating secretions from the mouth, nose, and eyes, by repeated
washings; and as those animals, in which the running was most easy and
copious, seemed to be less seriously affected with the disease, they
strove to increase that which flowed from the glands of the mouth by
fixing a gag in the jaws, and keeping it there for several hours. This
measure seemed so efficacious that a decree from the Parlement de Rouen,
issued on the 13th of March, 1745, ordered the application of a gag, or
bit, for three hours every day, to the cattle under treatment.

In the third period, they sought to overcome the wasting of strength in
the system by means of tonic and nutritious drinks, decoctions of
centaury, Jesuit's bark, juniper berries, &c. They likewise administered
emollient clysters if the evacuations were bloody.

Moreover, they placed two or three setons, principally in the dewlap, in
order to obey the signs and indications of nature--_quo natura vergit,
eo ducendum_; as a salutary and critical eruption of the skin was at
that period forcing its way. These setons were kept open with a mixture
of turpentine and yolks of egg, for the purpose of encouraging the
secretion. The purulent or emphysematous tumours were cut.

But whatever means might be employed, almost all the cattle perished,
and the few and rare recoveries only afforded the pessimists the
satisfaction of claiming the merit of them for themselves. It was
remarked, besides, that the fattest beasts were the least able to resist
the effects of the distemper.

It is hardly necessary to say, that during the whole course of the
treatment, great care was taken to keep both the stables and the cattle
in a perfect state of cleanliness.

The convalescence of those animals which were cured was invariably long,
and required great attention as to their food and hygienic treatment.
Solid substances, roots, and forage were withheld until rumination
revived; and it was only after several days of encouraging trials that
the recovered animal was suffered at last to feed all day in the field,
according to his pleasure.

Such, then, was that formidable epizootia which, in the middle of the
eighteenth century, swept away upwards of six millions of horned cattle,
and which occasioned a loss to Europe exceeding fifty millions
sterling--perhaps we might say a hundred millions--for other domestic
animals, sheep, horses, &c. (as generally happens in cases of
epizootia), had likewise suffered, in different degrees, from the
various complaints arising from inclement seasons.

It was certainly necessary to our purpose that we should have taken this
retrospective view of the cattle disease, and it will afford us a
valuable guide for the future. We may now content ourselves with
bringing together the different annals in the chain of time which
elapsed between Layard's treatise, which was published in 1757, and the
present day. This chain of time amounts to 108 years.


V.

The typhus of Horned Cattle, which had shown itself in a manner
permanent, sometimes raging at one part of the globe, sometimes at
another, could not, under the unaltered conditions by which it had been
generated, suspend its ravages; and though, thanks to her isolated
position, England may be less exposed to it than other countries, it is,
however, necessary to take note of what may serve for our instruction in
the several epizootics which will pass under our view.

Medical writers relate that contagious typhus broke out several times in
Holland during the years 1768, 1769, and 1770; it also appeared in
French Flanders in 1771, in Hainault in 1773. In France one particular
spot was, at this period, completely rendered intact by drawing a
sanitary fence about its limits, and bestowing on the cattle particular
hygienic attention as a safeguard. The stables of these animals were
washed, cleansed, and fumigated; spring water was given them to drink,
their food was chosen with care, and a certain quantity of salt was
mixed with it.

In 1774, Holland, a cold and damp country, was once more invaded by the
scourge; and the Government offered in vain a reward of 80,000 florins
to any one who should discover the preventive or specific remedy for the
disease.

The typhus which, at that epoch, had likewise broken out again in the
south of France, threatened to become an abiding peril to the wealth of
nations. Two French authors, Vicq d'Azyr and Paulet, betook themselves
earnestly to the task of collecting every document which up to that time
had been published on the successive visitations of the malady, and of
offering the means of preventing it. Their intention was unquestionably
laudable, but the time for obtaining such a result had not yet arrived;
besides which, these two writers, whatever may have been their desert,
were not equal to an achievement of this character. They belonged,
indeed, to that order of men who look upon the cultivation of science
solely as a step to personal distinction.

Vicq d'Azyr himself was but twenty-five years old when he issued, in
1775, his work, entitled, "Exposé des Moyens curatifs et preservatifs
qui peuvent être employés contre les Maladies des Bêtes à Cornes." We
should deceive ourselves if we expected to find in this exposition
anything but an interesting compilation of the works already published.

Paulet's treatise appeared likewise in 1775, under the title,
"Recherches historiques et physiques sur les Maladies epizootiques, avec
les Moyens d'y rémédier dans tous les Cas, publiées _par ordre du Roi_."
Paris. Two volumes.

After reading and reflecting on this title, as servile as it is
arrogant, I might have dispensed with all examination of the work. A
scientific man, whilst in the pursuit of truth, takes orders from
nobody, not even from kings. Paulet, therefore, writing _by order_,
could only produce a work of mediocrity, and such is incontestably the
degree of value of his two volumes, forming, as they do, a fastidious
dissertation of epizootics in general, and of those relating to cattle
in particular.

The works of Paulet and Vicq d'Azyr, written at the same time, not being
the labour of men practising the medical art, are on a level as to the
notions which they have handed down to us; but that of Vicq d'Azyr
being the better of the two, we shall extract therefrom what may chiefly
interest us.

Vicq d'Azyr relates the history of the epizootics, and expatiates on the
original cause of the typhus in horned cattle, and on its nature. The
passages in which he treats of its mode of propagation and its
treatment, are the most deserving of our notice.

He says, that he tried to no purpose to communicate the disease a second
time to animals which had been fortunate enough to get cured.

That cows covered with the fresh skins stripped from dead cattle,
victims to the distemper, did not contract it.

That infected clothes which had been worn by men who had served in
hospitals where cattle were under treatment, having been laid on the
backs of several beasts in sound health, were found to transmit the
distemper in three cases out of six.

That the gases expelled from the intestines, received into a bladder
ball, and let out under the noses of healthy cattle, have communicated
the disease to them, after ten or fifteen days of latent incubation;
and that the same gases being mixed with their drink, have also
propagated the contagion.

That frictions, with the hands impregnated with virus, having been made
over the skin, did not produce any ill effects.

That some oxen which had been designedly placed for a few hours among
sick animals, have afterwards been seized with the distemper.

That a calf which had been placed in a stall containing some oxen
grievously affected, but which calf had a basket beneath its nose filled
with aromatic herbs, withstood the contagion.

That cowsheds which had been partially cleansed and fumigated,
transmitted the disease to other cattle, even several months after they
had been vacated.

Finally, he mentions the experiments of inoculation made by Lay and in
England, but not understanding their aim and capacity, he adds, that
inoculation does not seem to him of any use, since the inoculated
animals all died. Yet he quotes the encouraging results obtained by
Camper in Holland, who, out of 112 inoculated cattle, saved 41; and
those of Koopman, who, out of 94, cured 45 by this very inoculation.

He reminds us that the cattle typhus is an abiding disease in Hungary
and Russia, where the beasts having bad water to drink, can only be
protected by a constant use of marine salt (_sel gemme_); but being
deprived of this salt, when they go great distances to be sold, and
being exposed to extreme fatigue and privations, the typhus then spreads
among them. He likewise tells us that Hungary and Dalmatia, which used
to supply the markets of Italy with butcher's meat, were obliged to give
up sending any cattle there, the Italians having firmly refused to
purchase the same at any price whatever.

As regards treatment, the advice which Vicq d'Azyr gives to
agriculturists, is mostly borrowed from the authors who have written on
the great epizootics of 1711, and 1745 to 1755. Thus, he advises them to
give as drinks in the first stage, water whitened with meal and nitred;
to purge the animals with linseed oil; even to make scarifications on
the skin, and to keep up the suppuration with turpentine; to make the
animals inhale six times a day vapours seasoned with vinegar; to wrap
them over with woollen cloths; to bleed them once or twice; to
administer to them, when diarrhoea shows itself, a beverage containing
wormwood, quinine, and diascordium; to cut open the tumours containing
pus or air, etc.

It is, as is seen, the same treatment as that quoted above; he
guarantees its success, and supports his views by the authority of Van
Swieten and Huxan.

Van Swieten, however, had somewhat modified the treatment, by the
predominance which he allowed to acids; and this course seemed to him to
be only reasonable with respect to animals whose sick humours contain an
excess of alkali.

Vicq d'Azyr fixed his attention on the means of prevention, the most
effectual of which, in his opinion, was to slaughter every animal which
had either sickened, or had been exposed to the influence of the
contagion; and as he insisted that the authorities had no measures to
keep in this matter of public interest, he made it a principle that the
government was bound to compensate the cattle proprietors whose animals
had to be killed--the more so, said he, that the crafty husbandmen would
never come forward and freely declare the invalidity of their cattle,
unless some indemnity were held out to them, which they would look upon
as a sort of equivalent for the benefits they had expected by cutting
them up and selling them as the food of man.

The doctors of the period, scenting in Vicq d'Azyr a dangerous
competitor, considered the advice of exterminating the diseased cattle
as an _ingenious means of curing_ them, and as the author's age and
experience gave warrant for this satirical tone of discussion, the
public joined them in laughing at him.

The epizootic typhus, if not so destructive, was at least as frequent in
the early part of the nineteenth century, as it had been during the
eighteenth. The armies during the wars of united Europe against the
French Republic and Empire, found it constantly in their train. Nor
could it be otherwise, the two leading causes of its prevalence being at
hand. For on one hand there was the transit of large herds from the
steppes of Hungary, and on the other the wretched hygienic conditions
amidst which the cattle had to live in the campaigning armies.

Many books have been published of late years on the diseases of cattle,
in France and Germany; and several distinguished English veterinary
surgeons, especially Professor Simonds, have also devoted their
attention to the same subject. In the second part of this work, we shall
have occasion to refer to their labours.

In France, Renault, Delafond, d'Arboval, Gellé, whose works enjoy a
deserved reputation, have discussed the subject of the origin of this
disease.

Renault asserts that the disease has but one single focus, the steppes
of Russia and Hungary. The epizootics of Asia, Africa, and South America
are caused, he considers, by the importation of animals to those
countries. It is thus that he explains the epizootia which, under the
name of Delombodera, devastated the American Republics in 1832, and that
which, in 1841, appeared in Egypt. Renault thinks that neither the long
transit, nor the filthy state of the markets, nor the most wretched
feeding, are sufficient to account for contagious typhus among cattle;
that in addition to these causes, it still requires, in order to produce
and generate it among animals, a predisposition, and a special aptitude,
such as, hitherto at least, do not appear to have been witnessed except
in the progeny of the steppes.

The other professors of his fraternity have submitted arguments to him,
which to us seem very rational; and we will endeavour to do justice to
them when we discuss the origin of the typhus which at this moment is
afflicting England.


VI.

These historical dissertations and speculations on the subject of the
bovine epizootia certainly deserve to draw the attention of all who feel
an interest in the malady; but how insignificant they are compared with
the concluding facts which I have still to mention, before I at length
address myself to the consideration of the epizootia which is now
consuming our herds!

The indisputable fact that so terrible a distemper as this typhus had
fixed itself permanently in Russia, and that it was causing incalculable
losses to the lordly proprietors of the steppes, as well as to the
government, roused them at last from their indifference. Then, indeed,
they urged the veterinary doctors to adopt some energetic means to
arrest the long duration of the scourge, and we must admit to their
honour, that various experiments which were tried for the purpose of
preventing the evil, have been crowned with complete success. Any one
may ascertain the fact by referring to the _Journal Magazin_ of Berlin,
in which the learned Professor Jessen of Dorpat has explained the
results of these important experiments.

The Russian veterinarians having observed that the oxen which had been
cured of the typhus could mingle with impunity with the infected herds,
conceived the idea of communicating the complaint to sound cattle by
means of inoculation, and thereby to shield them from the contagion.

The first experiments in the inoculation of _Tchouma_ or cattle typhus,
were made in the year 1853, by order of the government, in the
neighbourhood of Odessa, at the Heridin farm, by Professor Jessen.

The first inoculative attempts were very fatal; they caused the death of
all the inoculated animals. But it was soon perceived that these
grievous results, far from prejudicing the theory, really confirmed it;
and that the virus, attenuated in its toxical properties, would prove as
effectual as was expected. And truly, in 1854 and 1855, at the Dorpat
establishment, the inoculations made with a better selected virus
afforded results less disastrous. At Kozau they were still more
satisfactory. In fine, passing from experiment to experiment, they
arrived at the conclusion that it was necessary to inoculate several
heads of cattle, the one after the other, without having recourse to any
other virus than the first inoculated, so that they might thereby obtain
virus of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and up to the 10th generation. The
virus thus attenuated in its morbid effects answered at length every
experiment, and oxen thus inoculated could mingle with impunity with
diseased cattle.

At the veterinary establishment of Chalkoff they inoculated, during
eight meetings, 1059 animals with virus of the 3rd generation, and the
results were as satisfactory as could be wished for, only 60 animals
having sunk under the effects of this preventive operation.

The inoculations made in 1857 and 1858 on an estate belonging to the
Duchess Helena, at Karlowska, in the government of Pultawa, and
conducted by the veterinarian Raussels, likewise afforded the most
satisfactory results.

Professor Jessen thinks it certain, that beasts born of cows which have
been afflicted with contagious typhus do not contract the disease. He
maintains that Europe may be preserved from this frightful scourge, by
taking care that no cattle be exported from the steppes of Russia save
those which have had the distemper either naturally or by inoculation,
and he is striving to propagate this opinion, and to render it
practical, by having all the cattle inoculated, without exception.

It is deeply to be regretted that counsels so prudent have not been
heeded in the 47 governments which, out of the 53 possessed by Russia,
have generated the contagious typhus; for then it would not so
frequently have effected its passage into the neighbouring states, and
England most probably, would not now have to take up arms against its
fatal extension.


VII.

We here conclude that part of our labour which includes the history of
this disease, and what we have been able to glean from those medical
writers, and others, who have given us the results of their experience.
It may have appeared somewhat protracted, but it has at least laid open
to the student the antecedent investigations of our predecessors, under
calamities of the same kind, but considerably more fatal than what has
yet been witnessed in Western Europe during our time. We have
disinterred and brought to light the forgotten works of conscientious
and competent men. Like Brunelleschi, the architect, we have sought, not
to invent a theory, but to recover a practice; and thus we have received
the observations and precious facts, and finally the preventive
treatment, of other men and other times, which had coped successfully
against the cattle disease when its ravages were infinitely greater.

To resume, then: these inquiries (which we undertook without
anticipating so rich a harvest) have proved, and made evident--

That the contagious typhus afflicting horned cattle, has spread its
destructive principle over our globe ever since there have been animals
living on its surface.

That from century to century, not to say from year to year, it has
carried its terrors amidst nations and peoples.

That the remedial measures which had been taken and applied prior to the
middle of the eighteenth century, were utterly powerless either to cure
this disease or to prevent it.

That at that period appeared two English physicians, men of remarkable
aptitude and penetration, one of whom, Malcolm Flemming, laid down in
theory the bases of a preventive treatment; whilst the other, Peter
Layard, applied this theory to practice, by inoculating sound and
healthy animals with the morbid virus of the typhus, in order to protect
them from the fatal effects of the contagion.

That this all-important progress in medical experience, has been
absolutely forgotten; so much so, indeed, that the experiments of
inoculation, tried in Russia only ten or twelve years ago with perfect
success, do not seem to be connected by any link with those made in
England a century before, and that the invasion of the so-called
CATTLE PLAGUE in 1865 seemed to some men to have introduced a
new scourge, which men were not armed and prepared to meet--which they
were powerless to cure, or to stay in its progress.

These inquiries, then, have proved, we think, that we are not so
helpless as we had imagined to resist the evil. But we cannot help
feeling, that we have laid bare in this exposition some most distressing
inferences concerning the human mind. For, in truth, can anything be
more deplorable, than thus to see the civilized nations of Europe
endure, from century to century, these reiterated outbreaks of cattle
typhus, and to see likewise that no man of sufficient energy and
independence has yet arisen to tell the truth fearlessly to the
governments and peoples, however painful that truth may be, and to
expose the futility of the measures hitherto employed to arrest the
scourge?

And, on the other hand, is it not most afflicting to see discoveries of
indisputable value buried out of view, submerged in public libraries,
utterly unknown and forgotten, like their authors, to such a degree,
that the distemper which they have made known in its entirety, and which
is as old as the world itself, seems to us almost new in 1865?

God send, that these cruel trials and severe lessons which the past has
bequeathed to us may teach us something for our benefit! May the
irresistible might which is derived from the auspicious union of capital
and intelligence supersede the vain and flimsy efforts of isolated
energy! May the government, which lavishes hundreds of millions upon the
destructive engines of war, devote some portion of its ample means to
the study of hereditary infections and contagious diseases! For these
fatal epidemics decimate men as well as cattle, and we may at least ward
off from our children the desolating disease which at present afflicts
ourselves.

We possess already every requisite means to protect ourselves from the
formidable visitation of these diseases: we have science; we have the
men who cultivate and teach it; we have the experience of the past
added to our own. To-day, we are called upon to resist the baleful
effects of cattle typhus; but another epizootia may come to-morrow, and
strike our horses and our sheep--those domestic animals which constitute
our most precious possession. The cholera hovers about us. If we do
nothing, if we talk and debate instead of acting, these scourges will
come upon us on a sudden, and find us quite as helpless as ever to
resist their sway.

These palpable truths deserve to be further developed, and will be
treated more copiously at the end of this book. They will constitute the
complement of our work, necessarily written in haste, since the danger
we had to expose was itself so urgent and alarming.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] To assist the researches of other inquirers on this vital subject,
now so generally interesting, we may add, that the cattle treatises
already referred to--of Malcolm Flemming and Peter Layard--are to be
found in the Library of the British Museum, bound together in a single
volume, which is certainly worth ten times its weight in gold. It
contains, indeed, eight different opuscula, all relating to cattle
complaints, which scientific students may consult with real
gratification. I will here transcribe the titles of the most important
of these treatises, the pregnant expositions of the two English
physicians above-named.

That of Malcolm Flemming:

"A Proposal, in order to Diminish the Progress of the Distemper among
the Horned Cattle, supported by Facts. London, 1755."

That of Peter Layard:

"An Essay on the Nature, Cause, and Cure of the Contagious Distemper
among the Horned Cattle in these Kingdoms. London, 1757."

A great many accounts, treatises, and expositions on the same subject
appeared at the same time in France, Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland.
One, which appeared in the last of these countries, is entitled:

"Reflexions sur la Maladie du Gros Bétail, par la Société des Médecius
de Genève. 1756."




SECOND PART.

This Part is divided, as already stated, into four chapters.




CHAPTER I.

_On Typhous Diseases in general, and the Typhus which affects the Ox in
particular._


By following the example of those authors who have described the
contagious typhus of the ox, we might proceed at once to explain its
symptoms, and go directly to our purpose; but, by taking this hasty
course, we should expose ourselves to be imperfectly understood by the
majority of our readers, and to leave certain doubts in the minds of
physicians as to the nature of the disease and the propriety of its
treatment.

All animals, including man himself, are born with a predisposition and
liability to contract a certain number of contagious febrile diseases;
they bear in a manner a certain number of physiological elements, which
might be called latent germs, and which, under given conditions, become
the leaven of these diseases. This must, indeed, be the case, since
after these disorders have been once developed those who have been cured
of them are not apt to contract them again, the morbid developments
having destroyed that natural aptitude which had previously existed to
undergo the morbid action of the contagious virus. These diseases are
not numerous; they constitute a very distinct class, and the same laws,
which regulate the phenomena in one of them are applicable to all the
rest.

These diseases exhibit the following characteristics: 1st, a period of
incubation, during which the whole economy, more particularly the blood
and humours, experience very important changes and modifications; 2nd, a
febrile state, which varies in its continuous or intermittent types, and
in its intensity, according to the species of the animals, and which
proceeds from the alteration of the blood; 3rd, a revulsion at once
toxical and congestive towards the nervous centre, inducing _stupor_;
4th, a flux of mucus from the mouth and chest; 5th, a more intense,
congestive, and inflammatory flux or discharge from the external or
internal teguments--the skin or the mucous membrane of the digestive
channels; 6th, a period of adynamia and dejection, with a tendency, in
some cases, to a critical or salutary rejection of the morbid matter by
the development of tumours or abscesses in the skin; 7th, they are at
once infectious and contagious, epizootic or epidemic; that is to say,
they are transmitted in different degrees by contact, by inoculation,
and at a distance by the means of vitiated air; 8th, finally--and this
is their leading characteristic--_they are not subject to recurrence_,
each individual that has once been affected, losing in general all
aptitude to contract the disease a second time.

This last characteristic, when well understood, ought in reason to
induce us to have recourse to the preventive treatment, and such has
been the case with respect to the most virulent amongst them--small-pox
and the typhus of the ox.

Prompted by these principles, which are as logical and fixed as any
mathematical deduction, I suggested in 1855 that inoculation should be
applied in typhoid fever, which is nothing else but the equivalent of
intestinal small-pox, in order to prevent the disease in men. But if the
simplest truth sometimes requires a contest of ages before it is heard
and understood, I could not hope to fix attention on a fact which might
be taken as problematical. I felt that I was outrunning time, and that I
should neither be heard nor understood; and so it has proved.

Be that as it may, these typhous diseases have, as is seen, their laws
and foreseen development. They attack animals generally, but chiefly
herbivorous animals, endowed, as we have shown in the first part, with a
vital resistance which is, relatively speaking, very inconsiderable.

These febrile typhous diseases (whether their development is caused by a
spontaneous morbid action in the patient or by an evident contagion),
have a period of incubation during which the vital strength undergoes
latent morbid modifications, though not sufficient to indicate, save in
times of epizootics and epidemics, the particular form which is about to
reveal its symptoms in the course of a few days. This period of
incubation being over, the mouth and chest become affected, and fever
declares itself; and then the _materies morbi_, which is to become the
special and dominant characteristic of the distemper, is directed either
to the skin, or to the digestive mucous membrane. In the first case, we
see evidence of exanthematic diseases, which present only the lightest
forms of detersive disorders, such as measles, scarlatina, or that more
serious one, from its pustulous form, the small-pox. In the second case,
the elimination takes place from the intestinal canal, and then we see
produced in animals, as well as in men, the typhous diseases: that is to
say, the typhoid fever--a pustulous and ulcerous malady of the
intestines--or the common typhus of the hospitals, prisons, and
campaigning armies; and again, in animals, there is also the typhus of
the steppes, of the marshes, &c.

The Eastern pestilence, the plague of Rome in the age of Antoninus and
the plague of Athens, which might have given to Hippocrates the right
of treating with Artaxerxes as one potentate treats with another, ought
perhaps to be classed among those typhuses not subject to recurrence.

As for the _cholera_, it seems to be a contagious and epidemic disorder,
of a distinct and particular kind. We are ignorant of its essential
cause, its nature, and its mode of treatment; and although it has
prevailed in every age, and even frequently of late years, it will
always, by reason of the strange formation of our medical institutions,
find us as weak and defenceless to resist its attack as we have ever
been.

If we have been properly understood, typhous diseases are, above all,
general febrile affections. At one time the _materies morbi_, or
discharge, affects the skin; at another, the digestive mucous membrane.
When it acts upon the skin, as clinical observation shows, there is
sometimes a sort of hesitation in the eruptive process; people wonder
what disease is coming forth; the eruption wavers in the form it will
assume, till at length its real character is determined. The same
uncertainty prevails when the intestines are affected. Sometimes the
exanthema is merely the equivalent of simple measles or scarlatina of
the intestinal mucous membrane, and many typhoid fevers of short
continuance are nothing else in their nature. The same occurs in common
typhuses. Sometimes the local affection proceeds as far as pustulous
eruption, sometimes only to exanthematic rubefaction; hence the various
alterations which we have witnessed in the intestines of cattle killed
in our presence at the slaughter-houses of the Metropolitan Market, and
which we ourselves dissected. The experienced Professor Bouley, from the
Ecole Vétérinaire of Alfort, near Paris, whose visit must have been
beneficial to England, clearly recognised in an ox which was slaughtered
and dissected at the Metropolitan Market, the genuine pustule of typhoid
fever. But in most cases, as we shall show, it is the other forms which
prevail.

We make these observations in order to anticipate the objections of
those reasoners who, being more influenced and guided by the local facts
and by the symptoms, than by the general phenomena of comparative
pathology, might argue that such or such fact is opposed to our
doctrine.

In a word, then, typhous diseases have their types; but the living being
is subjected to so many different influences, hereditary, idiosyncratic,
climataic, hygienic, &c., that by the side of one subject going through
the course of morbid phenomena with fatal regularity, another may be
seen in which such or such functional derangement is readily
distinguished. Thus in some animals, predisposed thereto by prior
disorders, the morbid action originally propelled towards the channels
of respiration will continue to be most salient; and after dissection
the lungs will be congested and emphysematous, and the intestines
relatively but scarcely altered. The animal, indeed, though bordering on
typhus, will sink under the effect of functional derangement in the
breathing passages. In others, by the influence of some particular
predisposing cause, disorders of the nervous centres will be signalized;
a cerebral and spinal pains will be intolerable, delirium will quickly
ensue, and the asphyxiated patient, if a man, will succumb in the course
of a few days; or if an ox, he will be wild and ungovernable, and then
fall as if thunderstruck, fastened to his stall. Finally, in other
cases, these first two phases of the distemper will not prove fatal, the
intestinal injuries will pursue their course, and the affected animals
will not die until the third period.

As we have seen, the morbid phenomena may be different, although the
affection continues the same; the typhoid fever or the typhus being
nevertheless the essential disease which prevails.

These generalities, to some readers, may appear irrelevant, but let them
not be mistaken; they have a claim to our notice, and are really
important. They show, indeed, that independent of the preventive
treatment, which is an absolute rule in the case of virulent,
contagious, and non-recurring diseases, the treatment of the disease
itself, when it has declared itself, and when it pursues its course,
cannot be the same for every patient; and that, moreover, this treatment
must vary in the different phases of the disease, as physicians and
veterinarians are well aware.

These generalities, likewise, explain the various diseases--viz., those
in which the animals blend together the typhous and exanthematic
diseases. The measles and the scarlet fever, affecting the external or
internal membranes, are like the first steps of these maladies; they are
generally slight, and we have but to watch over the progress of the
symptoms, and to assist nature, which, with few exceptions, brings all
things to a favourable issue.

These disorders, which are relatively slight and do not provoke in the
economy any of those changes which in some sort transform the
constitution, are not absolutely proof against relapse. They lead us
rationally and by degrees to the more infectious and contagious
diseases, to the common typhus; therefore it is unnecessary to apply the
preventive treatment to them, that being exclusively reserved for the
latter.

Let it then be well understood, that the typhus of the ox, the study of
which we are about to enter upon, may vary in its symptoms and
post-mortem appearances, without losing thereby the characteristic mark
which renders it a thoroughly distinct, and, in the present day, a
thoroughly well known distemper.

Now that the reader possesses these general notions of the Contagious
Typhus, we shall be able to speak to him in a language which he will
understand, and give a definition which he will be able to judge and
appreciate.

The typhus of the ox, then, is a _virulent, contagious, febrile, and
non-recurring disease, with stupor and derangement of the nervous,
respiratory, and digestive functions; leaving various changes in the
respective organs of these functions, and chiefly in the intestines_.

This new definition seems to us to be more faithful and just than those
hitherto given; and this, if needed, we could demonstrate.

I do not disguise from myself that some of the opinions expressed in
these generalities may, at first sight, appear strange and liable to
objection. Thus, it may be argued that inoculation as a preventive
treatment of typhous maladies is far from being a general law,
applicable to every case; since in Russia, for instance, where this
inoculation is practised every day, it completely fails in certain
foreign herds, and they die of the consequences of the operation; and
that this, therefore, might happen in England.

To these objections we would reply, first, as regards the novelty of
opinions expressed, that we have taken up the pen, because we had to
write something different from what has already been published in known
works, otherwise it would have been our duty to remain silent; and
secondly, as regards the inefficacy of inoculation, that organic and
vital phenomena have their principles and their laws, which are fixed
and invincible, from which it is reasonable to deduce consequences and
positive rules of conduct, which cannot yield to superannuated opinions
or imperfectly executed experiments. To institute experiments indeed
under the rigorous conditions of a logical and irrefutable
demonstration, is not so easy a matter as may generally be thought.

For our part, the principles deduced from strict observation are the
basis on which we build, and if it so chance that we are baffled in our
experiments we vary them indefinitely; and if still we are deceived in
our hopes, we ascribe the miscarriage to our impotence, to inadequate
means, and to the defective instruments which the physical and chemical
sciences, still in their cradle as regards organic matter, supply for
our use. Above all, we wish it to be remembered--"_Scribo nec ficta, nec
picta, sed quæ ratio, sensus, et experientia docent._"




CHAPTER II.

_The Origin and Causes of the Ox Typhus._


I.

I have drawn my conclusions as to the preventive treatment of typhus in
the ox, from the knowledge I had acquired of its morbid phenomena, its
nature, and its non-recurrence; and it is a logical deduction quite as
accurate as could be the result of a syllogism. The study of the origin
of this typhus, and of the causes by which it is generated and spread
abroad, will supply us with additional arguments to sustain this
deduction, as well as those signs and indications which are the very
foundation of curative treatment. The description of the disease will
contribute to the same result; for the rational treatment of a distemper
can be derived only from a knowledge of all the phenomena which occasion
it, of the functional derangements, and of the alterations observed in
bodies after death.

I wish particularly to say at once, in entering upon the subject of
etiology, that the special works which treat of it contain precise
information as to the causes and origin of the typhus in horned cattle;
and that the chief organs of the press in every country--those ephemeral
encyclopædias in which unfortunately so much vital force and
intelligence are dissipated--have published articles of the highest
interest on this subject. It would be physically impossible for me to
begin again a bibliographical labour similar to the one exhibited in the
First Part, in order to afford due justice to each of these public
writers, who have met the epizootia on the confines of their country and
fought hand to hand with it. This work is not susceptible of so much
enlargement. Let it be well understood, that I claim no other merit than
that of discussing these questions of etiology, in that order and with
that common sense which fix ideas firmly in the mind--which, if I may
use the term, _photograph_ them on those parts of the brain allotted to
the memory and judgment; also of drawing from known and admitted facts
more rational and practical conclusions than those which have been
current up to the present time.

Much has been already said and argued on the origin of the contagious
typhus which affects the ox; some adhering exclusively to the special
conditions observable in the breed of those oxen which are reared and
fed on the steppes of Russia and Hungary; others, more reasonably, as it
seems to us, ascribing it to the hygienic conditions generally, that is
to say, to the climate, the season, the feeding, &c., &c., amidst which
these animals are living.

All these discussions upon what has been said and argued on this subject
have been very useful. For, had it been rigidly proved that the oxen of
the steppes, by some peculiar organization, carry within them those
germs or physiological elements which at given times become the leaven
of the distemper, and, at a subsequent period, the elements of the
contagion, then, indeed, a fact of capital importance and prominent
authority would have been established, and the attention of all men
interested in these inquiries would have been exclusively concentrated
on that particular race of animals and on those countries smitten with
the curse, in order to arrest and confine the disease within its one and
only focus.

The supporters of this theory, concerning the first circumscribed origin
of the typhus, maintain that all the epizootics whose deplorable history
we have given in the first part of this work, have had no other
generative causes than the propagation of the complaint, born and
begotten on the banks of the Wolga and the Danube, and subsequently
conveyed to the different parts of the earth by the emigration of the
cattle. And in this manner, too, they have accounted for the appearance
of the typhus in South America, in Africa, and in Asia.

Since this doctrine on the origin of the typhus has been conceived and
maintained by men of a high order of understanding, we must suppose that
they had been struck and convinced by important facts and serious
reasons; and as it would be unfair to oppose a plain denial to an
opinion now so generally adopted, we are bound to say in what manner
these authors justify their views, after which we shall endeavour to
refute them.

The partisans of the circumscribed origin, who make it depend
exclusively on the peculiar organization of the race of the steppes,
have based their argument, peremptory and unanswerable as they imagine,
on the prime fact, that it has always been possible to trace the
diffusion of the typhus in a given country, to some sick animal of the
steppes conveyed to that kingdom. In this manner it is, that they
explain the generation of the epizootics which have so frequently wasted
the continent of Europe. On whatever point of the globe they may appear,
this, and only this, is the source of their existence. The isolated
position of Great Britain is made to support their arguments. "Behold,"
they exclaim, "Great Britain, which, thanks to its surrounding seas, has
escaped most of the epizootics which have desolated France and Germany
during the early part of the nineteenth century." Nay, more, the present
visitation of the distemper is also seized upon to sustain their theory,
since certain oxen, natives of the steppes, appear to have imported it
into London.

We must add, that nothing is wanting in order to prove this assertion;
for they relate with perfect regularity, and step by step, the course
taken by the contagion; they specify the time occupied on its passage,
and even the names of the infected vessels which have thus imported the
principle of the typhus.

It must be admitted that all the facts thus stated are indisputable; we
acknowledge as true, that the bovine race of the steppes has conveyed
into other countries the contagious germs of the disease; we admit that
its dissemination may be thus accounted for.

But to admit this fact, and to draw from it the conclusion that the
bovine race of the steppes alone is capable, by some particular and
distinct organization, of developing the original typhus of the ox, and
that this typhus has no other focus on the earth than the banks of the
Dnieper and the Don, does not appear to us a sound logical deduction.
And as, if this conclusion were positively recognised, we might see but
one side of the evil, and deduce very serious consequences therefrom, it
is necessary to receive these facts for what they are worth, and no
more.

Let us first observe, that those writers who ascribe the contagious
typhus to the race of Southern Russia, do not take into consideration
the epizootics of this typhus, the account of which has been handed down
to us by the ancient authors of Greece and Rome; and that they refer
just as little to those which are quite as frequent in the republics of
South America as on the banks of the Dnieper. For even if we allow that
once, and only once, one of these epizootics may be traced to the
arrival of a ship containing oxen brought from the steppes, how, on the
other hand, can we believe that all other epizootics have had such a
fortuitous cause to generate it; consequently, the typhus, in these
cases, must have been locally developed and diffused among American
cattle?

Moreover, we seek in vain for the reasons which would authorize us to
assign to the bovine race of the steppes a particular organization,
rendering it alone fit to engender the typhus. But let us grant for a
moment, that the Russian and Hungarian oxen constitute a peculiar race,
as their framework and the length of their horns would seem to imply;
this much being conceded, it still remains to be shown in what respect
their anatomical and physiological structure differs from that of other
animals to such an extent as to render them alone liable to originate
this fatal typhus.

Oh! if it were true that the bovine race of the steppes alone could
engender the typhus! we would hail the fact with joy, and would show
without much exertion of reasoning that, in that case, we possessed not
only the means of preventing the disease by inoculating sound and
healthy cattle, but the far more important means of sweeping it for ever
from the earth, by at once exterminating that cursed race, smitten with
the original predisposition of this plague; and as, after all, the
murderous scourge of the typhus of the steppes has already cost, and may
perhaps continue to cost the various nations of the Old World millions
upon millions, they would feel that their most urgent interest would be
to come to an understanding (nor would the sacrifice be too much for
their resources) so as to destroy and extirpate the evil at its original
source. There would then be no difficulty in raising up a new breed of
cattle in those countries, by transporting to it those of other nations
free from the infection.

But who does not understand that this heroic sacrifice would be
illusory, and that the foreign races, modified in time in this new
medium, would regenerate the typhus; so that the double sacrifice of
extermination and indemnity would have been made to no purpose?

We wish we could adopt this hypothesis, so simple and so consolatory, of
the circumscribed origin of the typhus, and its exclusive propagation
through the race of the steppes; but our mind is altogether opposed to
that view, and for the following reasons, amongst others:--

If the bovine race of the steppes alone could produce the typhic virus,
by reason of a particular organization which is the prime condition of
its existence, _this race alone would of necessity be fit to receive its
taint_ by the influence of contagion. But if the other animals of the
same species, as unfortunately too surely happens, can receive the
principle of the disorder, develop the ailment, and die of its effects,
then the reasoning of our opponents is faulty from its source; and it
must be admitted that all horned cattle are apt to generate the typhic
virus in those countries which afford the conditions of its production,
and that this exclusive predisposition as it is called, attributed to
the race inhabiting the steppes, is simply a chimera.

But arguments are seldom exhausted even to defend a bad cause, and it is
objected that the fact that all oxen may contract the typhus transmitted
by the contact of animals from one to another, does not prove that the
original predisposition is the same in every race; and they persist in
maintaining--1st, that the typhus of the steppes is alone able
originally to beget the disease; 2nd, that having thus begotten and
produced it, it becomes, after this organic conception, apt to be
transmitted to every animal, and fit to be assimilated with them.

To these subtleties and argumentative refinements it would be as easy
for me to oppose abstract reasonings equally strong, as it would have
been for the Jansenists and Mollinists, had it so chanced that they had
been drawn into a debate on the origin and nature of the virus of the
plague which carried off Jansenius. But let us confine ourselves to
serious facts and conclude--

1st. That we have no proof of any anatomical and physiological
difference in the humours or in the blood--that is to say, in the
organic, intimate, and biological elements of the individuals which
collectively constitute the bovine species.

2nd. That we have a right to believe, that all horned cattle are apt to
develop the typhic virus when they are placed within the conditions
required for that effect--that is to say, when they are exposed to the
special morbific causes which form its condition _sine quâ non_, and
which are met with on the banks of those great rivers which water
Southern Russia and Hungary, in Africa, on the banks of the Nile, in
South America, on the margins of the lakes, and in what are called hot
climates, &c.


II.

But if the origin of the typhus cannot exclusively depend on the
peculiar organization of certain individuals of the bovine species, we
must inquire after and search for the real causes which produce it.

We have explained already, in the First Part, what alterations organic
matter undergoes in general, when accidental causes happen to modify its
organic elements; and we have pointed out the fact, that of all living
creatures herbivorous animals were those that offered the least vital
resistance to the causes of disease and destruction.

This unquestionable fact being taken for granted, let us now consider
under what conditions live the multitudinous herds of horned cattle
which in Russia and in South America are reared and supported solely for
the produce of their flesh, and sometimes, too, for that of their hides.

The great breeders and proprietors fix the number of their heads of
cattle according and in proportion to the quantity of the pastures, but
like other men, they mortgage the future for their benefit without
making due allowance for accidents or extreme changes of weather, as
when years of unusual drought succeed those of heavy rain; so that these
herds, by the single fact of these extreme fluctuations in the degrees
of temperature, are exposed to a multiplicity of causes productive of
disease. The same nature which generates life and health generates
disease and dissolution, and when the former are neglected the latter
will prevail.

In the prosperous and favoured countries of the temperate zone, such as
England and France, these extreme variations in the seasons, which are
always the cause of a deficiency or alteration in the production of
fodder, are equally the cause of the numerous epizootics which attack
all the herbivorous species, and particularly those to which oxen fall
victims, such as the tumourous typhus (_le typhus charbonneux_), the
so-called aphthous fever, the contagious peripneumonia (which is not
liable to return and is prevented by inoculation), parasitical cutaneous
disease.

But in less favoured countries, in those which are damp, argillaceous,
swampy, inundated by the overflows of their lakes and rivers, or by the
reflux of the sea, there is deposited a slimy or brackish water, which a
temporary torrid heat afterwards causes to ferment; and then a
superabundance of life, a teeming vegetation, springs up in all
directions. In the midst of this swarming vitality live and thrive an
infinity of worms, maggots, animalculæ, insects, mollusca, fish,
reptiles, birds, &c.; and here, too, all these creatures die and decay,
when this slime, the prolific source of generations which we might look
upon as spontaneous, begins to dry up and disintegrate. Then from these
organic vegetable and animal matters, in a state of decomposition,
escape those deleterious gases, such as hydrogen, carbonic oxide,
nitrogen, carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and even phosphoretted
hydrogen.

Often to all these causes of infection are added myriads of
grasshoppers, which cover the ground, where they die, aggravating the
mass of pestiferous vapour which fills the atmosphere. Finally, the
water which slakes the thirst of the herds of cattle is corrupted; the
plants on which they feed distil poisons; the air, the water, and the
plants, carry within them a principle of venom and death. After this,
how can we be surprised if this flood of putrid emanations is
transformed into a contagious typhic virus, whose subtle and
pestilential effluvia are conveyed by the ox to considerable distances?

In fine, let us recapitulate in our minds all the causes of destruction
to which these passive creatures are exposed, and we shall acknowledge
that there is no necessity to attribute to them a peculiar organization
in order to understand the development of the typhus, which, at a given
moment, cuts them all off; and that in the deltas of the different
countries, as well in Asia, Africa, and America, as in Europe, are to be
found those conditions of infectious disease which we have described. In
these causes, and only in these causes, or in those which resemble them,
will rational men seek for the principle of the contagious typhus in the
bovine race.

Moreover, who is there who does not understand that what is true with
regard to cholera is likewise applicable to this contagious typhus? The
cholera, for causes analogous to these, subject to the particular state
of the soil, is generated, not exclusively, it is true, but most
frequently, on the banks of the Ganges, in the same manner as the
contagious typhus is developed in certain countries where its natural
focus is found.

The race of animals which exists on this deadly and destructive soil is
an instrument of incubation for typhus, not in consequence of their
peculiar structure, but because the conditions under which they live
condemn them to this fate.


III.

Now the breeding of cattle, and the feeding and fattening of them for
the market, constitute a branch of industry--a great interest. They all
have to be removed, conveyed to various distances, and sold; so that
this traffic becomes a new cause to be added to all those which foster,
develop and propagate the distemper.

In prosperous times, when the seasons, conformably with our wishes, have
pursued a course which we call regular (for we are fain to believe that
the planets turn on their axes on our account), and when the cattle find
the ground covered with rich pastures, and limpid streams--conditions
which are eminently favourable in themselves, though in Hungary it is
necessary to add gum, salt, mineral water, and arsenic acid, before the
health of these animals is satisfactory,--then the cattle breeders make
their sordid calculations, and select the heads of cattle intended for
sale.

With animals, as with man, health is but relative, not absolute; the
healthiest in appearance often bearing within its frame the fatal
principle of no distant death. Fatness not being by any means a sure
sign of vital strength, many of these cumbersome beasts, though
seemingly in good and sound condition, contain in their systems, in
various stages of incubation, the tainted leaven of contagious
affections, such as peripneumonia, or even the typhus itself.

But, regardless of this liability, their sale and migration are resolved
upon at length. Hitherto these harmless creatures have lived in the most
perfect stillness and retirement. Their calm, monotonous life has been
as regular as the course of time; never by a single pulsation have their
hearts exceeded the wonted number per minute; they are all gifted with a
nervous sensibility of which the vulgar have no notion. Some favoured
few have felt the sympathy of friendship for the herdsman who tended
them, and for the companions with which they fed. They have been leaders
of their own herd, they have marched at their head; they have given the
signal when to seek shelter beneath the trees, or when to repair to the
brook. They have loved the fields amidst which they have grown and
thriven. Some of them, reared and fed beneath the domestic thatch, were
grateful for the care they had received; their master was endeared to
them, they would run to meet his coming, answer to their name, and lick
his hand with fondness.

And it is the course of this tranquil, this happy existence, that is
about to be broken abruptly. It is this creature, the pattern of
gentleness and goodness, that we are going to treat like a heap of
insensible and inert matter--which we are going to subject to
unutterable torture!

And now, indeed, these creatures are all at once handed over to the
savage guidance, to the thongs and cudgels, of a hind, whose cruelty
keeps pace with his stolid ignorance, and who abets his dogs to quicken
their course to the neighbouring market. From this moment, half-fed and
athirst, these poor animals are forced to make long journeys afoot; or
since the construction of railways, to be heaped together confusedly in
a locomotive pen. There, the shaking, the sudden starts, the friction of
five hundred wheels on the rails, the horrid snorting of the engines,
alarm and terrify them to such a degree as to turn the whole mass of
their blood.

In such a state of vital prostration or feverish excitement, entire
herds are carried to the public markets or to annual fairs with other
animals, and nearly all sent to the shambles. But some amongst them are
reserved for another fate. The females, for instance, are set apart to
serve as milch cows; and in this manner they carry with them into the
cowsheds, wherein they are received, the taint of those contagious
distempers, the germs of which lay concealed in their frames, or which
they have contracted from the companions of their journey.

Some of these heads of cattle, starting from the steppes of Russia, have
to travel five hundred miles in an open cage, less cared for and
protected than bales of merchandise, exposed to the rain, to the heat
of the sun, to sudden changes of temperature, to cold and cutting
draughts, increased by the rapid motion of the train;--these animals,
foundered, prostrate, panting with fever and torturing pains, still have
to undergo new trials, if they cross the sea. In this case, the wretched
victims are violently expelled from the locomotive, rocking sheds of the
railway; a leathern strap hanging from a crane lifts them into the air,
and lets them down into the mid-deck of a ship, where they are crowded
as closely together as possible, for here, too, space is very costly.
Finally, the vessel gets under way and ploughs the ocean; contrary winds
beat it about in every direction, and these poor creatures have to
endure a new kind of torture, accompanied by the intolerable pangs of
sea-sickness; and in this state it is that they alight on the British
soil, and are driven off to the different markets.

It is useless to expatiate at length on the state of general derangement
and disease in which these oxen reach their final destination. Some
amongst them have endured for eight or nine days these unspeakable
tortures, without being sustained by nourishment--for no animal, when
his spirits forsake him, can assimilate his food amidst all this
physical suffering and so great a shock to his nervous system.

Let us here declare that these animals, though removed from their
meadows with all the signs and appearances of sound health, at a time
when a fine season had been productive of abundance, and when no
epizootia was raging in the country which they have left, may
nevertheless bear within them the taint of contagious typhus; and let us
ask ourselves what must come to pass in those disastrous years when this
typhus prevails under the influence of those destructive causes which
were passed in review just now, and when the Russian and Hungarian
proprietors, eager to forestall an inevitable general calamity, hasten
to send off to Italy, France, Holland, Finland, or to the ports of
England, many animals already seized with typhus, and whose virus must
have acquired infectious properties still more intense and deadly under
the influence of the deep disquiet and commotion which the removal and
conveyance of these animals, under conditions so deplorable, must have
produced in their frames.

Such are indeed the pernicious conditions in which oxen may be, and
often are, dispatched to England; and such appears to be the real cause
of the outbreak of the spreading epizootia which we witness at this
moment, and which has created so much alarm in so many counties of
England.[B]


IV.

Let us now consider this contagious typhus in its destructive extension
over the British soil; let us study and examine the causes of its
diffusion as they pass under our notice.

The mooted question of determining whether the cattle typhus was
originally imported from abroad, or whether it broke out spontaneously
in England, has been, and still is, a subject of dubious debate amongst
some professional men, amongst the leading writers of the public
journals, and also amongst agriculturists and farmers.[C]

And, in truth, the propagation of the distemper is occasionally
witnessed under conditions so singular and striking, that it seems to
warrant and supply arguments for every conceivable opinion.

When the disease was recognised and identified for the first time on the
24th of June, 1865, public opinion ascribed its appearance to contagion
arising from some diseased cows imported from Finland, and which, after
being exposed in the Islington Market on the 19th, were sold and removed
to the cowsheds of a breeder or dairyman.

We may observe that, on hearing the intelligence of this sudden
invasion, the public mind, which is so excitable in England, did not
disguise the indignation it felt against foreign countries which had
been capable of contaminating an island so advantageously situated and
so well protected, and infecting her magnificent herds, exuberant with
health. But after a closer examination of the facts, and possibly
alarmed, at the serious consequences of a Continental blockade which
would deprive the United Kingdom, not of the entire twenty or thirty
thousand live stock, such as oxen, sheep, pigs, &c., which they receive
every week, but only of the eight or ten thousand head of cattle which
are landed weekly on their coasts to supply their markets, public
opinion was appeased. But, unfortunately, this national susceptibility
now took the opposite extreme; and the only causes it now saw were the
dirt and want of adequate ventilation in the metropolitan stables and
sheds; and to these causes it attributed, first the generation, and then
the propagation or diffusion of the malady; an opinion which appeared
all the more natural and reasonable, in that the oxen and cows of the
graziers were the first victims of the typhus.

We all know how liable, among all nations, the public mind is to waver
and fluctuate, and how susceptible and open it is to new impressions
during fatal visitations and general calamities; nor can we feel the
least surprise at the uncertainty which has so long prevailed, and still
continues, as to the real causes of the introduction of the bovine
typhus in England.

Let us therefore examine this question of etiology, and try to discover
what opinion ought to prevail.

It is important to establish at once two material facts which seem to us
indisputable:

1st. That the contagious typhus in cattle which is known to be permanent
in the southeast of Europe, actually existed there during the month of
June, 1865; 2nd, That some of the horned cattle, fed and reared in that
part of Europe, were transported to England, after having crossed
through Russia from south to north, in order to avoid passing through
Germany.

As for the first of these facts, it is admitted and received, as might
easily be proved by reproducing the speeches and addresses delivered by
the veterinary doctors at the Congress now being held at Vienna, and at
which were present the men whose experience of this cattle distemper
gives them the highest authority--Hertwig, Jessen, Röll, Siegmund,
Gerlach, &c.

The contagious typhus of horned cattle is so fully in the epizootic
state in those countries which are washed by the Black Sea, that it was
enough for the veterinarians present at the Congress to manifest a
desire to see cattle afflicted with this disease, for the opportunity so
to do to be immediately afforded them.[D]

Thus, then, the fact is undeniable, the contagious typhus was raging, in
June, 1865, in Hungary and Russia, as it rages there at all times.

As for the conveyance of cattle from those countries into England, the
fact is no less certain and assured. It is well known that a convoy of
300 heads of cattle, proceeding from the pasture-grounds of Hungary and
Austria, was transported into Finland by rail, and afterwards shipped at
Revel for England. Thanks to the rapid locomotion by steam, the
migration of these cattle had lasted but ten days--two days for the
transport by land, and eight days for the passage by sea, through the
tortuous line of the Baltic; but this was sufficient length of time for
the incubation to be produced, even supposing the animals to have looked
sound when their transit began.

Moreover, it is indubitable that the markets of this immeasurable London
have for many years been supplied with horned cattle from every country:
from France, Holland, Belgium, Podolia, Poland, Prussia, Austria,
Hungary, and Russia.

Thus, the Islington Market (the fact is assured) had received horned
cattle imported from the countries where typhus is known to be
permanent. Were these cattle thus imported affected with the typhus?
This fact likewise is as certain as the other, since two of the foreign
cows thus imported, were the first to fall sick, and to die of this
typhus.

But if the contagious typhus of horned cattle rages permanently on the
banks of the streams which discharge themselves into the Black Sea, and
if the beasts reared in those countries have long been transported to
England and other countries, how, it will be asked, is it that the
disease has not broken out more frequently, for it has never been seen
in Great Britain, at least, during the former part of the nineteenth
century?

This question is not devoid of a certain degree of importance, and
deserves to fix our attention for a moment.

Now the conditions in which the animals were exhibited in 1863 and 1864
were precisely the same as those of 1865, before the outbreak of the
disease; and yet the contagion has been possible in 1865, whilst it was
not so in 1863.

We do not presume to explain the mysterious phenomena which govern the
development of epidemics and epizootics; but it seems to us not
altogether impossible to give a rational and satisfactory elucidation of
the facts.

In general, in _epizootics_, and I might even say in some particular
epidemics--in that of the typhus, for instance--three connected and
inseparable facts form the condition _sine quâ non_, of the generation
of the disease. First, a focus for producing the virus; secondly, for
the most part a favourable soil, and a special predisposition amongst
animals to receive and propagate it; thirdly, what is called an epidemic
or epizootic genius--that is to say, a particular state of the
atmospheric elements, or the air, which hitherto has escaped our
analyses, and whose morbific properties vary in their degrees of
intensity. Thus the epizootic genius of 1711, the terrible one of 1750,
and the one which now diffuses its contagious miasma, have differed in
some of their virulent conditions.

However that may be, it will be sufficient to glance back at the past to
assure ourselves that, in general, epizootics have been coincident with
some violent change of season, such as extreme droughts, or
superabundant rains; that is to say, when the cattle, disturbed in the
physiological conditions of their health, have become favourable to the
incubation of the miasmatic leaven scattered through the air, or else
when these animals were living under irregular conditions, and had to
endure unwonted fatigues and privations, as in the folds of campaigning
armies, for instance.

These epizootics have appeared to depend not only on the state of the
soil and of the health of the cattle, but also (we repeat it designedly)
on an element no less indispensable to the propagation of the disease--a
special state of the air, which favours the development and preservation
of typhic miasma: for sometimes a sudden change of temperature has
proved sufficient to stop the rampant progress of the contagion, the
other conditions remaining unaltered.

These relations of cause and effect between the contagious principle,
the predisposition of the animals, and the state of the atmosphere,
evidently are subject to some exceptions; but we must allow that in the
present epizootic they are absolutely and completely applicable. For, in
truth, the years 1864 and 1865 have been distinguished, if not by the
persistency of a high rate of temperature not often witnessed, at least
by an excessive drought during the months which are both hot and rainy;
and this has happened in the various countries of Europe, thereby
producing a falling off in the pasture and fodder both as respects their
quantity and quality.

As to England, a country usually cold and damp, but renowned for its
spacious green fields and meadows, it has suffered more than any other
country from these unfavourable conditions, and their destructive
influence on the grass and corn; the herds having found a great
reduction of food where formerly they met with abundance. Everybody has
seen, as we have ourselves, large herds of cattle, wandering in
amazement from field to field, and seeking for something to browse on a
parched and arid soil. A supplementary provision of corn, roots, malt,
and the grounds of the beer vat or spirit barrel, no doubt served to
mitigate the sad effects of these privations on the health of cattle;
but in spite of all that could be done, their blood became impoverished,
their strength and vital resistance sank, and (like the animals which we
transferred at will into a soil more favourable to the spread of
parasitic diseases), they afforded last June, as they do now, an unusual
predisposition to suffer and transform the morbific principles of
typhus, which in all probability they would have been proof against at
any other time. We may very fairly infer this much, for we must of
necessity believe that the regular importation of cattle from those
countries which are considered as the permanent focus of typhus, has
from time to time transported the miasmatic germs of this malady into
England, although the virus did not take effect on British cattle at
those periods, for want of one or other of the conditions necessary to
its generation and development.

We may likewise infer, and a watchful appreciation of the facts
contained in the veterinary medical journals would show that this
opinion is not unfounded, that the special disease which constitutes
this typhus (similar in that respect to epidemic diseases), may develop
itself in one beast by accident, spontaneously, sporadically--that is to
say, without immediate contagion; in a word, _apart from those epizootic
conditions which alone render its propagation possible_. To be brief, we
think that an isolated case of cattle typhus may by chance be detected,
when there is no epizootia prevailing to account for it, just as we
occasionally meet with cases of typhus or cholera among men during
seasons absolutely free from these epidemics. It would not, therefore,
appear to us altogether impossible, that under the influence of very
special conditions, the contagious typhus of the ox might have its birth
in England; and this would favour the theory of those reasoners who
maintain that this typhus met with the first causes, and the origin of
its development, in the stalls and cowsheds of London. But such has not
been the cause of cattle typhus in the epizootia which we see at
present.

No doubt some animals suffered great privations, but, whatever
alteration their health may have sustained, all this is nothing to be
compared to the sufferings endured by the cattle in the steppes under
the influence of deleterious conditions of the most exceptional
character, which do, indeed, give birth to this typhus, and which we
have already described.

No, certainly not! _Nothing authorizes us to believe that the typhus now
under our observation was bred and born, at first, within the stalls and
cowsheds of London._ It was most assuredly imported. But it is true,
nevertheless, that this cruel scourge found the horned cattle of England
predisposed to receive it, and it likewise met with atmospheric
conditions favourable to its subsequent diffusion; in a word, it met
with the epizootic genius proper for the generation and propagation of
the typhus miasma.

It is thus that we may account for and reconcile the two contending
theories, one of which refers the cause of this typhus to foreign
importation, whilst the other insists that it originated in the filthy
and half-ventilated cowsheds of the metropolis.

But if this typhus could not spring up spontaneously out of the bovine
race of England, it must be confessed that, independently of the general
predisposition due to a great and protracted drought, it found in the
sickening sheds of the metropolitan and country cattle the most
favourable conditions for its incubation and subsequent diffusion.

It would, indeed, be difficult to conceive of anything more directly
adverse to the hygienic laws of health in cattle than the stalls and
sheds dotted over the densely populated districts of London. Most of
these pent-up cribs are situated in narrow lanes and yards, in filthy
streets and blind alleys; and within these close, hot, and steaming
receptacles the miserable cows, pressed against each other, without
ever moving a limb, waste away and become phthisical in a very short
space of time. We may readily imagine what a prey to the contagion must
be afforded by these animals, already more or less ailing, some of which
are fed in a great measure on malt, so sour and acrid that the very
smell of it is intolerable. The milk from these cows is, moreover, of so
wretched a quality, that in a cowhouse containing 48 of these poor
creatures, at Kensington, I found only one, the milk of which exhibited
the taste and quality fit for a sick child, for whom I ordered a milk
diet.

It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the present epizootia,
during this late tropical season[E] especially, should have met with all
the conditions most conducive to its development and propagation.

When the cattle distemper first broke out, the graziers, not suspecting
its gravity, attempted to treat the animals themselves, but soon
afterwards perceiving the fruitlessness of all their remedial measures,
they felt that the best thing they could do was to turn their sick
beasts to whatever account they could, by driving them to market or to
the slaughter-houses, an expedient which they were the more disposed to
adopt, inasmuch as the diseased cows had ceased to give milk. And then,
the removal of these animals, in various stages of the disorder, became
the most rapid means of disseminating the contagion, which, had it been
concentrated and pent-up at first within its narrow focus, would
otherwise have spread with less fearful havoc.[F]

In the meanwhile the sick cows being commingled with thousands of heads
of cattle exposed for sale at the different markets, communicated far
and wide the principle of the disease; and as a certain number of these
animals remaining unsold were driven back to the farms, into stalls
until then removed from every cause of contagion, they introduced among
their sound companions the fatal germs of the distemper; and as, again,
this effectual means of propagating the evil was repeated several times
in the same week, the consequence was that, by the end of July--a little
more than a month after the outbreak--the whole of the south of England
was in some sort contaminated. Thence the contagion extended to the
north of the kingdom, and passed into Scotland; so that, at present, the
cattle-typhus has spread its ramifications over a great number of the
counties of Great Britain.[G]

In the first instance, the contagion spread from animal to animal by
means of an infecting influence in some degree direct, among cattle
sheltered beneath the same roof, or collected in swarms within the same
markets. But very soon the air itself was impregnated and polluted by
the vaporization and diffusion of the typhic miasma; and herds of cattle
which had no contact, either direct or indirect, with infected animals,
were seen to be tainted with the distemper. Whether this contamination
was produced by the passage of attainted cattle along the public roads
(having fields on the right and left), or otherwise, nothing but an
absolute isolation, an utter impossibility of contact, appeared to offer
a perfect immunity against the spread of the evil.

The miasma, condensed by the fogs and transported in all directions by
the winds, now began to overleap every natural or artificial barrier,
and the favoured herds, ruminating at their ease in the manorial farms
of the wealthy patricians, in their well-kept parks and amid every
luxury, were suddenly smitten with an evil which in their case seemed an
anomaly. In such peaceful homes these innocent creatures were tended by
intelligent and benevolent hands, which understood and felt for their
frail constitutions; food of the best quality was lavishly supplied to
them, and whatever they could wish for lay around them in abundance;
richly reared, they had themselves become so many ornaments within these
scenes of beauty, and all men thought that here, at least, were plots of
rural ground which the genius of epizootia would not invade, and in
which the healthy herds were invulnerable to contagion.

It was under these circumstances that the fine farms of Earl Granville,
at Golder's Green, skirting the Finchley Road,[H] containing as many as
130 milch cows, were suddenly and fiercely attacked amidst their
seeming immunity, and struck down in great numbers.

"When I left England a month ago," said the noble lord, "there were
about 130 milch cows in four sheds; in the two largest and best managed
I found only one cow yesterday, September 4th."

The park of Holly Lodge,[I] which is partly bounded by the main road
along which pass and repass files of cattle going to and coming from the
markets, was visited by the same unsparing scourge. Now certainly, the
noble and beneficent lady of the manor, who secured to her cattle every
attention, and who, confiding in the resources of medical science,
attempted every means to save these stricken creatures doomed to an
inevitable death; she whose enlightened mind, equally open to the claims
of science as to those of misfortune, desired that experiments should be
made which might tend to throw any light on this devastating malady;
she, at any rate, one would think, might have escaped the common lot
without exciting wonder or envy at the privilege which she enjoyed. But
this fell and sweeping epizootia, inexorable in its latitudinarian
march, entered those shady bounds, and decimated those orderly sheds
with the same impartiality as it did that of the poor man, Cutting,
whose whole fortune was stored up in the two milch cows whose death he
had to deplore.

This epizootia threatens to invade, one by one, all the European States,
like the awful scourge of 1750, to which we have already drawn
attention. For even now Holland and Belgium[J] have been smitten; and
the alarm it has excited has for a time superseded the panic which the
stealthy advance of the cholera to the west had kindled. Some imagine
that it might have been kept out of Great Britain, or have been checked
in its outbreak. But, in spite of all the safest precautions and the
soundest measures of preparation, it would most likely have baffled
human skill, and neither been held aloof nor stifled in its focus. But
how painful it is, to have to write and to think that ignorance,
carelessness, revolting cupidity, and the most wanton violation of the
laws, have all contributed to extend the evil, with the foulest
premeditation and the blindest disregard!

To feel one's self a stranger in a country, and to be able to rejoice at
one's connexions with it, and at the same time to be obliged to give
publicity to certain truths distasteful to those to whom they are told,
is a most painful task. But, as it would be to swerve from that duty and
loyalty which the national interests as well as those of science impose
upon a writer, not to speak out with impartial justice in a matter of so
vital an importance, we beg permission to consider, without reserve,
this delicate question:--the causes which have contributed to propagate
the complaint.


V.

England, so long spared by that wasting scourge, which had so often
extended its ravages over France and other kingdoms during the last
sixty years, was taken by surprise; and the regulations and laws
necessary to stifle without delay the distemper in its focus--that is to
say, in the metropolis--not being in readiness, the outbreak of the
disease found her helpless and unarmed.

On the other hand, the organic forms of the English Government and
municipal bodies, the reserve of the Cabinet during the vacation, the
limited power of the Lord Mayor and his civic counsellors, the
subdivision of London into parishes and vestries, as in the good times
of the middle ages, the loose scattering of the shambles and meat
markets through the many streets of the huge town, the right asserted by
each man to be absolutely independent and free, the sanctity of the
Englishman's home, &c., &c., all concurred to let loose and propagate
the contagion, instead of keeping it within bounds.

Indeed, whilst the competent authorities, with all the energy which
could be expected of them on so grave a matter, were meeting and
discussing the best measures to be taken, and the interesting debates at
the Mansion-house were throwing the first light upon the question, the
insidious malady pursued its destructive progress, diffusing new terror
and alarm. When at length the Privy Council issued their orders,
prescribing the public declaration of sick cattle, and that no affected
beast was to be conveyed either by rail or by ship, whilst all the
necessary means of purification and disinfection were to be employed,
&c., it was unfortunately too late, the dreadful calamity having taken
root and multiplied its stem like the upas-tree.

What a field for reflection there is in these cases, which originating
with the imperfect state of the laws and institutions, have fostered and
encouraged the disease! But this is a subject which it would not behove
us to discuss, and we prefer to show by the notes which will be found
appended to the end of this work, and which are produced as attesting
documents, that cattle proprietors, by their own confession, too often
sacrifice the interests of the public to their own private advantage.[K]

Nor have we been able to participate in the thoughts and reflections of
so many sensible and judicious persons, on the impotence and
dilatoriness of the public authorities, and also, let us say, on the
inadequate pecuniary means proposed by a people so lavish of its wealth
when useful and great undertakings are designed, without paying a
natural tribute of regret, to the memory of a Prince who took so deep an
interest in the progress of agriculture, and who, had he still been
living, would have known how to direct with a firm and steady hand, the
right measures to be taken amidst so many intricacies and
embarrassments.

Sometimes allusion has been made to France in the speeches delivered at
these meetings, presided over by that active magistrate, the Lord Mayor.
In the course of these remarks the speakers have praised and held up to
admiration the advantages of her system of centralization, the decrees
of her sanitary police, and the promptness with which she executes the
measures which the public interests require. That is true. France is
certainly in a state to resist the scourge with very effectual means to
arrest its progress; but if in this matter, as in some others, she have
acquired a superiority, it has only been by an experience dearly
purchased, these epizootics having returned more than once to destroy
her flocks and herds. Politically, the same might be said of her
revolutions, those great moral epidemics.

An orator, a writer, went so far as to say, in one of his numerous
letters, the one dated the 24th of August: "I regret to say some of our
neighbours laugh at our expense."[L]

No, your neighbours will not laugh at your misfortunes. They sympathize
at present both in your joys and sorrows, and if I have taken up my pen
on this occasion, it has only been because I could not look with
indifference on your too just anxieties, when I flattered myself that I
might write some useful pages to mitigate and relieve them.

As most newspaper readers are aware,[M] and as everybody may easily
ascertain, the diseased cattle, in spite of reiterated orders to destroy
them immediately, were, nevertheless, driven to the markets to be sold
for what could be got for them; or when their tainted condition was too
glaring they were at once sent off to the private shambles, the owners
of which, in order to disguise the accusatory proof of the misdemeanor,
hastened to sell the body of the animal. It would be quite impossible to
mention all the violations of the law, which every day continue to fill
the columns of the public journals. One graceless wretch, who deserved
to be hanged for it, if his ignorance do not excuse him, was so infamous
as to introduce a sick cow into a shed not yet attainted, in his
criminal desire of propagating the disease there.[N]

Thus, then, independently of the causes inherent to the typhus itself,
which served of necessity to diffuse it, other causes proceeding from
the defective state of the law, and the perfidy of individuals, have
contributed to its dissemination. And yet the Government circulars, the
newspapers, and the reports of veterinary doctors have made known that
the slightest omissions and inattentions were serious--that the want of
ventilation and cleanliness in the stables, the overcrowding of the
cattle, and their abiding near their own droppings, or dung-heaps--that
the keeping of dead bodies close to farms, cowsheds, enclosed grounds,
and fields--that the hasty and imperfect burial of cattle--that the
collection and transit of their fragments, bones, horns, and skins--that
the driving on the public roads of any animal either tainted itself, or
having lived among those that were sick--that the clothes of persons and
stable utensils, soiled with putrid liquids--that all these, and similar
causes, were capable of propagating or aggravating the disease.

But whilst we must loudly condemn the voluntary misdeeds of those who
drove their sick cattle to market, it must likewise be allowed that, to
conform one's self rigidly to the given injunctions, was sometimes
attended with serious embarrassments. How great, indeed, must have been
the perplexity of any grazier who, being the owner, for instance, of
forty head of cattle, and having seen ten of them perish under his eyes,
without knowing where to dispose of them, was threatened with the loss
of the remaining thirty within a few days! How could he calmly and
patiently resign himself to suffer so large a quantity of animal matter
to accumulate and putrefy around him, when, suddenly ruined, and
destitute of every resource, the authorities held back instead of coming
to his assistance.

The prime cause of all the transgressions committed in despite of the
Privy Council's orders, may therefore be referred in part to the want
of compensation to be granted to the owners of infected cattle. It all
might be almost reduced to a question of money. For let us suppose for a
moment, that inspectors entrusted with adequate powers, had been
authorized, after a close examination, to point out the tainted cattle;
to fix a moderate price on them by way of compensation; to have them
slaughtered, carried away, and immediately buried, would not such a
course have diminished the generation of contagious miasma in a
considerable proportion?

Moreover, some cattle-breeders and farmers exposed themselves to the
imposition of fines and penalties without any evil designs; for when
they drove their beasts to market they were only in the stage of
incubation, at the preliminary period, when it is really no easy task to
distinguish the distemper. The following fact will exemplify this.

At each market, in spite of continual warnings, the inspectors pick out
and despatch to the slaughter-houses a certain number of sick cattle,
not only those affected with typhus, but with other disorders. One
cannot help wondering, on seeing the poor, lean, sickly condition of
some of these creatures, how their owners could have been so mad as to
expose them for sale; but in their number there are a few which,
although sick, appear in good health to the common observer.

About a fortnight ago, during one of our visits to the great
Metropolitan Market, Mr. Tegg, the veterinary inspector, whose
intelligence and earnestness are quite equal to the very difficult
charge with which he is entrusted, ordered to be seized and removed to a
secluded fold near the slaughter-houses, a dozen diseased animals. When
once these cattle had been thus collected in a body, it was easy to
submit them to a still closer examination. Most of these beasts, adult
cows and oxen, were lean, panting, feverish, dispirited, and remained
motionless where they stood. But among them was a cow, with a brisk and
lively look, a quick open eye, which watched us with anxiety, and fled
at our approach every time we passed by her. The turn came for this cow
to be examined. Mr. Tegg, strong and handy--as every good veterinary
doctor should be--seized hold of one of her horns, but he was quickly
shaken off; other persons came up to assist him; the fiery animal was
suddenly seized by both horns, by the nostrils, and the tail; but so
strong and spirited was the animal, that she defended herself with
advantage against all her adversaries, and once more shook herself free.

It was necessary, however, to master the creature, so they surrounded
her again, pressing her back this time into a corner of the pen, to
overpower her. But lo! the animal takes a sudden spring, and leaps over
the bars. Assuredly this cow, for a beast suspected of the typhus taint,
had given a proof, if not of health, at least of extraordinary vigour;
and her owner, who had seen her condemned with much vexation, now
thought he saw ample reason to reclaim her, and drive her back to the
market for sale. However the cow, on taking such a leap, and under
conditions so unfavourable, came down with all her weight upon her
limbs, fracturing one of her forelegs.

After this accident, we were able to prosecute the examination we
desired, and Mr. Tegg showed us a row of little glandular swellings on
the ridge of the gums, and livid spots on the vaginal mucous membrane,
which confirmed his diagnosis. The owner of this cow, nevertheless,
still discredited the diseased state of the beast; so to convince him,
she was driven off at once to the slaughter-house to be struck down;
but, unfortunately, three or four others filled the required area, so
that the poor cow was forced to witness the execution of her
fellow-creatures before being killed herself. The look and posture of
this cow, her excited yet terrified glance as she surveyed this scene of
carnage, was one of those pictures which no pencil could draw; and
although we acknowledge that man possesses an incontestable right to
apply to his own use the dead or live matter of animals for his food and
sustenance, we could not help feeling for the poor victim, slipping over
the blood, and thus scenting death before receiving the stroke.

We are not excessively sensitive; we have seen a hundred horses bleeding
from the incisions made by veterinary pupils, and scores of oxen
slaughtered; we ourselves have practised numerous experiments on
animals; but the affecting sight of that animal witnessing the slaughter
of others, and waiting her turn to die, touched us deeply. We could not
help asking ourselves, how it was that man could dispense with
compassion and good feeling even in that bloody toil, and why he did not
bandage the eyes of the doomed creatures he was going to sacrifice?
These dumb animals that we treat like inert matter are sensitive like
ourselves; they are very conscious of pain; and if it be our privilege
to compute the number of our days, we ought not to forget that they are,
like us, endowed with intelligence, so that when they are thus detained
at the place of execution, all their senses and faculties being
concentrated on their destroyer, they are fully conscious of the cruel
fate which awaits them.

At last it was the poor beast's turn to be slaughtered, and ten minutes
afterwards we opened her entrails, and had proof that Mr. Tegg's
judgment was exact, for already the stomach and intestines offered to
view indubitable signs of the typhus at its first period.

The owner of the cow was then convinced and brought to reason, but he
still very fairly asserted the goodness of his motives, about which none
present doubted at all, and applied for compensation to the full value
of the beast, both as butcher's meat and offal, which application was
granted.

Judge, therefore, by this particular example, how many tainted cattle
there must have been which have propagated this distemper, some with and
some without the knowledge of their owners; and, "_horresco referens!_"
how much of this tainted meat must have been purchased and eaten by the
public, since this cow had all the appearance of health and vigour, and
the real diseased condition might not have been detected at all, but for
the experience and sagacity of Mr. Tegg, the inspector.


VI.

In this consideration of the causes of the contagious typhus in bovine
cattle, we have deemed it essential to invite attention both to those
which are generally recognised and admitted, and to those which, though
they may have been settled in the minds of observant and experienced
men, may yet appear hypothetical to certain readers.

Besides which, in every scientific work, allowance must be made for the
past and future; and here we have two vital distinctions. If the man
who undertakes this task does not go on, he falls back; and it was to
avoid incurring this reproach that we have passed our old boundaries and
visited new avenues. We are aware that more than one objection might be
urged against the opinions and theories which we have exposed, in order
to account for the outbreak of typhus in England; we might anticipate,
we might reply to these objections; but we would rather recapitulate our
inquiry into the causes, in the tangible form of practical propositions.

From the general considerations above given, we think we may conclude,

1st. That the causes which generate the cattle typhus on our globe are
permanent and unceasing, not only on the banks of the great rivers which
empty themselves into the Black Sea, but also in other countries--in
America, in Africa, &c.; wherever, in a word, exist the conditions, not
of race (the race of the animal in this case being but secondary), but
of climate and of the organic elements which are indispensable to the
formation and development of typhic miasma.

2nd. That the cattle typhus, although it exists not necessarily, but
through the improvidence or want of caution in man, on different parts
of the earth, never appears at all in the temperate and more genial
zones, save under particular and special circumstances, analogous in
some degree with those which generate the human typhus--inclemency of
the seasons, overcrowded dwellings, bad or insufficient food, and want
of cleanliness; and that these particular and special circumstances give
birth to the epizootic genus, rendering the cattle fit and apt to
receive the germs of the contagious virus, and to foster its incubation.

3rd. That the cattle typhus, thus accidentally developed in the
temperate and genial zones, by means of the vicious hygienic conditions
amidst which horned cattle are accustomed to live, and which serve as
the causes of its propagation, is afterwards transmitted by the contact
of animals living in the same stall or shed, or collected in herds on
the same ground, or transported in the same vehicles, by land or sea.

4th. That the droppings of animals, their litter, their dead bodies, and
their detritus, or broken-up remains--also the stables, vehicles, and
implements which have served for their use, and all matters or
substances which have touched them or approached them--are generative
elements of the distemper.

5th. That the typhic miasma, thus reproduced and multiplied in one place
under the influence of all these producing causes, is conveyed by the
winds to great distances, smiting those well guarded cattle which
appeared to be fully protected from the possibility of infection by
their isolation.

6th. That the want of prompt and stringent measures first to
concentrate, and then to stifle this typhus in its focus; the love of
lucre, the perfidy of some, and the absence of foresight and caution in
others, may be, and have been in the particular cases which we are
dealing with, material causes and agencies of its diffusion.

Such we consider to be the causes which engender and propagate cattle
typhus, and which will serve as a basis for the preventive measures to
be employed in order to withstand and check its propagation.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] We are aware that the transport of cattle is conducted in a
different manner during the prevalence of this epizootia. The account
given by two German veterinary surgeons of the management of the vessels
of the North German Lloyd's, and of the manner in which the animals are
treated, is a proof of this; but before the appearance of the epizootia,
the transport of animals by land and by sea left much to be desired.
This account will be found at the end of this work (NOTE A); and all
documents in support of the facts which have served as the basis of our
dissertation, are also in the Appendix, arranged alphabetically in the
form of notes.

[C] See Notes B, C, D, E.

[D] See Note F.

[E] On the 15th of September, the thermometer stood at 80° Fahrenheit.

[F] See Notes G, J.

[G] See Notes K, L.

[H] See Note M.

[I] See Note N.

[J] See Notes O, P.

[K] See Notes R, S, T.

[L] See Note V.

[M] See Note Y.

[N] See Note Z.




CHAPTER III.

_Description of the Contagious Typhus of the Ox; its Symptoms, Course,
Progress, &c._


I have already written the history of the typhus which affects the ox; I
have shown and dwelt upon the signs and characters of typhus diseases
generally, deducing therefrom the denomination and definition of that of
the ox in particular; finally, I have described the causes which
generate and diffuse it abroad.

Now, I must make known the various phases and alterations to which the
disease is liable, and which, in the language of the medical schools,
are called its symptoms and characteristics; its progress or course; its
prognosis; its _post-mortem_ appearances, &c. &c.

This examination, like those which have preceded it, will afford new
foundations for medical practice.


I.

_Symptomatic Characteristics._--The typhus of the ox, like all
infectious and contagious diseases, offers to observation four
successive changes: 1st, a _period of Incubation_, during which the
original structure is subject to internal and latent derangements; 2nd,
a _period of Initiation_, during which the first evident signs of the
disease are manifested; 3rd, a _period of Endurance_, during which the
phenomena are fully developed; 4th, a _period of Decline_, or wasting
atony.

These divisions and classifications, it will readily be conceived, are
rather fanciful, for nature does not adapt herself to our methodical
forms. Still we shall abide by them, because they have their relative
and practical utility, and because they will afford to the practitioner
suggestions more easily understood; and finally, because the organic
changes are different at these various periods, which in their entirety
constitute the typhus of the bovine species.

The description of those different phases through which the organism of
cattle smitten with the contagion has to pass, has moreover been given
in a masterly manner by the veterinary physicians of the different
European countries, especially by those in which opportunities to
observe it have been most frequent--that is to say, by the Russian,
German, and French veterinary doctors, Jessen, Röll, D'Arboval, Gellé.

The English physicians of the 18th century, as we have already seen,
were also in no respect inferior to those of our own time. Finally, Mr.
Simonds, who published a very able Report on his return from his
scientific exploration in Galicia, in 1857, and the skilful Professor
Bouley, in his recent communications to the Académie de Médecine, in
Paris, respecting his examination of the present cattle typhus in
England, have described the disease with minute exactness, as we
ourselves have verified on the various sick beasts which we have seen
during the last two months.

1. _Period of Incubation._--Several careful experiments, which have been
cited in the historical division of this work, and numerous fortuitous
occasions, have authorized us to assign a duration of nine or twelve
days to the period of incubation, according to the general conditions
of the epizootia, the manner in which the contagion is transmitted, and
the former state of health of the affected cattle.

Thus an epizootia at the outset, either when it has become general, or
when it is at its decline, does not always transmit typhic miasma of the
same virulent intensity, nor does it always provoke in the frame a
labour of incubation which is invariable. The contagion transmitted from
animal to animal living continually in the same stalls or sheds is
followed by an incubation more quick and active than that which results
from a chance contact in the markets, or from a contagion produced at a
distance, by the transmission of the miasmatic effluvium along the
public highways.

Let us add to these considerations the relative state of each animal's
health, and we shall then perfectly understand that the incubation must
vary both in its continuance and in the characteristics of its
manifestation. In some animals it scarcely betrays the derangements
produced by its morbid operation: they preserve their appetite and their
usual looks. A close and attentive observation would alone be able to
distinguish some slight alterations in their way of living, in the
regularity of their rumination and sleep. But in others, there is no
mistaking a something irregular and unusual in their appearance and
living; the vital state is no longer the same. Thus an animal which used
to be cheerful and familiar becomes silent and solitary; it browses the
grass with less eagerness and avidity; it lies down more frequently and
longer; it lingers by the side of the hedge along the field, or it
wanders about, here and there, with a listless look, and without any
object. Others moan and complain, bellowing at intervals in an unusual
manner, very expressive of languor and pain.

But apart from seasons of epizootia, the beasts too often exhibit these
imperceptible shades of variety in their looks and actions for the
attention to be struck by them; these changes, therefore, are almost
always unnoticed.

However, the typhic miasma absorbed at the same time by the respiratory
and digestive mucous membranes serves to modify the qualities of the
blood, and secretly reacts on the nervous system; soon after, the
animal exhibits more decidedly those changes which previously were
hardly to be detected; his want of appetite is more marked, his sadness
more obvious, and his attention fixes itself more slowly and carelessly
on the objects which surround him. When he is in the shed, his usual
food is found in excess of his wants, his thirst is much keener and more
frequent, and a continual dejection and lowness of spirits or a
transitory agitation disturb all his functions. When the farmers or
graziers notice these premonitory signs for the first time they pay but
little attention thereto; but if the contagion has found its way into
their stalls and sheds they are no longer deceived by them, but begin to
apprehend that in a day or two fresh victims will be added to the
number.

2. _Period of Initiation._--Soon the elaboration of the virulent miasma
in the organic structure changes the quality of the blood and humours,
the functions of assimilation and secretion are modified, the nervous
centres receive vitiated organic elements and are disturbed in their
physiological conditions, and the smitten animal displays that state of
latent uneasiness which he is imperfectly conscious of by a general
look of heaviness and stupor (+Typhos+), which has suggested for this
disease its name of typhus.

Indeed, the poor animal's eyes are fixed, the hearing becomes obtuse or
indifferent, as may be seen in the sinking of the ears, those organs
which are so sensitive, so contractile, and so vigilant in herbivorous
animals. With the head hanging down and motionless, the neck stretched
out, their forelegs open and spread, their buttocks drawn together and
one of them completely lax, they seem to succumb beneath the weight of
their bodies. In a word, the animal exhibits through its whole bearing a
heavy sadness, a general dejection, which bespeak a great derangement in
the whole structure. From this time, in the animals which are most
seriously affected, the appetite ceases, the rumination becomes
irregular and partial, whilst in some others the appetite and rumination
are maintained in different degrees.

But the incubation of the morbid elements pursues its course, the
alteration of the blood becomes general, and the circulation is
increased and quickened. After this the fever interposes and stops the
secretions, that of the udders is dried up, the mucous channels cease to
flow, the mucous membrane of the mouth becomes whitish, the little
glands situated on it are more permanent, especially in the
circumference of the gums; the floor of the tongue and the larynx are
inflamed, the mucous membrane of the cow's sexual organs is red and
furrowed with livid streaks, the white of the eye is parched, and the
skin feels alternately hot and cold, as well as the horns and hoofs.

Some of the sufferers have an external horripilation, transient
shiverings are felt in the front and hind quarters and at the junction
of the limbs with the trunk. Some pregnant cows near their delivery
miscarry. In a word, at this period of irritation, the whole frame is at
war with the typhic elements which besiege it, and which overcome the
preservative power of the vital forces, and from this general
disturbance arises an incandescent fever, which drains and stops all the
secretions at their source.

These general symptoms are the first signs and warnings of functional
derangements more significant, which may, however, vary according to the
predispositions of each animal, and transfer their evolutions either to
the nervous centres or to the respiratory mucous membrane, or to that of
the digestive channels, in the inflammatory and febrile form of the
contagious typhus. Such at least is what we observe in the typhus of
1865 in England.

The functional derangements, in truth, subordinate to and depending on
the predispositions exhibited by the cattle, are far from being the same
in all. In some, the nervous derangements predominate; in others, it is
those of the respiratory, and in others, it is those of the digestive
channels.

As in this period of irritation the nervous centres are more
particularly affected, the animal suffers cerebral and rickety pains, a
constant cephalalgia, which provokes vague anxiety; he is sometimes
cheerful, sometimes wild and furious; he clenches his teeth and yawns,
the muscles of his face spasmodically contract, the spine feels very
sensitive when pressed, a burning and insatiable thirst comes on, the
breathing is hurried, and the intestinal evacuations are suspended.

In this form the toxæmia appears to concentrate about the nervous
centres--as is observed elsewhere at the outset of certain violent
fevers, in the typhus and typhoid fever of man, for instance--and some
of their number may perish the victims of these nervous disorders, and
even fall as if struck with electricity. They die apparently from the
result of the typhic poison; for at this second period, we do not trace
in the nervous centres those injuries which might account for so sudden
a death.

When the respiratory apparatus concentrates upon it the febrile
congestion, the breathing becomes painful, accelerated, embarrassed,
sometimes convulsive, and a deep, oppressive cough is heard from time to
time. The animal, under the yoke of this oppressive uneasiness, turns
his head from right to left, scents, and seems to question his flanks,
where the seat of the disorder is; and then, whether the pulmonary
affection is congestive or inflammatory or emphysematous, he may die of
the consequences of obstruction to the pulmonary circulation and from
the alteration of the blood, under the influence of a slow asphyxia,
but only at the third or fourth period.

Finally, when the typhus localizes more particularly its morbid
phenomena on the digestive channels, we discern local alterations on the
floor of the tongue and the buccal mucous membrane, spots of livid red,
leaving behind them ulcerations of greater or less extent and depth on
different parts of the intestinal canal. In this form, which follows
more regularly all the periods, constipation is obstinate at the outset,
evacuation of the bowels takes place with difficulty, the fæces are hard
and the urine scanty, the belly is inflated and sensitive.

Sometimes at this period of initiation, one of these three symptomatic
forms--the nervous, the pulmonary, and the digestive--may predominate
exclusively, so far as to mask the disease as a whole, and to constitute
it a special malady. But in that case, it is only the exaggeration of
the functional derangements which in their total constitute the typhus:
for when the distemper pursues its course, these three principal centres
of life are always affected in different degrees. Thus, not one of the
cattle smitten with the typhus goes through all the phases of the
disease, without suffering at a given moment in its nervous,
respiratory, and digestive functions.

In this respect, the typhus of the ox presents an apparent analogy with
the typhoid fever in man, although it is different. Consequently, the
name of _typhus fever_ given by some veterinary surgeons, is not
altogether inapplicable to it.

3. _Period of Duration._--At this stage of the disease, which may be
said to extend from the fourth to the seventh day, the nervous
derangements are confined to symptoms of uneasiness and sensibility
along the dorsal spine; for those cases which exhibited more violent
derangement in the nervous functions have proved fatal. In this period
of the disease the breathing is more embarrassed, particularly when the
pulmonary form of the disease prevails. The pulse, which is hard and
frequent, indicates from forty to sixty pulsations; the beatings of the
heart are more violent and audible; the mucous membranes, dry at the
outbreak, recover their secretions, but these latter are endowed with
irritating properties. Thus the eyelids, swollen and tumefied at the
edges beneath the lashes, drip with a corrosive liquid, which soon marks
its furrow along the chanfrin; the bronchiæ, the trachea, the nostrils,
the salivary glands, exude a serosity which runs out of the nasal and
buccal orifices. The exanthematic eruption having discharged itself
through the digestive channels, constipation is followed by diarrhoea,
rumination is completely stopped, the beast declines all solid
nutriment, and pants for drinks,--for those especially which have a
slight taste of acidity in them.

The derangements at this period pursue a rapid course--the breathing
becomes more and more difficult, the skin is hot and dry, the hairs
stiffen more and more, gases are developed in the cellular tissues
beneath the skin, along the dorsal vertebræ, at the abdominal folds of
the posterior limbs and under the abdomen, in the form of flat, uneven,
crepitant tumours, which crackle when pressed with the hand; the
diarrhoea becomes more liquefied and irritant, for then it is no
longer a flow of droppings covered with mucus which is expelled, but
secretions already putrid, sometimes reddish in colour, and attended
with foetid gases, which induce tenesmus in the rectum, and force up
the tail. The animal grows perceptibly lean, his dejection is extreme,
and cows which are with calf miscarry.

At night, the animal seems to have an increase of fever, sometimes of a
remittent type, after which he becomes drowsy and lies down to rest
himself or to sleep, if he can; but the difficulty of breathing, the
abdominal pains, soon force him to rise again, which he cannot do
without an effort.

4. _Period of Decline and Sinking._--This stage is observed to extend
from the eighth day to the twelfth or the fourteenth. The morbid
functions pursue their course, for the disease has its regular phases
and a successive variation of phenomena. The secretions, which a few
days before were fluid and irritating, have undergone a change; they
have become thick and purulent, they flow more slowly from the ocular
mucous membranes, and also from the nasal and buccal, which are red and
inflamed, and they already emit a foetid smell. The dull tarnished
eyes become hollowed, purulent mucus lodges within their orbits, the
bronchiæ are stopped up, the breathing grows louder and more panting,
the animal instinctively stretches his neck to ease it; the wasting of
the flesh exposes the bones of the sacrum and coccyx, laying bare the
vertebræ and the ribs; the emphysematous tumours are more extensive and
crackling; the skin, less heated, wrinkles up and splits about the bony
protuberances; the udders are crusty and excoriated; detached boils,
hard and rounded at first, then soft and purulent, begin to show
themselves on the trunk and the upper parts of the limbs. The
diarrhoea, still frequent, becomes bloody and intolerably offensive.

At this final period the organic structure yields to the effects of a
general alteration of the liquids and solids. The vital force has lost
the power of reaction; a mass of blood, decomposed by the double
influence of a virulent toxæmia and the obstructions of respiration,
conveys to all the organs a principle of dissolution; the nervous system
is in a manner paralysed, as is shown in the animal's insensibility.

The secretions stop up the various channels and cavities; they lodge
within them; they undergo a putrid decomposition, and pass out with
difficulty in the form of a purulent and bloody flux, in the highest
degree infectious. Very soon the sick animal has ceased really to live;
it struggles and labours with its agony; if the lungs are clogged with
gas or fluid they rattle hurriedly and often; the animal cannot hold its
head up even when lying down, and when standing moves it to and fro as
if affected with the natural shaking of old age, and as if seeking to
ward off some indescribable evil, the occurrence of which it was
awaiting.

The animal's body is a prey given up beforehand to the laws of organic
decomposition: the internal mucous membrane of the cheeks and lips peels
off in strips when rubbed; the sores on the skin have a livid and
gangrenous look; the eggs which the flies deposit on the edge of the
eyelids and at the nasal orifices, or on the excoriations of the skin,
quickly pass into the state of larvæ. The air they expire is cold and
infectious; the native caloric, extinguished in every focus
successively, disappears; the vaginal mucous membrane is tumefied, the
anal opening gapes, and from it flows a bloody and decomposed liquid
which the rectum can no longer expel. The mouth, half open and coated
with a thick glutinous foam, vainly tries to inhale long draughts of air
which can no longer reach the lungs. Finally, if the animal is lying
down, he expires in slow agony, his head borne down by its own weight;
or, if standing, he sinks and falls down, his death having anticipated
the fall.

Such are the symptoms--the subjective signs which enable us to detect
the contagious typhus of the ox. But all animals do not exhibit these
disorders of the vital functions with the same regularity and excess.
Some of these we have seen, from first to last, sustain the internal
effects of the morbid process--in some sort passively--without revealing
any deep derangements in the nervous, respiratory, and digestive
functions. The poisonous virus had smitten them; they suffered in their
general structure; they looked stupefied; they lost, at a given moment,
their appetite and rumination; they had fever; their breathing had
become short and frequent; they had diarrhoea; they gradually lost
flesh, and the excreta passed through certain changes and
transformations. In a word, the animal had manifestly the bovine typhus;
but, thanks to a relative immunity, to a special organization, which
renders some of these beasts capable of resisting the contagion for a
long period, and sometimes altogether[O]--thanks to that variety which
we observe in different constitutions (for small-pox and typhus in man,
and the true typhoid fever in animals, do not operate with the same
violence on all alike)--thanks to this privileged organization,--we have
seen some oxen pass through every stage of the disease without
exhibiting this terrible train of morbid phenomena.

In these cases--for even this mild form of the distemper at last
produces death--the injuries fix themselves more exclusively on the
digestive channels, and we witness, in dissection, ulcerations in some,
in others mere spots of a livid red, more or less extensive.

Finally, although the typhus be one of the gravest maladies which
destroy and decimate cattle, all sick animals are not mortally affected
thereby. In the present epizootia, five per cent., as nearly as can be
ascertained, recover; and when that happens, signs of a favourable omen
are observable during the course of the attack. In these favourable
instances, indeed, the symptoms, even though they exhibit a certain
gravity, pursue a regular course; fever does not become remittent; the
fæcal discharge is copious and easy, with less foetor; the animal
loses flesh slowly and progressively; the tumours are cutaneous,
inflammatory; their character is good, depurative, and rather purulent
than gaseous and crackling. The droppings do not show that high degree
of pestilential decomposition described above; the animal in his drink
welcomes and digests a mixture of bran and flour; the secretions of
purulent mucus and the fæcal discharges dry up and stop in the early
part of the period of decline; the epidermis of the openings through
which they passed out peels off in thin scales, and afterwards in scurfs
or husks--in a word, the economy does not experience those acute
disturbances which strike one of the tripods of life--that is to say,
either the nervous centres, the lungs, or the digestive organs.

Now, in these curable cases, in which the cure is most generally due to
nature's own efforts, but which a systematic treatment might render far
more frequent, the convalescence is long, and requires great attention
and a well-regulated diet, in which the food is carefully measured and
divided. Here there must be a rigid superintendence. A laxity in the
watchfulness, or too much reliance on the reviving health, have produced
sudden relapses, and been fatal to many sick cattle, which had been
looked upon as thoroughly cured. For it may well be conceived that
convalescent animals, after sustaining such violent derangements in
their health, and having been brought down to the lowest degree of
prostration and marasmus--to a reconstitution, we may call it, of the
solids and liquids--have a devouring hunger. If, therefore, the keeper
who looks after them unhappily forgets that the principal lesions or
sores are seated in the stomach and intestines, and if he gives them too
much solid nutriment, he impedes the cure, irritates the ulcerations not
yet thoroughly covered over, and soon adds another victim to those which
had already died.

This convalescence lasts from fifteen to twenty days, and the animal
only recovers its health at last by slow degrees. Still the careful
keeper need not be afraid of a relapse when he is patient and watchful.

Such, then, is the contagious typhus of the ox. Type of the unreturnable
infectious diseases, its virulent miasms undergo within the structure a
series of transformations: they produce in the frame a general disorder
fully capable of annihilating the predisposition or aptitude of the
animal to receive the taint. A disease essentially specific, it affects
the principal centres of life; it kills its victim both by its deadly
virus and by the local derangements to which it gives rise; for how is
it possible to preserve life when the whole nervous system, that
promoter and regulator of all the functions, is upset?--when the lungs
which revivify the blood, when the digestive organs which are the very
sources of alimentation, are smitten with stagnation?--when, in fine,
not only these vital centres have ceased to operate, but when each by
itself is the cause of torturing pains and exhaustion?

The typhus, moreover, is observed in all animals of the bovine species,
whatever may be their race, their age, or their sex. The recovered
animals may live with impunity amidst diseased herds of cattle, thanks
to its non-relapsive nature. Jessen has even witnessed cows which, after
their own cure, communicated a sort of immunity to their offspring. For
the same reason it is that epizootias are less fatal in those countries
where they often occur, the constitutions of those animals which are
engendered amongst such habituated herds, preserving a prophylaxy
inherent to the blood which has been transmitted to them.

Besides, what a pregnant subject is this for the physician, and what
more meritorious task can he set himself than the treatment of such a
distemper, which reason assures him must eventually lead to the cure and
eradication of the same complaint in the human species?

From a cause which as yet has been indistinguishable and imponderable,
what important, what marvellous results loom in the future! The air
seems to us pure and wholesome, yet it conceals a typhic miasma of the
most deadly kind; it carries this pernicious principle into the richest
meadows, where we see feeding flocks and herds which to us seem
exuberant with health. Then this miasma is inhaled and absorbed, and it
meets in the frame the special and indispensable organic element which
is needed for its multiplication; there it undergoes certain latent
transformations, and a fermentation, a germination, which we call
_incubation_, in order to explain a process which we cannot understand.
Then fever is kindled, all the functions are disturbed, and the sick
animal is struck down, leaving us wondering, ignorant, and powerless
spectators in the presence of phenomena which, nevertheless, are the
eternal work of nature and have endured through all time.--But if in
the invisible typhic atom nature gives us death, it also gives us life
in the zoosperma.


II.

_Lesions found in the Bodies of Oxen after Death._

The description which we have given of the disorders produced in the
different functions by the operation of the typhus, may easily suggest
what must be the lesions exhibited by the organs of the body.

Death, we have said already, may overtake the disease at any of its
periods, and thus show every aspect and every degree of the organic
lesions. Such an animal being struck down at the period of initiation,
will not, of course, present the changes and varieties of the period of
decline, and _vice versâ_.

In general, the state of the dead bodies is that of the most decided
marasmus; the remains are intensely repulsive, as well by the stench
they emit as by the sight they afford; and, in summer especially,
decomposition sets in with great rapidity. Consequently, the utmost care
is required in conveying them from place to place; and this attention
is the more essential, because in the transit, the cavities being
deprived of their contractile power, let flow the pestilential liquids
which they contain, thereby infecting the carriages and public roads.
The urgent necessity there is to inhume at once these dead bodies, the
most active agents in diffusing the contagion, is equally the drift of
this observation.

The deceased animal, as a subject of anatomy, enables us to certify the
seat of the emphysematous tumours, and to see that they are really due
to the air which insinuates itself into the cellular tissue, and which,
receding from the pressure of the fingers between the cells, produced
the crackling sound we noticed above. This penetration of the air is,
moreover, a far more general effect than was supposed.

It is ascertained, likewise, from the examination of these subjects,
that the round, fluctuating, and smaller tumours, are indeed purulent
gatherings, which occasionally find a passage into the layers and
interstices of the muscles.

The muscular flesh is usually flabby, bloodless, unsightly, of a very
nauseous smell; and it would be difficult to imagine that the most
avaricious trickster would dare to offer even the most presentable parts
of it for sale and consumption. But when the expedients and artifices
known to the butcher's trade are had resort to, when, regardless of the
public health, the unprincipled dealer selects the most fleshy parts,
when he dresses and adorns them by colouring them over with the blood of
a healthy beast, the unwary eye of the purchaser may be deceived.
Observe, that we are now speaking of cattle that have died in the last
stage of this marasmus, so that we might suppose, even if the many
summonses before the magistrates, and the too moderate fines which have
been imposed on the guilty parties, had not shed the broadest light upon
the fact, that _a large number of sick cattle which had been slaughtered
at different stages of this frightful disease, have been dressed and
adorned, exposed for sale, sold, and eaten by a very large portion of
the inhabitants of London and of the country likewise_.

_Digestive Channels._--The mucous membrane of the buccal cavity is, for
the most part, of a livid whiteness; ecchymosed stains, and sometimes
ulcerations, differing in their form and number, are visible on the
floor of the tongue. Mr. Simonds has had an anatomical model
constructed, which presents a perfect type of these ulcerations, some of
which are of a scarlet hue, with perpendicular edges. The _stomachs_
exhibit a variety of ulcerations.

The _paunch_, or first stomach, always contains a large quantity of food
intended for rumination; sometimes these aliments are dry, and lie
sticking to its sides; at other times they are diluted with water which
had not yet been absorbed after drinking. The inner membrane of this
first reservoir may show flat spots, with livid injections of different
sizes.

The _honeycomb_, or second stomach, generally exhibits the same injuries
as the paunch.

The _manyplies_, or third stomach, contains between its laminæ hard,
pulverulent, and dry alimentary substances, which are seen sticking to
the different leaves. On removing these substances, some ecchymosed
spots are laid bare, the epithelium of which easily peels off;
sometimes ulcerations, and even perforations, are visible.

The _reed_, or fourth stomach, whose sides are thicker, more fleshy, and
more vascular, exhibits within its folds various kinds of lesions or
sores: they consist of large flat stains of a darkish red, more or less
soft, and sometimes ulcerations red on their deep surface, with clean
edges.

As for the intestines, properly so called, the _duodenum_ shows the same
injuries, but most generally large ecchymosed spots.

The _small intestine_ appears on the outside, even when it preserves its
place in the abdomen, of a reddish colour, lined with vessels distended
with blood, the signs of a general congestion of its membranes. The
examination of the mucous membrane, after it has been cut open
lengthways, shows, indeed, that this portion of the digestive tube is
the principal seat of the distemper; for, independently of this general
injection, you perceive ulcerations which have succeeded to detached
pustules or lengthy flat spots, the result of a cluster of several of
Peyer's glands, brought together by the plastic influence of
inflammation. These flat spots, or wafers, very similar to those we
observe in the typhoid fever of man, are inflamed and ulcerated in
different degrees.

The mucous membrane of the _large intestine_ exhibits lesions depending
on the period of the disease. About the third period, the injection is
sometimes general, especially near the rectum; but in the fourth and
last period we often meet with ulcerations which are smaller in the
upper part, larger and deeper about the lower or rectal part. The
membrane of the sexual parts of the cow is strongly injected, and of a
dull red colour.

As we have seen, the different organs of the digestive apparatus may, in
this typhus, offer to view extensive alterations perfectly consistent
with the gravity of the symptoms or the functional derangements. In two
cases in which disorders of the respiration had prevailed, and which had
been sacrificed on the eighth or tenth day of the disease, we only
observed partial injections of a very limited character, either on the
gastric membranes or on that of the intestine, and which might have
been detected in the case of common intestinal inflammation. Therefore,
in these two cases, the characteristic lesions of the typhus, if they
must be localized in the intestine, were, so to speak, absolutely
wanting. It was, we will not say exactly the same, on four other
animals, three oxen and one cow; but if, in two of them, the fourth
stomach was inflamed, if in the third the small intestine was congested,
and if, lastly, in the cow the large intestine showed ulcerations, we
could not in these lesions distinguish those of typhoid fever.

These facts struck us with great surprise, for we were far from
suspecting them. We hoped, on opening the intestine of these animals,
which had certainly all died of the typhus, to meet assuredly in a
determined spot some well-known lesion declared beforehand. To our great
astonishment, such has not always been the case. So that our theories,
conclusive as they seemed on the identity of the ox typhus and the
typhoid fever in man, and which more than anyone else we wished to see
confirmed, must submit to observation.

In fine, in this epizootia the intestinal lesions or sores present
different appearances. Developed to the utmost in some cases, so much so
as to exhibit ulcerations at the root of the tongue as well as in the
intestines, and to be in a manner the excess of the injuries which are
seen in typhoid fever, they are in other cases scarcely perceptible, and
sometimes entirely absent, when the animal is struck down in the third
or fourth period, that is to say, when the exanthematic or pustular
state has had time to develope itself on the digestive channels. One of
these animals seized by Mr. Tegg at the Camden Town market, was in such
a state of exhaustion that he could not be driven to the
slaughter-house, only two hundred yards distant; they were forced to
fell him on the spot midway, in order to have him conveyed to the place
of dissection. We only detected partial injections on the digestive tube
of this beast. The pulmonary emphysema which had caused this animal's
death was developed in the highest degree.--He was opened at the request
of M. Bouley, of Alfort.

_Apparatus of Respiration._--Here, again, the typhus shows us injuries
which differ from those of typhoid fever; for if the breathing is always
more or less obstructed at the outbreak of this fever, no serious
organic change in the lungs is the consequence thereof. In the ox
typhus, on the contrary, when the pulmonary form prevails, the
derangements of the respiratory organs are remarkable. Thus, the mucous
membrane of the nostrils, from which flows a purulent and fetid mucus,
is sometimes ulcerated and excoriated. The larynx and the trachea or
windpipe, choked up with frothy mucus, show the same alterations, though
less frequently. The lungs, which are rather congested than inflamed,
are emphysematous, the air having entered and distended the cellular
tissue which unites the lobes together.

In some cases, the lungs are so gorged with air that their lobes
constitute but a single heap, rendering them irrecognisable, so greatly
do their volume, their specific gravity, and their spongy aeriform
aspect differ from the natural state.

_Apparatus of Circulation._--The inner sides of the heart show
ecchymosed spots, and the same is the case with the larger vessels. The
blood, diminished in its quantity and altered in its quality, is
blackish and more fluid; but in most cases it coagulates instantaneously
and in a mass, without separating into its solid and liquid parts.

_Nervous System._--Having observed and dissected the dead bodies at the
slaughter-houses of the markets, we were not able to examine either the
brain or the spinal marrow. Besides, let us remark in this place, that
the mode of felling cattle in England would have rendered impossible
such an examination. For the animals are struck with a club, which kills
them both by cerebral concussion and by the direct alteration of the
brain; the instrument having a sharp end which perforates the skull and
injures the cerebral lobes. Nor is this all; the moment the animal is
struck down, a flexible rod is inserted into the hole made in the skull,
and driven as far as the spinal canal, so as to tear to pieces the
protuberance and the bulb, that is to say, the vital knot. This manner
of killing cattle seems to us, however, preferable to the one adopted
in France, where the animal does not sink till he has been struck
repeatedly with the club.

But be that as it may, those authors who have examined the nervous
centres of horned cattle which had perished victims of the typhus, have
usually found the meninges, or membranes that envelope the brain,
injected, whilst the brain itself was slightly dotted over with blood.

These anatomical lesions of the nervous centres being insufficient of
themselves to explain the death at the second period, we have
endeavoured to give the explanation of it in treating of the symptoms.

The other organs, the spleen, the liver, the kidneys, present
alterations of a secondary interest only.


III.

    _Diagnosis--Prognosis--Use of the Flesh of Animals which have
      Died of the Typhus--Danger of direct Absorption._

The typhus of the ox has such distinct and strongly marked
characteristics that it is not easily mistaken. However, to conform
ourselves to received custom, I will say some words about the principal
symptoms of some distempers affecting the ox, between which and typhus
unprofessional persons might be embarrassed, and hesitate to distinguish
them. We will transfer, however, those particulars pertaining to the
diagnosis to the part written for the special use of agriculturists,
farmers, and graziers, in order that they may readily find whatever it
may be necessary for them to know when they chance to have any sick and
tainted cattle to treat and cure.

We have likewise a few words to say on the subject of the prognosis of
the disease, as regards its propagation and its time of lasting.
Finally, we will unfold a question of very real importance in
hygiene--we mean the use and consumption of the flesh of animals as
food, and the danger which may accrue to man and other animals from
contact with their dead bodies, or fragments of the same.

The diseases of the ox, which we are accustomed to consider as
distinguished from typhus, are the contagious peripneumonia, the
apthous fever, and the "charbonneux" typhus; but, as we have just said,
we will mention by-and-by their chief characteristics.

Everyone is anxious, and natural indeed is that anxiety, to know what
this epizootia will become--what will be its course; how long it will
last; whether it will extend its ravages over the whole extent of the
three kingdoms; and if, in fine, it will invade all Europe.

To answer in a precise manner these questions would be a difficult task;
for who amongst us can assign at present any definite course to the
atmospheric variations? and yet they have a genuine influence on the
progress of the epizootia. On the other hand, the measures which have
been taken hitherto to confine the contagion to its different foci, have
unhappily proved almost ineffectual, but it may be hoped that, assisted
by experience, we shall be able to resist the evil more effectually, and
check its propagation.

If the atmospheric conditions and the preventive measures could not
modify the spread of the distemper, we should have reason to dread a
still greater extension of the contagion; for the virulent character of
the epizootia appears to be of an exceptional intensity, and we may
perhaps compare it with the famous epizootia, of the middle of the
eighteenth century, which for ten years afflicted all Europe with its
ravages, striking down six millions of horned cattle.

Let the reader cast an eye over the extracts borrowed from the
physicians of the principal faculties who have described this typhus,
and which we have reproduced in the first part of this book relating to
its history, and he will then be convinced that the disease is
absolutely the same as that which then raged so fiercely. And if that is
the case, we must anticipate that it will extend its ravages whilst
prolonging its duration. Already it has spread to Holland and Belgium;
Hungary and other provinces in the south-east of Germany--a fact much
less surprising--are likewise smitten with it; and now we hear the news
that France, though so vigilantly on her guard, has seen her frontiers
passed over. In spite of the _cordon sanitaire_ which she had prudently
established everywhere, some horned cattle have been seized with the
typhus at the town of Raubaix, in the north.

Without setting ourselves up as pessimists, let us declare that we must
expect that the contagion will continue to spread. Let us make up our
minds to this, in order to take the necessary sanitary measures, and set
ourselves seriously to work by trying the preventive treatment. But,
alas! between the Government, the municipal corporations, the
agricultural societies, the cattle proprietors, and, with regret we add,
the veterinary surgeons, there has been sadly wanting, up to the present
time, that mutual understanding; that prompt and decisive action, and
those pecuniary advances which are so necessary to encounter and contend
with this great calamity.

As for estimating with any approach to accuracy the sacrifice of
property; the pecuniary loss, which this fatal epizootic may occasion
the country, the want of exact statistics as to the number of cattle
which have already been struck down will not permit us to do it. But we
may, perhaps, already set it down approximately from 50,000 to 60,000
head of cattle for England and Scotland, until we have obtained more
precise statistical information on this significant point of inquiry.

That would represent, however, a very considerable capital; for if we
compute the loss of each animal at the average sum of 15_l._ only, the
sacrifice already incurred would not be less than from 750,000_l._ to
900,000_l._ This sacrifice in money might possibly have proved the be
all and the end all; and at this point we might, perhaps, have arrested
the contagion, had we all been able to act advisedly and harmoniously
together, in the name and for the interest of the public, from the first
appearance of the disease. But this calculation of, let us say,
900,000_l._, is made on the supposition that each cattle owner had been
willing to abide by his own loss; whereas, unfortunately, many of them
have striven to shift it on others, and large numbers of the sick and
tainted beasts having been sold and consumed, a proportionate sum thus
recovered by those avaricious men must be of course _deducted_ from this
estimate. Deducted, indeed! Considering the consequences on the public
health, is it not rather an aggravation than a mitigation of the loss?

These last assertions naturally lead us to inquire whether we are not
justified in saying that the flesh of sick and tainted cattle, thus
circulated and consumed, has not had its baleful effects on the public
health.

The butchers who sold the flesh of these sick and tainted cattle have no
doubt been careful to abstain from using it in their own families; and
the first time they speculated on the health of their fellow-citizens,
well knowing what they did, their conscience probably reproached them
with the misdemeanour. But afterwards, when no bad consequences to their
customers had been seen, their own impunity, joined to this apparent
harmlessness to their neighbours, rendered them bolder, and it became a
daily habit with them to sell this peccant offal, which poisons even the
earth by its contact.

Moreover, the graziers themselves were in league with the butchers, and
took care to slaughter the affected animals before the wasting of their
flesh by the progress of the distemper had bereft them of their greatest
value. Their private interest prompting them thus to dispose of the
sick animals as fast as they could, the majority of the tainted beasts
were sold and eaten in the second stage or period of the typhus.

Now, if the flesh of these diseased animals had been eaten raw,
accidents most terrible and appalling would certainly have been the
consequence, although dogs may have fed upon it without injury. But the
cooking of animal flesh at 100 degrees of heat has the property of
destroying for a time the septic germs, as the famous debates now being
held by the experimentalists who are studying the subject of spontaneous
generation tend to show. This poisonous meat, therefore, may at first
have been digested without producing immediate ill effects.

Our medical practice, however, authorizes us to declare that, after
making every allowance for the influences of this extraordinarily hot
summer, digestive and nervous complaints of the acutest description, and
without any special cause to account for them, have been very numerous
indeed during the last two months, and beyond all proportion greater
than they usually are in London. And we cannot but feel that, if the
cholera should reach the shores of England at this critical conjuncture,
it will find organisms most ready to receive its virus. Then, indeed, if
the typhic miasma come to mix and blend with the choleraic miasma, all
living beings will have to contend with the most deleterious causes of
alterations in their health, and we may (God send it be otherwise!)
witness one of those measureless calamities which, known in former ages
as the _Black Pestilence_, decimated cattle and men indiscriminately,
and which, when we read the sorrowful accounts of it in history, make
the flesh creep with affright.

We sincerely hope that such misfortunes may be spared us. But ought we
to abstain entirely and absolutely from consuming the flesh of cattle
smitten with typhus? It is a delicate question, but still we shall
answer it, making due allowance for every interest concerned.

We conceive that all animals which are smitten with the early effects of
the disorder, which begin to operate at the opening of its second
period, that is to say, when the first symptoms are declared, such as
stupor, loss of appetite and shiverings, may be handed over to the
butchers. But this must only be done on the _positive understanding and
condition_ that every animal, sick or not sick, in times of epizootia,
shall pass, either in the farm, the market, or the stable, under the
examination of a competent veterinary inspector, who shall mark the
beast when fit to be sold for consumption. With this precaution, which
at present is put in practice in Belgium, every interest is cared for
and guarded--those of the public health as well as those of the cattle
owners.

But there is another question of some importance which deserves to fix
our attention for a moment. People sometimes inquire whether the
ox-typhus can be communicated to other animals, and even to man, either
by contact, by direct absorption, or by inhaling the miasma floating in
the atmosphere.

Experiments of great interest might be made on this subject; but we can
already assert, on the evidence of facts publicly known, that the direct
absorption of putrid matter and purulent secretions, and likewise the
mere contact with tainted flesh, when the epidermis or scarf-skin is
cracked or peeled off, or when the least open sore exists, may give
access to the disease, and produce death, both in man and other animals.
In these cases, the absorbed virus operates, not as a specific agent,
giving birth to typhus, but as a provocative septic agent, endowed with
infectious properties, which infuse into the economy a germ of virulent
and mortal disease. So long as a sound and intact outer skin stands as a
safeguard between us and absorption, we may fearlessly touch and handle
the tainted flesh of these animals. But the slightest sore or abrasion
is an open door to let in death. A young veterinary surgeon, who had a
slight wound in one of his arms, was carried off within forty-eight
hours, as was proved at a coroner's inquest, after he had dissected an
ox which had died of the typhus.[P]

We see by this fatal example that we must be particularly careful not to
touch an ox tainted with typhus when we carry about us any open sore,
unless we take the utmost precaution in order to guard against all
direct contact or absorption. Man, as we have said and shown, breathes
with comparative impunity an atmosphere laden with the infectious miasma
of this typhus. But that which to-day is true may not be true
to-morrow; let us, therefore, be also on our guard against the too
continuous absorption of an atmosphere impregnated with these
deleterious principles.

As for herbivorous animals in general, a similar organization must, in
their cases, predispose them to receive the contagion. Whenever we visit
the markets, we cannot help fearing to see the ox typhus communicated to
the sheep and pigs which are stationed around them. It is an
unquestionable fact that, in certain epizootias, all animals without
distinction have been smitten and struck down, and the herbivorous
animals more rapidly than any other. The habit of collecting such vast
numbers of cattle in the same market, and on the same day, though
convenient for business, appears to us injudicious, especially during
the prevalence of this scourge.

This part of our treatise was in the printer's hands when Mr. Simonds
wrote a letter to the Privy Council which justifies all our
apprehensions. The typhus of the ox has been communicated to a number of
sheep, and we must all expect to see this cruel disease assume much
larger proportions than heretofore, since it has now obtained a second
focus for its maintenance and dissemination.

      "Veterinary Department, 23, New-street, Spring-gardens,
      Sept. 25th.

      "SIR,--I beg to report that, acting on the
      instructions received from you to investigate without loss
      of time the statement received at your office relative to an
      outbreak of the cattle plague in a remote part of the county
      of Norfolk, supposed to have arisen from cattle having been
      in contact with some diseased sheep, recently brought to the
      premises, I have visited the district in question, and
      inquired into all the circumstances of the case.

      "It appears that as far back as the 17th of August Mr. C.
      Temple, farmer and merchant, of Blakeney, received on his
      farm 120 lambs which he had instructed a dealer to procure
      for him for feeding purposes.

      "The lambs were bought at Thetford-fair on the preceding
      day, and were immediately sent by rail to Fakenham, from
      which place they were driven to Blakeney, a distance of
      about ten miles. On their arrival they appeared to be
      fatigued to a greater extent than ordinary, which was,
      however, attributed to the heat of the weather and the
      exertion the animals had undergone.

      "In addition to this, the shepherd observed that several of
      them seemed unwell, and he remarked to his master that they
      did not appear to be a 'very healthy lot,' and that he
      thought it would be better to return them to the dealer.
      Within a day or two of this time the symptoms of illness
      were more marked in all the original cases, and many more of
      the animals had been attacked. On the 24th two of the worst
      cases were removed from the field to the farm premises, and
      were placed in a shed for treatment, in which afterwards a
      cow was put. On the 25th two of the lambs died, and in
      consequence of this, and of the large number which were now
      affected, the whole were brought, on the morning of the
      27th, into the same yard where the shed previously alluded
      to was situated. There is also another shed, separated from
      this yard only by some old furze faggots, into which the
      cows were driven night and morning for being milked. The
      lambs remained in the yard till the morning of the 28th,
      when having had some medicine administered to them, they
      were returned to the fold and never came again near the
      cows.

      "While in the yard three died, two on the 27th, and one on
      the 28th, and on the following day two others died in the
      field. From this time the disease went on, so that by
      Friday last, the 22nd of September, the day of my visit,
      forty-six had either died or been killed, and twenty-seven
      were in a very precarious condition.

      "On the 7th of September, ten days after the last exposure
      to the sheep, a cow gave evidence of being affected with the
      cattle plague, this animal being the one which had been put
      into the shed occupied by the diseased sheep on the 24th of
      August. A second cow was attacked on the 11th of September,
      and a third shortly afterwards, which was followed by
      others; so that by the 16th all the cows, six in number, a
      heifer, and a calf, were all dead.

      "My examination of the lambs showed that they were
      unmistakably the subjects of the plague. The symptoms agreed
      in almost every particular with those observed in cattle
      affected with the malady, and the _post-mortem_ appearances
      were also identical.

      "With a view to ascertain the true nature of the changes
      produced in the system prior to death, I had four of the
      lambs killed, and from these I took some diseased parts and
      forwarded them to the Royal Veterinary College without note
      or comment. These parts were examined by my colleague, Mr.
      Varnell, who at once recognised the special changes of
      structure which are caused by the cattle plague.

      "The whole facts of the case leave not the least doubt of
      sheep being liable to the disease termed the cattle plague,
      and that when affected they can easily communicate the
      malady to the ox tribe; and moreover, that when so conveyed
      it proves equally as destructive as when propagated from ox
      to ox in the ordinary manner.

      "The case is also more important from having occurred in a
      place no less than fourteen miles distant from any other
      where the cattle plague exists, thus placing beyond a doubt
      the fact of the malady being introduced among the cattle by
      the sheep alone.

      "I regret to add that this is not a solitary case of sheep
      being affected by the cattle plague. I learned that some
      sheep were supposed to be similarly affected belonging to
      Mr. R. J. H. Harvey, M.P., on his estate at Crown Point,
      near Norwich. This place I also visited, and found a large
      flock of upwards of 2000 lambs, among which the malady was
      prevailing. A large number had been separated from the
      diseased, and gave no evidence of the malady. Very many,
      however, had died, and the disease was making rapid
      progress. I also examined many of the dead, and found the
      _post-mortem_ appearances to be identical with those seen in
      the other cases spoken of in this report.

      "In this instance the malady was brought into the estate by
      the purchase of some cattle, which afterwards died from the
      disease, and which were unfortunately pastured with the
      sheep at the time the disease manifested itself.

      "The whole matter is one of the greatest importance, and
      which I lose no time in submitting to you for the
      information of the Lords of the Council.

      "I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,

      "JAS. B. SIMONDS."


IV.

      _General Considerations on the Ox-Typhus, and the
      Recapitulation of the Symptoms._

We have seen the causes, the symptoms, and the cadaveric alterations of
the Bovine typhus, and we may therefore apply ourselves at present to
the consideration of its pathogenia and its nature. Only, the limits of
this book will not admit of a complete discussion of every point of this
important question of pathology; for if we desired to show in what
respect the typhus differs from, and in what respect it resembles, such
and such a morbid entity, febrile, infectious and contagious like it,
such a dissertation would require a whole volume for itself; we are
therefore obliged to keep within certain limits.

Like every watchful physician who has applied himself to the study of
comparative pathology, we entertained our own preconceived opinions as
to the nature of this _Cattle Plague_. Arguing _à priori_ from what we
knew, from the laws of the pathogenia of those exanthematic diseases
which we have alluded to in a former chapter; from the identity of
variola in various animals; from the preventive treatment to which this
identity has led; believing that animals and man have each their typhoid
fever, as they have their variola or small-pox; considering with the
Ecole de Tours, typhoid fever as a variola of the intestinal mucous
membrane, and having proposed, in 1855,[Q] to adopt inoculation as a
preventive treatment, drawing an easy comparison between the typhus we
are now observing and the typhoid fever in man; hoping, we may say,
indeed, to find in this typhus the inoculative and preventive virus
which is required for our typhoid fever, all will understand with what
eager and vivid curiosity we have examined the entrails of the victims
struck down by this epizootia. For, if this typhus had been a genuine
typhoid fever, the bovine species which has already provided the
preventive virus for small-pox, would equally have afforded us the
preventive virus for typhoid fever. In this hypothesis, our proposal to
inoculate the typhoid fever, which up to this time has been tried on
horses only, and in experiments badly conducted, by pupils of the
Veterinary School of Lyons, was perhaps on the eve of being realised.
But we regret to say, we have been forced to submit to evidence, and to
acknowledge that the present infectious typhus is not the one we require
to provide us with the anti-typhoid virus.

In the same manner as pathologists disagree as to the question, whether
the typhus and typhoid fever in man are one and the same disease, so
should we long debate, without coming to an agreement, as to that which
relates to the typhus and typhoid fever of the ox. We cannot pretend to
produce a reconciliation between these dissentient schools; all we
desire, is to sum up what observation has suggested to us, on account of
the practical and therapeutic interest belonging to the subject.

For ourselves, the typhus and the typhoid fever of the ox are two
diseases of the same order, but nevertheless distinct; and the reasons
upon which we ground our opinion are suggested to us by the nature of
the intestinal lesions, the symptoms, and causes of these distempers.

As we have already seen, the contagious typhus of the ox, at least that
of the present epizootia, is an infectious disease, which varies in the
intensity of the functional disorders and the cadaveric lesions to which
it gives rise. The typhoid fever, we mean the real one,--for there are
other intestinal exanthematic fevers which simulate it,--always localize
on the small intestines a pustulous exanthem, and in the typhus of the
ox, this pustulous exanthem and the ulcerations by which it is
succeeded, are frequently wanting.

The real typhoid fever springs up in every country under the influence
of local causes, and is not in the same degree infectious and contagious
as the typhus proper. In fine, the typhoid fever smites many species of
animals--the horse, the pig, etc., without transmitting its contagion
with the same intensity.

The contagious typhus of the ox appears to be more especially proper to
that animal; for in those latitudes where it developes itself other
animals are not affected by it.

For these reasons, then, to which we could easily add many others, we
consider the typhus of the present epizootia a special and distinct type
of typhic diseases, and differing from the typhoid fever: it is the
highest expression of its class, and occupies the first degree in the
scale of infectious typhic diseases. Next to it we should place the
typhoid fever, which we admit is not often found in the ox. But
veterinary pathology is still less understood than human pathology, and
typhoid fever may perhaps be recognised in those diseases which the
former science has described under the names of _adynamic_ and _ataxic
fevers_. Besides, a persistent research among the veterinary memorials
and reports might possibly enable us to discover some instances in which
the real typhoid fever in the ox had been traced, apart from the
epizootic conditions. Here is an instance of it:--

Gellé, in vol. i. page 245 of the _Pathologie Bovine_, quotes the
following abstract which had been forwarded to him by one of his
brethren, on the dissection of an ox, which was made on the 10th of May,
1824:--

"_Duodenum._--Uniform redness of the mucous membrane, with thickening,
softening, and petechial spots. In the middle portion were discovered
some of Peyer's glands, small round pustules, whitish at the top, with
a reddish circumference. In some parts contiguous to these pustules lay
ulcerations somewhat extensive, which seemed to be the result of the
softening of the pustules which had preceded them. A dark pus issued
from these ulcerations. The inflammation by which they were attended was
diffused in some places, whilst in others it was circumscribed. In some
parts the intestinal mucous membrane was utterly destroyed. The
mesenteric glands were red and soft."

Gellé adds:--"I have recorded this interesting narrative, as it may
perhaps serve hereafter to throw light on a point of doctrine."

The intention which Gellé nurtured at the time, is, we see, now
fulfilled conformably with his object.

The contagious typhus of the ox not being a real typhoid fever, we shall
not, consequently, be able to borrow from it the preventive virus for
that disease in man. But if these diseases differ, and if it is
difficult, in the present state of science, to assign to them such
distinct characters as to produce a perfect agreement among all medical
writers, we must, however, admit, that to designate the ox-typhus now
before us by the generic name of PLAGUE, after the Germans, who
have given it the name of RINDERPEST, would carry us too far
back.

Let us acknowledge also, that the denomination of _contagious typhus_,
adopted by the French veterinary doctors, is not, any more than the
designation of TYPHUS FEVER, applied to it by English physicians,
totally free from objection.

In truth, the various species of typhus whose characteristics we have
already given (see p. 73), are all of them febrile and contagious.
Whoever uses the word _typhus_, speaks of a contagious and febrile
malady, inasmuch as we cannot conceive typhus without its
accompaniments, fever and contagion. But as the prevailing
characteristic of this infectious disease is, above all, its
_contagion_, we have preferred to adopt the name of _contagious typhus_,
without, however, deceiving ourselves as to the value of the
denomination. The final elucidation has not yet been found for these
diseases; at some future day they will be methodically divided and
arranged, and each of them will then receive a special title, which will
remove from the mind that vague uncertainty which at present we regret.

But if some faults of doctrine are open to debate, no doubt whatever can
exist in the mind as to the morbid individuality of ox-typhus, or the
general conditions of its pathogenia; and we are able to deduce from the
preceding explanation, the following conclusions as so many propositions
definitively settled:--

1st. The typhus of the ox is a disease essentially infectious, which is
produced by the absorption of the morbigenous miasma in the air.

2nd. This typhic miasma is absorbed and engendered by the ox, under the
influence of a number of special deleterious causes.

3rd. When the miasma has been absorbed and incubation produced, the
disease itself is but a supreme effort of nature--a struggle between the
vital forces and the morbid evolution of the poison, in order to guard
and defend life against the danger which threatens it.

4th. A malady essentially general, _totius substantiæ_, it directs its
action, in different degrees, over the whole structure, but chiefly on
the nervous centres, on the organs of respiration, and on the digestive
apparatus.

5th. Its progress is regular; to the latest period of incubation it
succeeds that of the general poisoning of the blood--that of the pyrexia
of general fever--which for a time stops up all the secretions. Then,
the morbid flux is localized according to particular predispositions:
either on the nervous centres, when the animal is struck down at the
outbreak; or on the lungs, when the respiratory derangements become the
leading symptoms; or on the digestive channels, when the train of
typhoid phenomena is observable.

6th. The period of acute inflammation, which had dried up the sources of
secretion, gives place to that of the depurative and critical
exhalations or secretions; from every mucous membrane, from every
outlet, there issues a mucous discharge, which at first is thin and
clear, but afterwards becomes thick and purulent, and endowed with the
most infectious properties. The intestinal mucous membrane, smitten with
a particular lesion, becomes the seat of a flux extremely copious and
intolerably fetid. Gases, and occasionally purulent deposits, are
developed in the cellular tissue beneath the skin.

7th. The organism or physical frame, disturbed in the very centres of
life, undergoes a general transformation, a kind of organic
decomposition beforehand, and all the symptoms of reaction are followed
by a period of wasting atony and adynamia, which usher in dissolution or
life's extinction.

8th. Finally, throughout the whole course of the distemper, one special
functional derangement--_stupor_--has been witnessed as the predominant
symptom, the nervous system being in a manner annihilated in its
functions in consequence of the general infection.

Such are, in a brief outline, the principal symptoms of this typhus,
which, when once engrafted on the economy, pursues its fatal march, and
no treatment can then arrest its evolution. As in small-pox, so in
typhoid fever and in most general disorders, Nature for a time must be
allowed to exercise her new functions, which succeed each other in due
course, and which the physician must not stop; for if he did, he would
accelerate death; but he must watch with a vigilant eye, in order to
assist the vital powers.

The medical man, satisfied with these facts, will therefore abandon the
chimerical hope of finding a specific remedy for such a disease. The
virus once absorbed, the frame will endure, and fatally endure, all the
morbid phenomena which must produce and succeed each other. _Against
such a poison no other antidote exists than the poison itself._ And this
will be easily understood. What necessity have we for a specific remedy
to resist a distemper, which carries within itself its preventive
treatment? If it germinates and is propagated, let us not accuse Nature
and render her responsible; our own blindness, the lack of a community
of interests among the people, our social institutions, the still
imperfect state of the exact sciences, &c., amply explain how it is
that we have not yet employed the effectual means we possess, not of
curing it, but preventing it. If we could have our choice between
prevention and cure, should we not naturally take the former?

Indeed, the sources, the causes which generate the typhic miasma, are
thoroughly well known to us, and these we can avoid. The developed
miasms hang suspended in the air; we may, perhaps, one day destroy them,
if not in the outer atmosphere, at least in the stalls and sheds where
the animals inhale and absorb them. In fine, if we are powerless to
arrest the fell disease when its periods revolve, we may hope at some
future time to act with greater efficiency upon it during its period of
incubation.

On the other hand, if this formidable disease cannot be stopped in its
progress, does it follow that we should not treat it at all? Certainly
not! Far be such a heresy from our thoughts. What would be the
consequence, if we left to their fate the sufferers from the small-pox,
from typhoid fever, and from typhus itself, instead of watching over
them with the utmost solicitude? If the physician, the enlightened
interpreter of morbid phenomena, did not direct them with a bold and
fearless hand, but abandoned Nature to her helpless course, why,
necessarily, every patient would die, whereas a large number are now
saved.

That which is true in the case of man, is likewise true in the case of
animals: we are bound to treat them when they are ill. If to-day we
think it more expeditious and more profitable to exterminate them, we
certainly neglect our duty. We are the sovereign masters of animals;
they are the companions of our toils and pleasures, their lives must be
given to preserve our own; but on their well-being and their happiness
our own well-being and happiness also depend. They will return to us the
sufferings and diseases of which they die a hundred times over. Like
ourselves, they die of consumptive, tubercular, cancerous, eruptive,
typhoid, and parasitical diseases. And who can tell whether they have
not communicated these disorders to man, who was, perhaps, originally
exempt from them; and whether they do not continually communicate them
to him?

What noble pages might be written on the close connexion which exists
between all organized beings, both physically and morally! Let us love
these animals, let us treat them with kindness, and all our other
qualities will be raised by so doing.

But as a man must belong to the time he lives in, we will take up for a
moment with the doctrines of the economists; we will tolerate the
extermination of diseased animals, as a painful necessity. Our duty is
to seek in the study of the diseases of animals _and in their cure_, the
cure of the disorders which afflict the human species. We shall,
therefore, now proceed to consider the subject of the treatment of
horned cattle, both as relates to preventive and curative medication.

FOOTNOTES:

[O] Mr. Simonds has for three months had under his observation a cow
which has lived with impunity among animals sick and dying of the
typhus. And a young calf did not contract the disease for more than
three weeks.

[P] Another instance of the fatal effects of the terrible disease now
ravaging our flocks and herds of cattle, and resulting in the death of a
veterinary surgeon, has just occurred in the town of Sudbury, Suffolk.

Last week the epidemic made its appearance in the stock-yard of Mr.
Ruffell, farmer, Melford, and the cases were attended by Mr. Robert John
Plumbly, veterinary surgeon, Sudbury. On Thursday a cow, which was
evidently suffering from the disease, was brought out and shot by Mr.
Plumbly, who afterwards made a partial _post-mortem_ examination of the
carcase. In doing so with a small scalpel his shirt-sleeves became
saturated with blood, &c. from the animal. He returned home, and the
same day was attacked with sickness and acute pains in the head and
chest, accompanied with a soreness in the bones generally. On the
following day he appeared somewhat better, and was able to attend to his
duties, but became worse towards evening, and was confined to his house
on the following day. He considered that he was merely suffering from
the effects of a severe cold, and did not call in medical assistance
till Saturday night. He slept well that night, and seemed somewhat
better on Sunday morning. About two o'clock in the afternoon he got out
of his bed to have it made, when he appeared comparatively strong and in
good spirits; but almost immediately afterwards he was taken in what
seemed to be a fit, and expired in a few minutes, before the surgeon,
who only lived next door, could come to his assistance. It was thought
that death had resulted from apoplexy, and a medical certificate to that
effect was given. Rumours, however, soon becoming current that Mr.
Plumbly's death was caused by the cattle plague, the borough coroner (R.
Ransom, Esq.) directed a _post-mortem_ examination to be made. But, by
this time, so rapid was the spread of the virus through the system that
the body appeared perfectly plague-stricken, and by Tuesday morning,
when the surgeons arrived to examine it, and it was taken out of the
coffin, the corpse scarcely retained the semblance of a human being, the
head and trunk being much swollen and black in colour, the features
quite undistinguishable, and all the flesh converted into a putrid
jelly-like mass. The tissues were completely disintegrated, so that it
was utterly impossible to make any examination.

An inquest was held on Tuesday afternoon, at the court room, Town Hall,
before the coroner, R. Ransom, Esq., and a jury; Mr. Joseph Barker,
chemist, being chosen foreman. The mayor (S. Higgs, Esq.) and other
gentlemen were present during the whole of the inquiry, which lasted
four hours.

The jury went and viewed the body, which lay in an outhouse, but were so
overcome with the fearful spectacle that they were permitted by the
coroner to retire to partake of stimulants before they could further
proceed with the inquiry.

The first witness called was Mr. William Brown, veterinary surgeon, and
partner with the deceased, who deposed to having gone with him to Mr.
Ruffell's farm at Long Melford, on Thursday last, to examine several
cows down with the cattle plague. One was brought out and shot by the
deceased, who proceeded to examine the intestines and viscera, which did
not present the appearances usually observable in advanced stages of the
disease, there being but slight ulceration of the coats of the stomach
and bowels. The lungs were not examined, as the deceased had only a
small scalpel with him. In making incisions in the body the
shirt-sleeves of the deceased became covered with blood, but he did not
prick or cut himself.

Henrietta Dansie, nurse, was examined, and said that deceased had been
suffering from boils on his right arm, one of which she had poulticed on
Wednesday, the day before he had examined the diseased animal. He
removed the poultice himself, but declined to put on a plaster as the
place was a small one, although not healed. He changed his linen on his
return from Melford; but the same afternoon he was taken with sickness
and vomiting, and complained of acute pains in his head and bones. On
Sunday afternoon, shortly before he died, he wished to have his bed
made, and got out and stood whilst it was being done. He then complained
of faintness, and got into bed again, and witness to revive him washed
his face and hands; in doing so she observed that the nails of one of
the hands which had lain in the bed were turning black. She was about to
give him some pills when she noticed a sudden change come over him; and
thinking he was going to faint or have a fit, she rang for assistance
and went herself for the doctor, who, being from home, another surgeon
residing next door was called in, but by this time the unfortunate
gentleman was quite dead.

Mr. Maurice Mason, surgeon, said he was called in to see the deceased
the night before he died, and visited him again on Sunday morning, and
ordered him a lotion and leeches for his head and effervescing drinks
(the leeches were not applied). From the appearance of the body and the
evidence which had been adduced, witness was of opinion that the death
of the deceased was caused by the absorption of poisonous virus from the
dead beast.

Mr. W. B. Smith, surgeon, gave similar evidence, and added that the
tissues of the body were so disintegrated that it would have been
utterly impossible to have made a _post-mortem_ examination.

After half an hour's consultation the jury returned a verdict, "that
deceased died from the effects of the absorption of virus or poison into
his system upon the occasion of his making a _post-mortem_ examination
of a cow which had died from a certain disease called the cattle
plague."

The sad occurrence has caused much sensation in the town, the deceased,
who was only 23 years of age, being well known and much respected.


[Q] "Appel à des Expériences dans le but d'établir le Traitement
Préservatif de la Fièvre Typhoide et des Maladies infectieuses
inrécidivables, par l'inoculation de leurs produits morbides." Memoire
lu à l'Institut, le 8 Octobre, 1855. Inséré dans la Gazette Hebdomadaire
de Médecine. Paris.




CHAPTER IV.

_Treatment and Cure of the Ox-Typhus._


In now addressing ourselves to the treatment, and, as far as human
agency can effect it, to the cure, of this insidious distemper, we
cannot conceal from ourselves, that this is the most difficult, the most
delicate, and, at the same time, the most important division of our
work; for it is to this part, above all, that attention will be
directed. This portion of our task, therefore, will prove especially
arduous; and nothing can give a better notion of the difficulties we
shall have to encounter than the many fruitless attempts which, for
several months past, have been made to overcome them by many ardent
inquirers, stimulated by the best possible intentions.

This, then, is the moment--if we may be allowed the metaphor--to take
the bull by the horns; and we do so without hesitation. If, like so many
others, we are baffled and overcome in this unequal struggle--if our
strength is not on a level with our desires--we trust we shall be
pardoned.

Several paths leading to the same end may be followed in this exposition
of the treatment of ox-typhus. After mature reflection, we shall adopt
the one, which will allow us to take the disease at its birth, _ab ovo_;
to study it in all its phases, in its first and second causes, and then
in the successive periods of its development.

In this manner, we shall be able to give an account of each fact of real
importance mentioned in the foregoing pages, and to comprise within the
treatment whatever is connected either directly or indirectly with the
disease.

Thus we will relate in so many separate articles,--

1st. The means and measures to be employed to meet and resist the first
local causes which may generate the typhus, then the secondary causes
which serve to propagate it.

2nd. The means of preventing the spread of the disease to animals still
in good health.

3rd. The means of treating it at its different periods, from the period
of incubation to that of its decline.

4th. Finally, we shall insert the laws and sanitary regulations which
have been published in England relative to this disease.

As will be seen, by adopting this method, the whole matter will be
considered consecutively and in regular order; and the reader will
understand that when such a phase of the malady is developed it is
because the preceding one, which is the cause of it, has not been
effectually contended with.


I.

    _Means and Measures to be employed to resist the Causes of
      the Contagious Typhus of the Bovine Species._

We have shown fully and explicitly in what countries of the globe, and
in what particular conditions, the typhus is generated among oxen. We
know that this dire disease has its focus on the banks of great rivers
or lakes, which are periodically overflowed, and on which is deposited a
slime teeming with organic matter; in marshy plains, where the same
natural impurities are fostered; and that these first hotbeds of the
evil are found in China, in India, in America, in Africa, as well as on
the shores of the Black Sea. A spirit of observation which delights in
measuring the phenomena of nature with the contracted compass of its own
short views and conceptions, could alone have imagined that the
ox-typhus was only to be found originally in the steppes of Hungary and
Russia, and that the bovine species of those countries, thanks to a
special organization, was alone capable of generating the typhus.

Since we know, then, in what conditions this disease is developed, and
especially in what manner it is propagated in Europe, it is not
impossible now, when nations are united by the means of quick and easy
communication, by commercial treaties, and by the mutual relations of
science, to examine what measures might be taken to modify and control
these conditions. A commission formed for this purpose, a scientific
congress, would be able to make on the spot a study of all the
circumstances which favour the development of typhus, and the result of
their reports would enlighten the peoples as to the causes which produce
it and from which they are first to suffer. They would be recommended to
choose as pastures the healthiest places, to withdraw their cattle at
certain seasons from those plots of ground which are baleful to them;
new systems of agriculture would be planned and tried, &c. These
questions being carefully examined, might lead to important results; nor
can we understand how, in the age in which we live, the same
indifference and apathy as prevailed in the past should be maintained in
presence of the positive and permanent causes of this infectious
disease, whose contagion, as we now see by many proofs, may extend at
once to so large a portion of Europe. There is now something to be done
in this matter; it is the duty of the governments to deal with it
effectually, and to take serious measures to destroy the evil radically,
if radically it can be destroyed, and, if not, to alleviate its
pernicious effects as much as possible.

Moreover, many breeders of cattle have not waited until now to guard
against some of the first causes of the typhus: already they give the
animals rock salt, ferruginous and arsenical preparations, but all this
is done without method, and according to each man's will and pleasure.
It would, therefore, be necessary to institute regulations, and to see
them carried out and practised under the superintendence of public
functionaries, armed with sufficient power and authority.

These measures having been taken, others no less indispensable ought to
follow. They should determine for the herds of cattle intended for
exportation, the ways and channels they must travel by to go to any
central part or to any railway station; and there the inspectors on duty
should mark every animal that passes out of the district he is leaving.
Heavy penalties should be inflicted on all who might infringe these
rules.

These precautions would contribute in part to arrest the propagation of
the complaint; but there is another measure more radical and effectual,
which should be taken in order to prevent its extension--we mean
inoculation, which has met with complete success in some of the
governments of Russia.

Thus we see, there are powerful means of withstanding the production of
the disease in its focus, or generative bed, and likewise its extension
among the herds of neighbouring countries; and these latter might render
them in some sort obligatory, by refusing most rigidly to admit to their
markets, as in Italy has sometimes been done, every head of cattle which
was not marked as inoculated or which was not furnished with a permit of
health.

It is easy to conceive that those countries wherein the ox-typhus has
its birth, and for which the breeding of cattle and their exportation
are a great source of wealth, would soon feel that they are more
interested than any other in stifling the contagion in its focus, and in
affording to those countries that receive their herds, every security
and guarantee which they have a right to expect. Interest in this case
coming to the help of common sense, very satisfactory results would in
course of time be obtained.

Moreover, we are conscious that we are here dealing with very
complicated questions; for, though in a book they may seem simple and
easy, their application is a matter of extreme difficulty. We know too
well that these preventive measures for protecting animals will meet
with many obstacles, and only be adopted at last with tardy reluctance,
since man himself continues in some respect indifferent to the causes
which spread about the fearful epidemics to which he falls a victim in
consequence of his neglect.

In truth, it is well known that the cholera of the present day--that
much more serious _plague_--had its origin on the banks of the Red Sea,
amidst the infectious miasmata developed near Mecca, where thousands of
pilgrims who had died of fatigue and privation, and hundreds of
thousands of sheep butchered and religiously offered up in sacrifice,
have, beneath a torrid heat, generated the choleraic miasma, which
formerly was supposed to be produced exclusively on the banks of the
Ganges. This fact duly ascertained and proved, we might suppose that the
governments of the different nations among which the cholera is about to
extend its ravages, were indignant and had complained at thus being
smitten with a scourge, due to the careless ignorance and sordid avidity
of some official of the Turkish Government. But we should be mistaken.

No! every one hoped at first that he, at least, would be spared by the
contagion, and the authorities did nothing to resist the evil but adopt
the old course of _quarantine_--a remedy more illusory now than ever,
since the nations are in constant communication, either in their own
persons or by the exchange of their commodities; and consequently, the
epidemic is pursuing its invading course from week to week.

That which is being done for the cholera gives us a scale by which we
may estimate the efforts which will be made to arrest the generation and
the contagion of the cattle typhus.[R]

We are certainly bound to resist the introduction of horned cattle
tainted with typhus; but in the conditions amidst which they live, some
of them may bear the seeds of the distemper, even whilst they appear in
perfect health, and therefore able to endure the fatigue of a long
journey.

Now, in order to avoid exciting the incubation of the typhus during
their transit either to Finland, Holland, France, or England, it must
never be forgotten that these animals are gifted with a nervous
sensibility of wonderful acuteness, joined to the weakest vital
resistance. Care must be taken to husband their strength, to give them a
choice distribution of food easy of assimilation; barley-meal, or other
grains, must be mixed up with their drink; they must be protected from
the changes of weather; they must have room enough and air enough in the
locomotive stalls on the railway trains and on board ship.

We pass over in silence the hygienic measures to be taken in order to
keep these vehicles of transit in a proper sanitary state: the sanitary
police regulations inserted further on will make them sufficiently
known.

All these measures having been taken to meet and withstand distant
causes and dangers, let us now direct our attention to those local
causes which strike our eyes, and which likewise have their share of
influence in propagating the disease. Thus, whenever an inclement season
comes to deprive the herbivorous animals of sufficient pasture, or to
deteriorate its natural qualities, we are bound to remedy this change,
and to increase the cares we devote to them; for these frail and
helpless creatures, immediately feel and suffer from the effects of a
sustenance less than usually restorative. Under such circumstances, we
must make exceptional sacrifices; when they return from feeding on the
grass, we should give them some additional fodder, or roots of a
generous quality. We must imitate the regimen used in the country of the
steppes, by adding to their forage a solution of marine salt, or a
solution of sulphate of iron. Day by day we must give to the weakest and
least fed cattle, a ration consisting of bruised oats, pounded juniper
berries, gentian, sulphate of iron, and carbonate of soda.

For, if we neglect to take those measures which are required to prevent
among herbivorous animals the development of those ordinary epizootias,
which every year are generated on our own soil, they will certainly
afford a favourable seat to the typhic miasma transmitted by foreign
animals, or exceptionally generated by themselves. These cares and
attentions must be greatly increased, when the foreign epizootia, has
spread itself, as in the present instance, among our flocks and herds.
Then, indeed, we must be careful not to load these creatures with
pampering food for the purpose of fattening them. For it may be
profitable, and the breeder may plume himself, on having produced an
adipose monstrosity to such a degree as to bury, for instance, a pig's
head in the fleshy exuberance of his thorax; but such a derogation from
the laws of nature borders closely on disease, and assuredly such an
unnatural accumulation, predisposes the glutted animals to epizootic
diseases in general.

The water given them to drink must be attended to with particular
solicitude. It should never be drawn up from ponds or stagnant rivers.
The animals kept in the pasture grounds should always find at their
disposal, in receptacles intended for their use, a supply of pure fresh
water.

After these precautions with respect to their food and sustenance,
attention must next be directed to the hygienic conditions required by
the animal. Every morning he should be cleaned, washed, brushed, and
dried; what is every day done for the horse must now be done for the ox.
These unusual cares will be most salutary to him, and greatly increase
his vital resistance.

The animal thus protected in his food and particular necessities,
attention must next be directed to the stalls and sheds. Over-crowding
must be carefully avoided; the proper cube of air for breathing must be
measured out for each head of cattle; every day the latter must be
carried out into the open air; the floor of the stall or shed must first
be thoroughly cleansed and washed out, after which it must be sprinkled
with a solution of chloride of lime. If the stall is not well aired, a
little straw should be burned on the ground, to improve the atmosphere,
or else branches of resinous trees, or juniper berries may be used. In
some cases aromatic fumigations of sage, rosemary, or mint, boiled in
water, are employed, the balsamic vapours which arise therefrom being at
once tonic and purifying. During the night a tub, containing pitch and
tar, should be left in the stall, or a large piece of camphor should be
suspended from the ceiling. Vinegar may be spilt on a piece of red-hot
iron, or powder of sulphur may be burned into sulphuric gas and diffuse
its vapours through the stall or shed. This excellent parasiticide may
perhaps be equally endowed with anti-typhic properties.

Finally, when this fatal epizootia is ravaging the country, every farmer
and agriculturist must carefully abstain from mixing with his herds any
cattle which have been bought either at fairs or markets; he must take
care, conformably with the directions issued by the Privy Council, (to
which we refer the reader for more ample details,) to avoid all contact
both direct and indirect with horned cattle tainted with the typhus, as
he might himself become an instrument of the contagion.--Let him never
forget that to take as the guide for his actions in these times of
calamity his private and personal interest, is the greatest crime a man
can commit. Let him strive, therefore, to assist the authorities in the
measures which they have taken for the interest of all.


II.

Now that we have examined the measures which prudence directs us to take
to defend ourselves against the causes which produce and propagate
typhus, let us think of the means of preventing it, when the contagion
threatens to diffuse itself over a whole kingdom, as at present it is
doing in England.

When, on the 19th of last June, it was believed that the typhus or
Cattle Plague, as they continue to call it, had effected its invasion in
England, the Government, informed by professional men of the serious
danger to which the interests of the country would be exposed, if the
disease should spread, might have considered this distemper not as a
question of private interest, but as one of public and national concern.
It might at the outset have given to this epizootia all the significancy
of a public calamity, have looked upon it as the invasion of an enemy
threatening to destroy its territory, and have employed every possible
means to stifle it at its birth.

We well know that the English Government, derived as it is rather from
political than from religious and social changes, is at once
monarchical, aristocratic, and partially democratic, and for that reason
embarrassed in its working by so many wheels. Its authority is scattered
and divided, whilst the respect ascribed to the prerogatives of each
distinct public power is the safeguard of the State. In the absence of
both Houses during the recess, it could take no resolution as to ways
and means; for the difficulties on this unhappy occasion, we cannot too
often repeat it, are reduced to a question of money. Deprived of the
requisite authority, it was unable to do more than exhume the old laws
on the matter and ordain new ones. And yet, the impotence of the
Government was not perhaps so great as is imagined; for whilst it
suffered the typhus almost unmolested to devastate the country, it very
justly, and in the name of the public interest, took vigorous and
effectual measures to stamp out another epidemic--the rash and insane
conspiracy of the Fenians. It stood still and would not authorize
domiciliary visits in stables and stalls, nor the seizure of sick
animals, but it did not falter a moment at the domiciliary visits and
incarceration of insurgent citizens meditating mischief, so that in
this instance, the privilege of immunity has been given to the brute
creation. Everybody, both in England and out of England, admires their
vigour and despatch in stifling the insurrection in its bud. But why not
act with equal promptitude in the case of an epizootia?

Arming itself, in this manner, in the public interest, and with
sufficient power, the Government might have appointed an executive
commission, with the Lord Mayor as president. Such a commission would
have applied itself at once to the consideration and studious
examination of the subject in all its bearings, and would have proposed
prompt and energetic measures, which the Government, with equal
despatch, would have confirmed by giving to them the authority of law,
as they have since tardily done. A fund, which, for the wealth of
England, would not have been considerable, 250,000_l._--the cost of a
few Armstrong guns--might have been placed at the disposal of this
Board, to enable its directors to meet and provide for, without delay,
every just claim and want arising from the scourge.

An auxiliary commission, exclusively medical, and consisting of medical
and veterinary doctors, might have been formed conjointly with the
former, and every preventive measure, considered by them as necessary to
stamp out the complaint at the outbreak, after it had been proposed by
the medical board, and submitted to the executive commission, and by
them to the Home Secretary, might have been acted upon by law within
twenty-four hours.

Taken unawares, and the mode of treating the sick animals not being
known at first, they would have been reduced to the cruel necessity of
exterminating at once all tainted cattle, as well as those belonging to
tainted herds, but not without compensating the owners of those
cattle.[S]

They would have sent two physicians to Russia and Hungary, to observe
and study the preventive and curative medication, especially their mode
of inoculation, and thanks to the rapid locomotion of these times,
twenty days would have been sufficient for this foreign exploration.
The physicians constituting the medical board should have been
authorized to seize any beast tainted with the typhus; a company should
have been charged to collect and keep ready for the public service, at
the four quarters of London, an ample retinue of horses, closed
carriages, and working men, to convey at all hours of the day and night
the carcases of the slaughtered animals to the respective spots, where
long and deep trenches had been dug to receive them. Each carcase before
burial to have been well sprinkled with chloride of lime.

By taking this course, every one's interest would have been respected,
as much as can be desired when a great calamity threatens a country;
besides, in doing so, the present ministers would but have followed the
example of the Government (with regard to compensation), during the
epizootia of the eighteenth century. The proprietors who had thus
received, not the full and absolute price, but a sum sufficiently
remunerative for their sacrificed cattle, would have assisted the
authorities, and thereby would have served the common interest, because
their sick cattle, perishing every hour within their stalls and sheds,
were no longer a real source of embarrassment and ruin. They would not
have been obliged to drive them to market to get what they could out of
them and disencumber themselves. The most active cause of the contagion
would by this means have been prevented.

This allowance having been made for the most pressing dangers, attention
should next have been directed to a matter no less important--we mean
the treatment and cure of this distemper; for we will never admit that
England can have fallen back a century, and that whilst those
enlightened men--Malcolm Flemming and Layard--proposed and tried to cure
and prevent ox-typhus in 1757, we, in 1865, shall have been reduced to
the horrible alternative, the repugnant barbarity, of the general and
indiscriminate extermination of the tainted cattle.

Whilst, therefore, the treatment of the typhus would have been studied
on the spot, and the most urgent measures would have been taken to
withstand the propagation of the evil, they would have established, a
few miles from London and on the northern side, in the direction of the
great cattle market, a number of hospitals or sanitariums, and, as far
as possible, within a park. These hospitals, constructed of wood,
containing, besides stables and sheds, a slaughter-house, a
dwelling-house for the staff of employés, a laboratory stocked with all
the physical and chemical instruments required, &c., would in two or
three weeks have been sufficiently prepared to receive a certain number
of cattle.

Provided with these advantages and opportunities, a permanent stage of
operation would have been raised on which trials and experiments might
have been made with every chance of fruitful results. In these
sanitariums, for instance, the most practical physicians and
veterinarians might have entered upon a systematic course of treatment,
dividing the bovine patients into classes, according to their periods of
disease, their age, &c.; and trying some particular mode of treatment,
some remedy considered as effectual, alternately, upon each of these
classes of tainted cattle. These experiments, having been made under
circumstances so favourable, would have enabled the faculty to
establish a medical basis, which, if not infallible, would have been
relatively efficacious, and might have saved a large number of the
infected animals.

Whilst thus fixing their attention on the cure of the sick animals,
these experimentalists would have carefully studied and practised the
preventive treatment by inoculation, availing themselves both of
Layard's hints and recommendations and of the practical knowledge
acquired by the medical expedition to the steppes, which would by that
time have returned from their mission. They would have selected animals
smitten with the genuine typhus, of the typhoid and intestinal form, in
_the third period_, whilst the depurative and critical secretions are
running from the mucous membranes; they would have gathered the virus
from its springs of infection or from its purulent subcutaneous deposits
or from the serum of the blood.

On the other hand, they might have chosen four heifers, of good
constitutions and healthy, and these they might have prepared, according
to Layard's advice, for inoculation, by a special treatment, and by
hygienic and medical cares. On some of these the inoculation would have
been made near the tail, according to the subcutaneous process, with a
lancet charged with typhic virus; on others, a crucial incision, or
cross-cut, would have been made on the crupper. But, to speak truth, we
cannot do better than Layard, whose ingenious treatment, with all due
deference to a certain veterinarian of our day, deserves a very
different epithet than that of being amusing.[T] Layard says:--

      "That nothing may be omitted which in any shape can
      contribute to the success of inoculation, due attention
      should be paid to the constitution and state of the beast,
      no less in this practice on the cattle than on the human
      species. Undoubtedly the young, healthy, and strong bid
      fairer for a good issue than the old, sickly, and feeble;
      each of these different constitutions demand a particular
      treatment, even in the method of preparation; and however
      trifling it may seem to many--the urging a necessity of
      preparation--I will venture to affirm that I have seen
      excellent effects arising from a rational preparation, and
      fatal events from want of preparation. I have likewise been
      witness of unfavourable turns, merely from an injudicious
      preparation.

      "The beasts which are sanguine require moderate bleeding;
      those that have but a small share of blood must have none
      drawn. The strong must, besides moderate bleeding and
      purging, be kept on light diet and their body kept open.
      Thus, scalded bran, mixed with their hay and chaff; will
      cool them. The weakly, and such as are inclined to scour,
      must be kept on dry fodder, and have peas and beans given
      them to strengthen them. A mess of malt, or a quart of warm
      ale, with a few spices, will be very suitable for them.

      "Whatever diseases the cattle be affected with, if time will
      permit, they are first to be removed.

      "The cattle to be inoculated are first to be well washed,
      rubbed dry, and then curried, to remove all the filth from
      the hair and skin. Then they are to be placed in a spacious
      barn or stable, where the air is temperate and no cold can
      come to them. There they are to be prepared according to the
      direction already given, foddered with good sweet hay, and
      watered with clear spring water; and if the distemper be not
      near they may be turned out into the air, near the barn or
      stable, and may stay there a few hours in the middle of the
      day.

      "When it appears that the cattle are in perfect health, free
      from any infection or other disease, brisk and lively,
      neither costive nor scouring, and chewing their cud, then
      the operation may be safely undertaken, and henceforth they
      must be confined to the barn.

      "Since there is observed to follow the greatest flow of the
      contagious and putrid particles separated from the blood,
      wherever the infectious matter makes an impression at first,
      particular care must be taken not to inoculate near such
      vital parts as the heart and lungs, nor near the womb, if a
      cow with calf be inoculated; for, though rowels are properly
      applied in the dewlaps, to draw off the pestilential humour
      from the breast, and in other cases beasts are frequently
      rowelled in the flanks,--yet in this operation, as matter is
      inserted by these channels into the neighbouring vessels,
      those vital parts, or the womb, might become the chief seat
      of the disease, and the event prove fatal.

      "To prevent such accidents, human beings have been
      inoculated on the arms and legs, and now-a-days the arms are
      found sufficient. I would recommend that the cattle should
      be inoculated about the middle of the shoulders or buttocks,
      on both sides, to have the benefit of two drains. The skin
      is to be cut lengthways two inches, deep enough for the
      blood to start, but not to bleed much. In this incision is
      to be put a dossil or pledget of tow, dipped in the matter
      of a boil full ripe, opened in the back of a young calf
      recovering from the distemper. It may not be amiss to stitch
      up the wound, to keep the tow in, and let it remain
      forty-eight hours. Then the stitches are to be cut, the tow
      taken out, and the wound dressed with yellow basilicon
      ointment, or one made with turpentine and yolk of egg,
      spread on pledgets of tow. These dressings are to be
      continued during the whole illness, and till after the
      recovery of the beast, to promote the discharge; and then
      the wound may be healed with the cerate of lapis
      calaminaris, or any other.

      "On the third day after inoculation, the discolouring of the
      wound, whose lips appear grey and swollen, will be a sign
      that the inoculation has succeeded; but the beasts, as
      Professor Swenke informs us, did not fall ill till the sixth
      day, which answers exactly to the observations daily made in
      the inoculating of children. Yet the Professor adds that on
      the third day a costiveness came on, which was removed by
      giving each calf three ounces of Epsom salts.

      "No sooner do the symptoms of heaviness and stupidity appear
      than the beasts must have a light covering thrown over them,
      and at night fastened loosely. They must be rubbed morning
      and evening, and curried, till the boils begin to rise; warm
      hay-water and vinegar-whey must be given plentifully. Should
      the beasts require more nourishment, dry meat, such as hay,
      with a little bran, may be offered. I should be very
      cautious in giving milk-pottage, even after the boils and
      pimples had all come out, for fear of bringing on a
      scouring. However, this caution is proper, that whenever
      milk-pottage be given the vinegar-whey is to be omitted for
      obvious reasons. In cases of accident, the same attention is
      to be observed in the disease by inoculation as in the
      natural way, and the medicines recommended are the same I
      would use; but by inoculation there seldom is a call for
      any, so favourably does the distemper proceed through its
      several stages.

      "The crisis being over, it will be proper to purge the
      cattle, to air them by degrees, and to have the same regard
      in the management of them as is laid down in the chapter on
      the method of cure."

The typhic virus is so highly infectious and poisonous that the first
animals inoculated would have all died; it would have been necessary to
inoculate successively a number of animals with the virus derived from
the first inoculation, and transmitted from an inoculated animal to a
healthy one, by which means they would have acquired a virus of the
first, second, third generation, and so on. These inoculations having
always been made on four animals at a time; on two of them, the disease
would have been left to take its own course, in order that the
experimentalists might watch its progress and development, and the two
others would have supplied the virus for inoculation.

At the third or fourth generation, the virus, modified and attenuated in
its infectious principles, would no longer have been mortal in its
effects, as experience has proved in Russia. Then the inoculated
animals, placed under the control of hygienic cares and a few purgative
and tonic medications, would have passed from convalescence to health.
The virus thus attenuated would have supplied the means of a practical
inoculation on a large scale to all healthy animals.

Proceeding thus, they would, moreover, but have followed the method
adopted in those times of epidemic and epizootia when the small-pox is
raging. On those occasions, we subject our sick patients to vaccination
or revaccination; we inoculate the variola in our sheep threatened with
the contagion; we pursue the same course in cases of epizootia, of
peripneumonia. And truly, that which it is reasonable to do in one case
may be generalized and applied to a greater number.

The experiment we have suggested might, perhaps, have been long and
difficult, nay, even costly, but we should have established, after a
certain time, the rational method of this preventive treatment, and have
distributed the same throughout the country. Veterinarians would have
formed in particular districts their centre of operation, in which the
preventive virus might have been produced, and they might have gone from
farm-house to farm-house to inoculate all the cattle within them.

From these facts and observations made by the physicians, precious
documents would have been derived; and if, contrary to all expectation,
success had not justified every hope, we should have bequeathed to
future generations facts and experiences which would have been of the
most useful character to them and full of instruction. Thus it is that
science advances and progress is accomplished.

If all that we have just indicated as a realizable matter had been done,
in effect, England would have afforded in this, as she has so often done
in other cases, a noble example to be followed, and would have acquired
a new title to the admiration of other nations.

But, unfortunately it has not been so: silence has succeeded to
eloquence at Guildhall, and the meetings at the Mansion-house have
flickered away. That which was held on the 27th of September, seems
likely to be the last of them.[U]

The subscriptions which, in spite of all the praiseworthy efforts and
earnestness of the Lord Mayor, did not reach 2000_l._, were returned to
the subscribers, so that all the attempts which have been made to
centralize the direction to be given to the various measures have proved
abortive. The plan of forming sanitariums, as well as that of
compensating the owners of cattle, have both fallen to the ground.

What can we think of such a state of things when we see the ox-typhus
extending its ravages to sheep, and have to fear that the disease will
spread to other animal species? What serious reflections it creates in
our minds, and what awful consequences we might deduce therefrom! But
what would be the use of them?

Let us add, however, that France, save on the recognised principle of
indemnification, and a more speedy extermination of her tainted cattle,
has shown the same deficiency as to the means of treatment as England;
whilst we have the consolation of attributing this impotence on the part
of this country to the fact that the outbreak of the epizootia has
occurred during the Parliamentary recess.

It is, therefore, to institutions rather than to individuals that we
must ascribe the impossibility of conquering the difficulties which have
been met, and which at any other time might not have obstructed the
course of things. Far be it from us therefore to accuse of indifference
a great people renowned for their zealous promotion of public interests,
for their charity and inexhaustible philanthropy, whose innumerable
asylums have been opened to every misfortune, who support so many
hospitals and public charities by their voluntary contributions, and
who, in so many calamities, have seen some devoted heroine issue from
her retirement to assuage them. For if the Crimean war produced its lady
beneficent in the person of Florence Nightingale, all of us must allow
that if others had followed the example of Miss Burdett Coutts, who, in
a manner, has stood alone against the storm, by the facilities she has
afforded for treating and experimentalizing on the cattle smitten with
typhus, the formidable scourge might have been arrested in its focus.


III.

_Curative Medication._

We might acquire the means of resisting the general causes which develop
the typhus; we might stop its diffusion, we might even prevent it, by
inoculating the sound and healthy animals, and yet it would be
necessary, none the less, to search for the means of curing it; for, as
in the small-pox, the preventive treatment of which we know, certain
circumstances would arise in the disease which would oblige us to treat
it. And as we are far from being able to resist the generation and
dissemination of this scourge, which reckons almost as many victims as
sufferers, it is important to make known what treatment we can oppose to
the functional derangements to which it gives rise.

As we have already said, this typhus, when the organism has absorbed its
peccant and infectious miasma, produces a succession of disorders which
become in a manner temporary functions; it pursues its phases, its
periods; and as the functional derangements differ at these several
epochs from the development of the morbid phenomena, the course of
medicine which is employed to check them cannot always be the same.
Starting, therefore, from practical data, we will attend the disease in
its gradual advance--that is to say, in its distinct periods--and will
afterwards explain certain predominant symptoms, which, owing to their
importance, must likewise fix the attention of the careful therapeutist.

It will be remembered that we have recognised four periods in the
regular course of typhus:--

  1st, a period of incubation;
  2nd, a period of initiation;
  3rd, a period of duration;
  4th, a period of decline.

But, in the first place, before beginning the treatment, every farmer or
grazier, or cattle-owner, who keeps a certain number of cattle, should
divide his herd into several classes, in order to regulate and methodize
the cares to be given to the sick.

Thus, he will form a first class, comprising the animals in a sound and
healthy state, having had no intercourse, either direct or indirect,
with the tainted cattle, and which he will be careful immediately to
isolate and keep apart.

A second class must be formed of those beasts, which, though as yet
unaffected with the distemper, have, nevertheless, been exposed more or
less directly to its contagion, by living and consorting with them, or
by their contact with other animals, either at fairs or markets, or in
the ships and cattle-trucks on the railway during their transit from one
place to another. The horned cattle composing this latter class must be
carefully watched, and be made the subject of the preventive treatment,
the moment the first sign appears of the working of the incubation.

A third class must be formed, consisting of cattle actually smitten with
the distemper.

These divisions of animals being thus settled and separated, will
diminish the labour and the cost of treatment and the liability to
diffuse the complaint, especially when the epizootia begins to lose its
virulence.


_First Period--of Incubation._

We have said that infectious diseases, when once the frame had suffered
the effects of the poisonous miasma, pursued their fatal course, and
that, generally speaking, it was impossible after such infection to
arrest its development. We say generally, for the typhus at the outbreak
of its appearance on a virgin soil sometimes manifests itself in a
benignant manner, then it becomes more destructive, by-and-bye its
pernicious properties decline, and it in some sort goes out of itself.
One would say that the epizootia, like those it smites, has likewise its
peculiarities, its period of initiation, of duration, and of decline.
There are in consequence fixed times or epochs during which the
sufferers afford better scope for our means of action; at a given moment
the attenuated virus, having lost much of its deadly effects, ceases to
produce death, which decline is the real source of the marvellous
successes obtained by certain remedies against the epizootia.

If it be true that the distemper at its period of duration, and at its
most critical moment, cannot be fettered, we should not be justified in
asserting positively the same, as respects the period of incubation.
Indeed, we are convinced ourselves, that if ever this disease shall be
clogged in the wheel, _if ever its specific remedy shall be discovered,
it will be within the period of incubation_, when the economy begins to
struggle with the first phenomena of the poisoning. Be that as it may,
we cannot, in epizootic times, too earnestly enjoin the owners of cattle
to submit their animals to a strict and close inspection, in order that,
when the first signs of incubation appear, they may modify the animal's
usual diet, and attack the disease at its birth, so as to render it
abortive, if the thing can be done.

At this period we must endeavour to come to Nature's assistance, we must
shake and stir up the economy, we must unseat the morbid functions which
seek to master us, and then the vital force, thus solicited and
stimulated, may sometimes struggle with advantage. To do this
effectually, if the animal is atonic and predisposed to adynamia, if his
internal organs are relaxed, we will strengthen him by administering
every day a stimulating beverage. If he is confined to the stall we
will give him the open air, and let him graze the fields; which is a
treatment by itself for the invalid animal, so vivifying is the pure air
of the common, and so thoroughly different from the atmosphere which is
pent up within his stall. If the animal is strong, lusty, exuberant with
health, let him be purged once or twice, the purgative to be given at
intervals of twenty-four hours. (We shall give the medical formula in
the chapter addressed to farmers, graziers, &c.)

This purgation, moreover, will correspond with the theory of those
authors who consider the evacuations as the proper means of delivering
the economy from the infectious miasms which have been absorbed.

If the beast is plethoric, recourse should sometimes be had to bleeding,
especially in hot and dry seasons, like the one we have recently passed
through.

These stimulative and depletive medications cannot but be favourable to
the animal, since it will anticipate the treatment to which he must be
submitted a few days later, when the disease shall have declared
itself.

To this treatment, in some sort preventive, must be annexed an
_antimiasmatic_ beverage, either a _permanganate of potash_, or a
solution of _chlorate of potash_, or of _arsenic acid_ in powder, mixed
with some aromatized beverage, or solution of _arseniate of soda_. These
anti-typhic drinks must be discontinued on those days when the sick
cattle are purged.

It need hardly be said, that during this period of incubation the
feeding of the cattle must be strictly attended to, and that the animal
must receive unusual hygienic care.


_Second Period, or that of Initiation._

At this period the constitution and temperament of the sick cattle must
first of all be deliberately studied, so as to ascertain fully which are
_lymphatic_, which are _nervous_, and which are _sanguine_. We must
notice the age, the sex, the state of gestation, and make allowance for
any prior complaints to which any of the sick cattle may have been
subject. For if, like certain system-mongers, we reduced the treatment
of all tainted cattle to the same mathematical formula of medication,
that is, either to bleeding or to purging exclusively, we should
certainly increase the number of victims.

In this stage of the disease we have to contend with the derangements of
the circulation and secretions. The fever is generally intense, the
blood is inflamed or vitiated, the mucous membranes are dried up;
shiverings, alternations of cold and heat, &c., occur. We must then
mitigate these morbid phenomena either by bleeding or purging. The
bleeding must be more or less copious, according to the strength of the
animal. For, it must not be forgotten that we have several critical
phases to pass through, and if we exhaust the animal by too largely
draining him of blood, we may forfeit the success of the treatment. If
bleeding is considered unnecessary, let the sufferer be purged at once,
by administering either _sulphate of magnesia_ (_Epsom salts_), _or
sulphate of soda_ (_Glauber's salt_). These purges to be taken daily,
for two or three days, according to the way they operate. Linseed oil,
mixed in some warm beverage, may be given instead of these, or else a
mixture of rhubarb and calomel, or even a decoction of senna. Preference
should be given to saline or laxative purges, as, drastic purgatives,
such as aloes or jalap, sometimes concentrate the inflammation on the
narrow parts of the digestive channels.

In this second stage--the period of initiation--the appetite is
generally gone, the thirst excessive; so that nutritive or solid feeding
must of course be suppressed.

As for the drinks, they must be cold, consisting of water with
sufficient flour mixed in it to whiten it, and a little vinegar or
sulphuric acid, to acidulate it. A decoction of good hay with some
marine salt, or nitrate of potash; a decoction of pellitory or
wall-wort, of ground-ivy, or whey, or buttermilk, likewise acidulated,
and which the cattle are very partial to, will in every way be suitable
for their use. If the heat of the skin diminishes, and if congestion
appears to settle on the lungs, the drinks must be given warm,
consisting of a decoction of borage leaves, mallows, marsh-mallow, and
pellitory. In these cases, the body must be protected from chills by
overlaying it with blankets, so as to keep the mass of the blood as much
as possible on the surface, and check the tendency it has to load the
internal organs.

By following these prescriptions, we shall answer all the conditions of
the treatment during the second period. In truth, by the process of
bleeding, we shall have reduced the heat of the fever, and prevented too
great a flow towards the nervous, pulmonary, or digestive centres. The
purgings will have acted with similar effects; and, what is more, they
will have cleared the _primæ viæ_, and rendered the circulation of the
abdominal apparatus more easy. In fine, the drinks will have contributed
to assuage the violence of the fever. The washing, which must be
effected with a wet sponge passed over the nose, mouth, and eyes, and
then over the skin, which must afterwards be rubbed dry, will be both
useful and pleasant to the sick animal. This cleansing will maintain the
important functions of the skin in due order.

Some persons have advocated as most efficacious at this period
hydro-therapia, or the Water-cure, in the form of warm and cold
ablutions, vapour baths, &c. This treatment, so bracing by its revulsive
action, and the powerful influence of which we witnessed for several
years in the establishment which we superintended at Belle Vue, near
Paris, might prove of some service in ox-typhus, especially in the form
of the vapour bath; but it requires so much practice, and so incessant
and watchful a care, that it is needful to have the process attended by
an experienced practitioner.

We must remark, in addition, that the general state of the animal, and
his desire for food, will show the degree of strictness and restraint
which must be observed in regulating his diet. His instinct must be
taken by us as a guide; and if the drinks rendered nutritive by the
addition of bran, oatmeal, barley flour, or even seed of grass pounded,
are relished by him, we must indulge his desires to some extent, in
order to keep up his strength.


_Third Period, or that of Duration._

At this stage of the distemper we must watch and follow step by step the
symptoms which attend it, and come to their relief.

All the secretions have now resumed their course; from the mucous
membranes there occurs a copious discharge, first of all serous, then
thick and muco-purulent; the breathing may be obstructed, the
diarrhoea frequent; the air infiltrates beneath the integument. The
fever is sometimes continuous, sometimes intermittent. We must satisfy
the cravings of the vital powers by administering the same beverages as
in the preceding period. Far from checking the diarrhoea, as some
advise, we must regulate the evacuations by means of laxatives, such as
tartrate of potash, sulphate of magnesia, or sulphate of soda. It is
very essential, indeed, that the mucous membranes of the digestive
channels should be free, and not irritated by the contact of solid
alimentary substances or bilious secretions.

If the diarrhoea be too frequent or irritating, we must give the
sufferer night and morning a clyster, consisting of bran water.

At this period we will follow the advice given over and over again by
all the physicians of the last century, and apply cauteries with red-hot
iron, or fix one or two setons either on the dewlap, the neck, or the
thighs, and these issues must be kept open by means of basilicon
ointment. It is unquestionably of the highest importance to promote all
the depurative secretions in animals whose cellular tissue is choked up
with grease and lymph. Those only have got well in which the running has
been regular and copious, and the wasting of the flesh progressive.

If the fever is not regular, two pills of sulphate of quinine must be
given, each pill containing one gramme, one pill in the morning, the
other during the day, in order to prevent the fit, which usually takes
place in the evening. If the state of atony, of adynamia, comes on at
this period, _acetate of ammonia_ must be given, from one to six ounces,
in a pint of water, the same to be administered in two doses; only the
acidulous or alkaline drinks must be discontinued, otherwise the acetate
of ammonia would be decomposed in its passage into the digestive
channels. Finally, the eyes, the nostrils, and the mouth must be
frequently washed with an infusion of camomile, or some other aromatic
plant.

The setons must be kept up very carefully. If the sick animal relishes
the nutritive beverages, let him have a decoction of bread, rice,
barley, or oats.


_Fourth Period, or that of Decline._

At this stage of the disease, in which adynamia predominates, everything
must tend to support the organism. The drinks must be bitter and
stimulating; beer, with plenty of hops in it, with an addition of
powdered Peruvian bark or sulphate of iron, may be given; or a decoction
of this bark, with gentian roots, centaury leaves, and hops; or again, a
beverage may be administered night and morning, made of veterinary
theriacum, of extract of juniper and alcohol; or finally, an infusion of
aromatic plants.

If the diarrhoea be bloody and fetid, give the animal night and
morning a clyster, consisting of a decoction of Jesuit's bark, adding
thereto a spoonful of powdered wood charcoal, pounded to the finest
powder, and passed carefully through a sieve. If the running ceases, its
return must be excited by injecting in the nostrils a spoonful of
sternutatory vinegar or smelling salts. Finally, the purulent boils must
be opened, and dressed with stimulating ointment.

At this closing period, which determines the fate of the disease, as we
say, there is a tendency to despair of the cure. Seeing the fatal course
of most attacks, we lose heart, death seems inevitable, and we yield its
prey to its fangs. But let us not despair; let us remember that, in
these febrile infectious diseases, above all, the phenomena must almost
always proceed to the last stage of exhaustion of the vital powers to
render the cure attainable. Some patients, smitten with typhoid fever or
cholera, have owed their lives to the indefatigable tenacity of the
contest _in extremis_ between life and death.

I still see before me a choleraic patient, whom, during the epidemic of
1849, I had left in the morning at ten o'clock, passing into the cold
period. At five o'clock I returned to see him; the whole family was in
tears, and the sheet had been thrown over the patient's head, as if he
had already breathed his last. Time was precious to me at that fell
season, and I was about to retire, when I applied my finger to the wrist
of the sufferer, and felt a faint pulsation at long intervals. I threw
my coat off directly, called for flannel and essential oil of mustard,
which I had prescribed that morning. I set the example, and instantly
the whole family helped me to rub the patient in every direction. In a
quarter of an hour the heart quickened and revived, and in less than
half an hour more the circulation resumed its course; at the end of an
hour of this obstinate struggle the vital heat began to show itself--in
a word, the patient was saved.

We must not, therefore, give up the contest until the death of the
sufferer is fully ascertained; and the same persistency should be
practised in the case of animals smitten with the typhus. If the
circulation slackens, if the skin turns cold, take a piece of wool, coat
it with rubefacient liniment, and rub the animal therewith, more
particularly along the spine. Then give him a cordial drink, and pass
_raies de feu_ over the loins. All these appliances will help to
stimulate the nervous system, and resuscitate the exhausted powers of
life.

If, at last, we are so fortunate as to overcome the profound adynamia
which has utterly prostrated the frame, we next shall have to sustain
the sick animal by giving him decoctions of meat with sea-salt, or
sulphate of iron added to it, or a light broth, made with meat and
bread.

Herbivorous animals, put upon a carnivorous diet, would not generally
endure it, of course; but some of them rather incline to unctuous
beverages, and even to cooked or raw meat. All men know that certain
horse trainers give race-horses a small portion of meat, especially when
the races are coming on, in order to increase their mettle and strength.

We remember a sheep, which we saw at the Ecole d'Alfort, during our
studies of comparative pathology and the cutaneous diseases of domestic
animals, which manifested a great liking for meat, and even ate it
ravenously like a glutton.

In convalescence, the animal must be sent into the open air, in some
fold enclosed with bars; he must be taken every day to pasture, each day
increasing the time he is allowed to feed, and gradually he will be left
to return to his usual regimen. But still it must be observed, that in
this distemper convalescence is long and slow, and very deceitful. A too
substantial course of feeding often revives the inflammation of the
intestines by irritating ulcerations not yet healed, and more than one
animal which had been looked upon as cured has perished in its
convalescence through a lack of watchful attention.

Herbivorous beasts, therefore, incline to and digest animal food;
consequently, we must give sick oxen meat broths, pure milk, or milk and
water. With these must be mixed wheat straw chopped small, for hay or
even oat straw would swell and distend the stomachs.

The typhus in this epizootia is not regular in its progress and
development. Frequently the nervous or pulmonary phenomena predominate,
when the treatment, such as we have just explained, must be modified. We
must also bear in mind that nature does not divide a disease into
periods, like those we have adopted to render our exposition of the
symptoms more intelligible and the treatment itself more methodical.

If the nervous form of the disease prevails--if the animal shows
alternations of dulness and restlessness--if, pressure on the spine is
very painful--above all, if, in bulls, for instance, there is plethora,
let the bleedings and purgings be increased in order to abate the
nervous erethismus. In this form, the violence of the attack usually
carries off the beast. Should there, however, be any chance of saving
him it will be by employing this medication, which is at once revulsive
and depletive, notwithstanding the well-known fact that bleedings, far
from relieving the nervous system, sometimes aggravate its irritability.

A general ablution with cold water may be tried in _desperate cases_.
The animal must then be immediately well rubbed, and covered with wool,
in order to excite a thorough reaction.

In the pulmonary form of the typhus, but only during the acute stage,
the drinks must be warm and emollient, composed of a decoction of
soothing substances, with mallows, &c.; or one of linseed, to which must
be added some oxymel of squills and opium. The purgatives must be
non-stimulating; and emetics, freely diluted, for instance, will be
very serviceable.

At the third and fourth period in this pulmonary form of the disease,
adopt the treatment prescribed for intestinal typhus.

We might have greatly enlarged the list of the pharmaceutic agents, but
the richer a treatment is in remedies the poorer it is in cures. We have
made choice of the simplest and safest among all the remedies advised by
experienced men, making allowance for the difficulties inherent to the
number of animals, the mode of application, the cost, &c., always
keeping in view the life of the animal to be saved and the interest of
the cattle owners.

We think that the treatment by inoculation might have prevented the
typhus in a very large proportion, and that the curative medication
might have saved many of the infected cattle at the worst period of the
epizootia.

Such, then, are the results which will one day be obtained, when we
shall be able to supersede the barbarous process of general
extermination, by the adoption of a rational treatment, founded at once
on science and practical experience.


IV.

    _Hygienic Measures to be taken against the Extension of the
      Contagion--Acts and Orders concerning Sanitary Police
      Regulations._

I have purposely neglected, in discussing the various plans of
treatment, certain measures to be adopted with the object of opposing
the spread of the contagion. The memorandum published on this subject by
the Privy Council, and drawn up by Dr. Thudichum, is so complete and so
clear, that we can find nothing better to say. I recommend its perusal
to all who possess horned cattle, and who have occasion to send them to
any distance. It is of the highest importance to follow this judicious
advice, as the general interest will constitute here the safeguard of
the pecuniary interests of each in particular. I add to this memorandum
upon hygienic measures, the consolidated and amended acts and orders
published under the head of "Sanitary Police." In this way those
interested will have beneath their eyes all which it is important for
them to know, both in a medical and legal point of view.

        MEMORANDUM _on the Principles and Practice of
          Disinfection, as applicable to the present Epidemic of
          Cattle Disease_. By J. L. W. THUDICHUM, M.D.


      [Sidenote: I.--Principles of disinfection.]

      I.--PRINCIPLES OF DISINFECTION.

      [Sidenote: 1. Definition of disinfection.]

      1. The term disinfection signifies the removal and
      destruction, or destruction and subsequent removal of the
      products of destruction, of all matters actually being or
      containing products of disease capable of reproducing
      disease in other animals.

      [Sidenote: 2. May include special purification and
      deodorization.]

      2. If the same processes and means, as used for this
      purpose, are applied to the purification and deodorization
      of places and things not actually infected, but capable or
      suspected of being infected, then these preventive measures
      are practically and properly included under the definition
      of disinfection.

      [Sidenote: 3. Reproducers and primary carriers of
      infection.]

      [Sidenote: Infectious parts of dead animals.]

      3. The reproducers of the infectious matter or contagion are
      all kinds of cattle of the ox tribe, which also are at
      present in this country the only animals liable to its
      specific effects. It is probable that the contagion adheres
      with particular pertinacity to all secretions and discharges
      from sick animals. For this reason, fæces or droppings,
      urine, ruminated food, all secretions from the mouth, nose,
      and eyes, and any sore parts of the surface of the diseased
      animals must be considered as the principal and primary
      carriers of the infectious matter or plague poison. It is
      also probable that many parts of animals which have died
      from the cattle plague, or have been killed during advanced
      stages of the disease, are infectious, some because they are
      primarily imbued with the contagion, others because they
      have been in contact with it after the death of the animal.
      Skins, hides, hair, horns, and hoofs, must therefore always
      be treated with precaution. The chances of infection by
      flesh, fat, cleaned guts, and blood, are perhaps more
      remote, but cannot be lost sight of.

      [Sidenote: 4. Particular danger of droppings, or fæces.]

      4. The cattle plague, although affecting every part of the
      animal, shows its visible effects most extensively in the
      intestinal canal. It is believed, and apparently upon good
      grounds, that the intestinal discharges are the principal
      agents, upon the distribution of which mainly depends the
      spread of the disorder.

      [Sidenote: 5. Enumeration of infected things and places.]

      5. It follows from the above, that all articles which have
      been in contact with a diseased animal, or any of its
      discharges, particularly its fæces, are capable of carrying
      the infection for an indefinite time, and must be looked
      upon as being actually infectious to other healthy animals.
      Such are racks of wood or iron; cribs or mangers of wood,
      iron, or stone; articles used for fastening animals; leather
      collars and straps, ropes and chains; all harness of any
      animals used for drawing, and all carts, waggons, and
      carriages which they have actually been drawing; the stalls
      or sheds in which animals have been standing; the whole
      lengths of the gutters and drains through which their urine
      has been flowing; the entire surface over which their manure
      has been drawn, and all implements with which the removal
      has been effected; the entire dung-heap upon which infected
      manure has been put, and the fluid contents of the manure
      pit, or of the special receptacle for the urine; yards or
      sheds in which cattle have been kept to tread down long
      straw, and the whole of such straw and manure, as also the
      ground beneath them; paths and roads upon which diseased
      cattle have walked or been carried; fields and meadows upon
      which they have been grazing; all carts, carriages, trucks
      and railway trucks in which diseased cattle have been
      conveyed, and all the platforms, railings, bridges, and
      boards upon which they have been moved thereto; as also all
      apparatus which has been used to pen, tie, lift, haul,
      lower, and fix them; the clothes, and particularly shoes and
      boots, and iron-pointed sticks of drivers and their dogs;
      the apparel of all cattle-herds or attendants, particularly
      their shoes and boots; the shoes and boots of all persons
      visiting places where diseased cattle are or have been
      standing; and, in general, the clothes of all persons
      visiting infected places, ships, and all parts of the
      platforms, stages, stairs and bridges, hoists and cranes
      used for embarking and landing the animals; markets, and all
      sheds, and pens, and implements used in contact with cattle;
      slaughter-houses, and all persons and implements in them
      which have been employed upon sick cattle, as also sundry
      parts or organs which come from sick animals killed in
      slaughter-houses; knackers' yards, trucks or carts, horses,
      men, and implements which have been employed in the disposal
      of sick or dead animals; wells and ponds from which diseased
      cattle have been drinking, or into which any portion of
      their excreta has had any opportunity of flowing, directly
      or indirectly; all fodder, grass, hay, straw, clover, &c.,
      and particularly remnants of fodder upon which diseased
      cattle have been feeding; and, in general, all persons,
      animals, places, buildings, and movable things which have
      been in contact with matters proceeding from diseased
      cattle, or with such diseased cattle themselves. To the
      above-mentioned places and things any of the processes and
      agents enumerated and described in the following may have
      to be applied.


      [Sidenote: II. Practice of disinfection.]

      II.--PRACTICE OF DISINFECTION.

      [Sidenote: A. Disinfection by earth.]

      [Sidenote: 1. Burying of animals, &c.]

      A. _Disinfection by Earth._ 1. _Burying._--All matters that
      can be buried, so as to remain covered with a thick layer of
      ground or earth are innocuous. The ground chosen for such
      interment should be dry. The quickest, and cheapest, and
      most certain way of disinfecting an animal dead from the
      plague is to bury it entire.

      [Sidenote: 2. Burying of dung.]

      2. The droppings, and all straw and other matters
      contaminated therewith, may also be buried into ground where
      they are not likely to be disturbed for a long time. The
      places from which such droppings have been removed to be
      cleaned and disinfected as will be described below.

      [Sidenote: 3. Infected manure and compost heaps.]

      3. Manure heaps and the down-trodden manure of cattle yards,
      if they have become infected by even a small quantity of the
      droppings of a diseased animal, should be carefully shifted
      to a suitable piece of ground, and there be transformed into
      compost heaps. A layer of manure one or two feet in
      thickness should be covered all over with six inches of dry
      earth, ashes, and mineral rubbish; upon this another layer
      of manure may be placed, and then again a layer of earth,
      and so forth, until the whole of the manure is stacked; it
      should be covered all over with a continuous layer of earth
      of from six inches to one foot in thickness. If the manure
      heap or yard manure cannot be shifted, it may be covered on
      the spot with a layer of dry earth, after which all animals
      are to be kept away from it.

      [Sidenote: 4. Removal of boil infected by soakage.]

      4. If the floor of any shed or stable in which diseased
      cattle has been standing is not constructed with special
      water-tight and impenetrable material, it must be assumed to
      be infected to the depth of at least six inches. This ground
      should therefore be removed, together with any stones,
      pavements, or wood work which may have been in contact with
      it, carted to a piece of dry land and buried. Half-rotten
      wood is a particularly favourable carrier of infection.
      Mortar, bricks, loam, or any other lining of the sides of a
      pen in which a diseased animal has been standing, should be
      broken out and buried.

      [Sidenote: B. Disinfection by fire.]

      [Sidenote: 1. Burning.]

      B. _Disinfection by Fire._ 1. _Burning._--All infected
      articles of a minor value, or made of incombustible
      materials, can be disinfected by exposing them to a heat
      which will char organic matter. To this class of articles
      may be reckoned racks of wood or iron; cribs or mangers of
      wood, iron or stone; leather collars and straps, ropes and
      chains; dry manure, residues of fodder from which diseased
      cattle have eaten; and all such small articles of little
      value which can easily be replaced by new ones. Chains may
      be exposed to a dull red heat; all other articles may be
      heated over a fire of coal, brushwood, or straw until well
      scorched. All new articles of ironware should be bought in a
      galvanised state, to prevent the formation of rust, the
      accumulations of which form convenient seats for infectious
      matter, and for the same purpose it is desirable that iron
      articles which have been disinfected by heat as above should
      afterwards be either galvanised, or, at least, while hot be
      treated with resin, to cover them with a durable varnish, or
      should be varnished or painted.

      [Sidenote: C. Disinfection by chloride of lime. General
      remarks.]

      C. _Disinfection by Chloride of Lime._--Chloride of lime, or
      bleaching powder, is the most powerful, the cheapest and
      most easily managed of all artificial disinfectants. It can
      be had everywhere, and at any time, and in quantities
      sufficient for every purpose. It should as much as possible
      he applied in solution, of a strength varying somewhat with
      the particular purpose for which it is to be employed; and
      after it has been allowed to act upon the surface or matter
      to be disinfected a reasonable time, should be washed off,
      together with all products of decomposition. As chloride of
      lime does not destroy only the infectious matter in a
      mixture, but destroys all organic matter without
      distinction, it is not applicable to large quantities of
      matter, such as the manure of cattle, dung-heaps, &c.,
      inasmuch as twice or three times the weight of these matters
      of chloride of lime would be required for their effectual
      destruction and disinfection. It is further inapplicable to
      all matters rich in ammonia, particularly putrid urine, as
      it destroys the ammonia and evolves a large amount of gases,
      some of which have a repugnant odour, and are perhaps not
      quite innocuous. But for the disinfection of surfaces of
      things and places no better or more suitable agent than
      chloride of lime is at present known to science.

      [Sidenote: D. Special directions for disinfection of
      stables, sheds, &c., trucks, and ships, &c.]

      [Sidenote: 1. Special directions.]

      [Sidenote: Washing.]

      [Sidenote: Scrubbing.]

      [Sidenote: All washing water to be disinfected.]

      D. _Special Directions for the Disinfection of Stables,
      Sheds, Vans, Railway Trucks, and Cattle Ships,[V] and of
      Persons and Things connected with them._--1. After such a
      place has been cleaned by mechanical means, scraping, &c.,
      as much as possible, and all manure and dirt has been
      carefully buried, the entire surface which has been
      contaminated, or is likely to have been contaminated, should
      be covered with a layer of chloride of lime in powder. The
      powder should be worked about with a broom until equally
      distributed. It is intended to disinfect the water to be
      used in the washing process which is now to commence. Clean
      water, from a hose in which it flows under pressure, or from
      a force-pump, garden-engine, or from large watering-pots or
      water-cans, or poured freely from buckets, should now be
      applied to the entire surface by one person, while another
      at the same time scrubs the entire surface; and particularly
      all crevices, joints, and irregularities. The washing water
      and chloride of lime are then to be worked down the gutters,
      into the sinks, cesses, or natural watercourses. No washing
      water from any infected place or thing should ever be
      allowed to flow into any cesspool, urine-hold, dung-heap,
      pond, sewer, or natural watercourse, without having
      previously been mixed and stirred with a liberal amount of
      chloride of lime. When the place has thus been scrubbed
      until the water flows off clean, it is ready for effectual
      disinfection.

      [Sidenote: 2. Actual disinfection.]

      [Sidenote: Solution of chloride of lime.]

      [Sidenote: How applied.]

      [Sidenote: How long to be left on.]

      2. For this purpose a solution of chloride of lime in water,
      in the proportion of one pound of the powder to one gallon
      of water, is made. For the lair of one animal from six to
      ten gallons of such fluid should be prepared. This fluid is
      now distributed over the whole surface to be disinfected,
      gradually, by squirting from a syringe, or by pumping
      through a force-pump, garden-engine, or by watering from a
      watering-pot or can with a finely pierced rose. All
      woodwork, stones, bricks, cement, mortar, all fixtures of
      whatever material, should be well wetted with the solution,
      and immediately be scrubbed with a hard brush. Floor and
      ceiling are also scrubbed, and the whole is left in this wet
      state covered with the chloride of lime solution for at
      least one hour, during which time care is taken that no
      parts become dry.

      [Sidenote: 3. To be washed off after disinfection.]

      [Sidenote: Flushing.]

      [Sidenote: Precautions as to direction of clean water.]

      3. As the chloride of lime and the products of its
      decomposing action upon infectious matters may be hurtful to
      cattle, these matters have to be carefully washed off by a
      second and final flushing. For this too much water and too
      much scrubbing cannot be employed. Care should be taken to
      apply the clean water always to the highest parts, so as to
      cause it to flow thence to the lower parts, and to wash away
      the waste from the lower parts before applying any fresh
      water to the upper parts.

      [Sidenote: 4. Care not to carry back dirt by brooms, boots,
      &c.]

      4. Care should also be taken to rinse and flush every broom
      which has worked away sediment and waste from the lower
      parts into and through the gutters and drains before
      applying it again to the clean upper parts. Care should also
      be taken that the working persons should not step from the
      dirty or partially cleansed places on to the clean ones, as
      this may suffice to bring infection back to the disinfected
      place.

      [Sidenote: 5. Disinfection of workmen and tools.]

      5. Lastly, all persons employed in this work, having swept
      and flushed the gutters with the same care as the lairs, are
      collected, together with all engines and tools which they
      have used, as near as possible to the sink or place of final
      egress of water from the premises, and there disinfected as
      will be described.

      [Sidenote: Tools.]

      The tools, such as hooks, forks, spades, hoes, barrows, &c.,
      are scrubbed with the above solution of chloride of lime,
      and subsequently water until clean; they are then
      repeatedly wetted with the solution, and after it has had
      time to disinfect the entire surfaces of them, they are
      washed clean and laid up, or hung up to dry.

      [Sidenote: Workmen.]

      [Sidenote: Disinfection of boots.]

      [Sidenote: Disinfection of workpeople's bodies, hands, &c.]

      [Sidenote: Changing and disinfecting clothes.]

      [Sidenote: Burning of articles of little value.]

      The workmen, then, having finished the disinfection and
      flushing of all objects and surfaces, effect their own
      disinfection in the following manner:--They wash their boots
      most carefully with chloride of lime and water, scraping the
      soles and scrubbing the seams where the soles join the upper
      leather. They wash their hands and arms, and by means of
      clean rags or sponges they remove any splashes from their
      clothes. After this they go indoors, remove all clothes from
      head to foot, wash their bodies, and particularly their
      hands, faces, hair and feet, with plenty of soap and water,
      and put on fresh clothes and linen. The clothes and linen
      which they have taken off should be treated as infected, set
      to soak immediately in boiling water and afterwards
      disinfected, or in water containing two ounces of chloride
      of lime to the gallon in solution, or containing four ounces
      of Condy's red permanganate of potash fluid in solution; or
      the clothes and linen should be put in a copper and boiled
      and subsequently washed. All articles of little value which
      are much soiled should be burned on a bright fire.

      [Sidenote: E. Disinfection of live stock.]

      [Sidenote: 1. Stock may carry infection in two modes.]

      E. _Disinfection of Live Stock._--1. Live cattle may carry
      infection in two ways: first, by being themselves infected
      with the plague and reproducing the poison; and secondly, by
      accidentally carrying the poison from other animals in a
      dormant state upon some part of their surface, their hair,
      and particularly their feet. These latter animals may
      therefore infect others without being or becoming themselves
      subjects of the plague. All persons therefore buying new
      animals, should disinfect them before allowing them to enter
      their premises. In a similar manner, if in a stable there
      has been a case of plague, the healthy or apparently healthy
      animals should all be disinfected.

      [Sidenote: 2. Mode and means of disinfecting live stock.]

      [Sidenote: Warming and refreshing drink.]

      [Sidenote: Penned in the quarantine shed.]

      2. The mode in which live animals may be disinfected,
      consists in washing them with disinfectant solutions of such
      strength as will destroy the contagion without injuring the
      surface of the animal. A solution of two ounces of chloride
      of lime in a gallon of water, is a proper solution for
      washing the coat of animals. A mixture of four ounces of
      Condy's red permanganate of potash fluid, with one gallon of
      water, is also a proper disinfectant solution. For
      full-sized cows and bullocks, &c., several gallons of either
      of these solutions should be used. Great care should be
      taken to keep the solution away from the eyes, nostrils,
      mouth, and tender parts. When the entire surface is washed
      and disinfected, all disinfectant is removed by the
      application of great quantities of clean tepid water to all
      parts. The animal is given a warming and refreshing drink,
      and is conducted by a clean attendant to the clean
      quarantine shed. There it should receive fodder both dry and
      green, and sop, and plenty of pure cold water, and be rubbed
      dry with whisks of straw and hay.

      [Sidenote: F. The quarantine shed.]

      [Sidenote: 1. Objects.]

      [Sidenote: Both quarantine and surface disinfection are
      required.]

      F. _The Quarantine Shed._--1. The quarantine shed is
      intended to keep the new and suspected cattle separate for a
      period of at least ten days, in order to afford the
      security, to be obtained by observation alone, that it is
      not actually infected with plague. While, therefore,
      disinfection of the surface of cattle removes one kind of
      danger, another, which cannot be removed, can only be kept
      circumscribed or penned in, and this is done by the
      quarantine shed. But the keeping of cattle in the quarantine
      shed would not disinfect its surface with certainty even
      during a much longer period than ten days; disinfection of
      the surface therefore cannot supply the precaution of the
      quarantine shed, and a rigorous quarantine cannot supply the
      effect of surface disinfection. Both precautions are
      necessary for perfect security, although either of them,
      without the other, obviates a particular kind and a certain
      amount of danger.

      [Sidenote: 2. Management of the quarantine shed.]

      2. The quarantine shed should be situated in an isolated
      part of the premises. All manure and urine from it should
      flow and be carried to a particular place separate and
      distinct from the common dung-heap, and be buried daily.

      [Sidenote: Cleanliness.]

      [Sidenote: Persons attending healthy stock not to attend
      quarantine shed, and vice versâ.]

      The utmost cleanliness should be observed in the shed. All
      tools, pails, currycombs, etc., used in this shed should be
      used in it exclusively and nowhere else. The person
      attending the quarantine shed should not be allowed to go
      into the shed where healthy stock is kept, or permitted to
      approach healthy stock. No person attending healthy stock
      should be permitted to approach quarantine cattle, or to go
      near or into the quarantine shed. But should unfortunately
      only one person be available for both duties, that person
      should be allowed to approach quarantine cattle only when
      clothed in the safety dress to be immediately described.

      [Sidenote: G. The safety dress.]

      [Sidenote: 1. Description.]

      G. _The Safety Dress._--1. This consists of strong
      water-boots reaching up to the knees, well greased all over;
      of a waterproof coat, buttoned close all the way up in
      front, and closing tightly round the neck and wrists. The
      head is to be covered with a cap which takes the hair well
      in.

      [Sidenote: 2. Persons who should use the safety dress.]

      [Sidenote: To disinfect before leaving suspected or infected
      premises.]

      2. Every person having occasion to visit sheds in which
      there is diseased cattle, or suspected cattle, or quarantine
      cattle, should be provided with the above dress, put it on
      when entering the place, take it off when leaving the place,
      and have it disinfected immediately. This precaution should
      be strictly observed by all inspectors, all veterinarians,
      or others called in to attend sick cattle, by all dealers
      and butchers entering sheds, yards, or meadows, for the
      purpose of sale or purchase, and by all other persons coming
      on the premises on business in connexion with cattle.

      [Sidenote: 3. Strangers not to enter sheds except in
      disinfected safety dresses.]

      [Sidenote: Proprietors of cattle to keep safety dresses.]

      3. The owners of stock should not allow any strangers to
      enter their sheds, yards, or meadows, except in disinfected
      safety-dresses; and in case this should give rise to
      difficulties, they will do well to have themselves one or
      two such safety-dresses at hand, and to cause all persons
      whose business compels them to enter their sheds, to leave
      their own boots behind, and to put on the long boots,
      waterproof-coat, and special cap. Only thus can they hope to
      exclude all ordinary and obvious chances of infection from
      their previously healthy sheds, yards, and meadows.

      [Sidenote: H. Measures to be taken where plague has
      appeared.]

      [Sidenote: Killing and burying diseased animals.]

      [Sidenote: Disinfecting the living and the stables.]

      H. _Measures to be taken on Premises where Plague has
      actually appeared._--1. When the plague has actually
      appeared in any shed, yard, or place, the sick animal should
      at once be removed with all due precautions. It is certainly
      the safest and best to pole-axe the animal at once, and to
      bury it entire, and then to disinfect the particular lair as
      above described, clear out the stable or shed, disinfect
      the whole of it and all apparatus, also all the animals, and
      only to let the animals enter the shed, &c. again, after it
      is completely sweet and dry.

      [Sidenote: 2. Hospital shed.]

      [Sidenote: Situation of.]

      2. If, however, a proprietor is desirous of keeping a sick
      animal because its illness does not appear severe or fatal,
      he should place it in a separate shed, which must not be the
      same as or near to the quarantine shed, and be distant from
      all healthy animals, and so situated that the prevailing
      wind does not blow from this hospital shed towards the
      healthy or quarantine shed. The water should also not flow
      from this hospital shed towards the others, or the yard, or
      any meadow, but should be carefully drained away and sent
      off the premises by a special sink.

      [Sidenote: 3. Preventing of diffusion of fæces.]

      3. To prevent the scattering of fæces by infected animals
      (and also by suspected animals and all animals suffering
      from diarrhoea), their tails should be so tied to one or
      other of their horns as to protect them against being soiled
      by the intestinal discharges, and to prevent them from
      distributing such discharges by the ceaseless motions
      peculiar to these organs. The spattering of fæces should be
      prevented by a copious supply of rough straw, with some
      sand, sawdust, or ashes placed behind and underneath the
      animal. The straw and fæces should be dealt with as has been
      described. Animals affected with plague or diarrhoea should
      not be led along streets, highroads, and paths, as they
      would be certain to drop infectious fæces, which would then
      be distributed over the entire length of these roads by the
      feet of men and animals, and the wheels of vehicles.

      [Sidenote: 4. Special management of hospital shed.]

      [Sidenote: Persons to be employed.]

      4. The sick animals should be disinfected repeatedly; their
      pens should be cleaned and disinfected repeatedly, during
      the course of the illness. This should be done by persons
      either guarded by the safety dress, or--and this is
      safest--by such as may not come into contact with healthy
      cattle, or have to enter healthy sheds. All tools, pails,
      fodder, &c., to be used in the hospital shed to be kept for
      that purpose only, and never to be used with healthy, or
      quarantine, or only suspected cattle.

      [Sidenote: 5. Disinfection of parts of dead or killed
      animals.]

      5. If the proprietor of any dead piece of cattle, whether it
      has died naturally or been killed, should decide upon
      dismembering it instead of burying it entire, and upon
      utilising the hide, horns, hoofs, tallow, and bones, he
      should disinfect the skin, horns, and hoofs, by steeping
      them for one hour in a strong solution of chloride of lime,
      containing one pound of the powder in each gallon of water,
      and afterwards washing them. The tallow should be thickly
      powdered with chloride of lime all over, and be sent
      directly to the boilers. It should not be boiled in any
      vessel employed on the farm. Under all circumstances, it is
      advisable to let this dismemberment of dead and fallen
      cattle he performed at the knacker's yard.

      [Sidenote: 6. Flesh, &c., to be buried.]

      6. Flesh, blood, guts, lungs, and the bones of the head of
      infected animals should not be trafficked with, as they
      cannot easily be disinfected. They should always be buried.

      [Sidenote: I. Disinfection of meadows, fields, roads, &c.]

      [Sidenote: 1. Meadows.]

      I. _Disinfection of Meadows, Fields, Roads, &c._--1. Meadows
      infected by diseased cattle should be carefully cleaned of
      all dung, by burying each dropping on the spot where it
      lies, cutting out the round piece of turf with the dropping
      on it, and turning it upside down. The grass on the entire
      meadow should then be cut and burned. It should then be left
      without any cattle for at least a month, including at least
      two wet days.

      [Sidenote: 2. Of roads, &c.]

      2. All roads, paths, streets of towns, or villages should be
      carefully and frequently scavenged. All carts, vans, or
      waggons used for carrying manure, should be water-tight,
      caulked and painted, and should not be permitted to ooze and
      drop their fluid or semi-fluid contents on the road over
      which they are drawn. They should be kept clean and
      disinfected, as a precautionary measure, by the proceedings
      above described.


      [Sidenote: III. General recommendations.]

      III. GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS.

      In conclusion it must be pointed out to farmers, dairymen,
      and all persons having charge of cattle,

      _That the same great measures which are known to maintain
      and restore the health of human beings, will also maintain
      and restore the health of cattle._

      Pure air; dry, spacious, well-ventilated and well-drained
      clean sheds; clean and dry meadows; plenty of pure water;
      frequent currying and washing; the prevention of the
      development, by the destruction of the germs, of internal
      and external parasites, particularly entozoa; proper food in
      suitable quantities, and at proper times; protection from
      inclement weather; the utmost cleanliness in the removal of
      manure; the storing of the manure at a great distance from
      the cattle-shed, and, in addition, the most conscientious
      observance of the precautionary and disinfecting measures
      above described--all these measures and agents together
      will secure the utmost possible health of stock and the
      prosperity of the agriculturist and dairyman. But the
      neglect of any one of them will make the stock liable to
      become infected, and the more so the more several or all
      collateral conditions of the healthy existence of animals
      are neglected. The negligent man is therefore certain to
      lose, to injure his neighbour by defeating his precautions,
      and to damage society; but the watchful and painstaking man
      will be rewarded not only by the preservation of his
      property, but particularly by the consciousness that it has
      been preserved by his own care and attention, and that
      thereby he has also benefited the state.

       *       *       *       *       *

This consolidates and amends the former Orders.

      (_Copy._)

      At the _Council Chamber, Whitehall_, the 22nd day of
      _September_, 1865.

      By the Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.

        PRESENT.

        Lord President.
        Duke of Somerset.
        Earl of Clarendon.
        Earl de Grey and Ripon.
        Mr. Secretary Cardwell.
        Mr. H. A. Bruce.

      WHEREAS by an Act passed in the session of the eleventh and
      twelfth years of Her present Majesty's reign, chapter one
      hundred and seven, intituled "An Act to prevent until the
      1st day of September, 1850, and to the end of the then next
      session of Parliament, the spreading of contagious or
      infectious disorders amongst sheep, cattle, and other
      animals," and which has since been from time to time
      continued by divers subsequent Acts, and lastly by an Act
      passed in the session of the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth
      years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter one
      hundred and nineteen, it is (amongst other things) enacted
      that it shall be lawful for the Lords and others of Her
      Majesty's Privy Council, or any two or more of them, from
      time to time, to make such Orders and Regulations as to them
      may seem necessary for the purpose of prohibiting or
      regulating the removal to or from such parts or places as
      they may designate in such Order or Orders, of sheep,
      cattle, horses, swine, or other animals, or of meat, skins,
      hides, horns, hoofs, or other part of any animals, or of
      hay, straw, fodder, or other articles likely to propagate
      infection; and also for the purpose of purifying any yard,
      stable, outhouse, or other place, or any waggons, carts,
      carriages, or other vehicles; and also for the purpose of
      directing how any animals dying in a diseased state, or any
      animals, parts of animals, or other things seized under the
      provisions of the said Act, are to be disposed of; and also
      for the purpose of causing notices to be given of the
      appearance of any disorder among sheep, cattle, or other
      animals, and to make any other Orders or Regulations for the
      purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the said Act,
      and again to revoke, alter, or vary any such Orders or
      Regulations; and that all provisions for any of the purposes
      aforesaid in any such Order or Orders contained shall have
      the like force and effect as if the same had been inserted
      in the said Act; and that all persons offending against the
      said Act shall for each and every offence forfeit and pay
      any sum not exceeding twenty pounds, or such smaller sum as
      the said Lords or others of Her Majesty's Privy Council may
      in any case by such Order direct:--

      And whereas a contagious or infectious disorder now prevails
      among the cattle of Great Britain, which is generally
      designated the "cattle plague," and may be recognised by the
      following symptoms:--

      "Great depression of the vital powers, frequent shivering,
      staggering gait, cold extremities, quick and short
      breathing, drooping head, reddened eyes, with a discharge
      from them, and also from the nostrils, of a mucous nature;
      raw-looking places on the inner side of the lips and roof of
      the mouth, diarrhoea or dysenteric purging:"

      And whereas several Orders, dated respectively the 24th of
      July, the 11th, 18th, and 26th of August, 1865, have been
      made under the authority of the said Acts by the Lords of
      Her Majesty's Privy Council, with a view to check the
      spreading of the said disorder:

      And whereas it is expedient to consolidate and amend the
      said Orders:

      Now, therefore, the Lords of Her Majesty's Privy Council do
      hereby, by virtue of, and in exercise of the powers given
      by, the said Act, so continued as aforesaid, order as
      follows:--

      1. This Order shall extend to all parts of Great Britain.

      2. The said Orders dated respectively the 24th of July, the
      11th, 18th, and 26th of August, 1865, are revoked, with the
      exception of so much of the said Order of the 24th of July,
      1865, as empowers the Clerk of Her Majesty's Privy Council
      to appoint Inspectors within the limits of the Metropolitan
      Police District, provided that such revocation shall not
      affect any appointment made, or any act done, or penalty
      recoverable, under any Order hereby revoked.

      3. In this Order the word "animal" shall mean any cow,
      heifer, bull, bullock, ox, calf, sheep, lamb, goat, or
      swine; and the word "Inspector" shall include any Inspector
      appointed under this Order, or under any of the said revoked
      Orders.

      4. Whenever the Local Authority, as hereinafter defined,
      shall be satisfied of the existence of the said disorder in,
      or have reason to apprehend its approach to, the district
      over which his or their jurisdiction extends, it shall be
      lawful for such Local Authority, if he or they shall think
      fit, from time to time to appoint one or more Veterinary
      Surgeon or Surgeons, or other duly qualified person or
      persons, to be an Inspector or Inspectors, for the purpose
      of carrying into effect the rules and regulations made by
      this Order, within the district for which he or they shall
      have been appointed. And the same authority may, from time
      to time, revoke such appointment.

      5. Subject to the powers herein reserved to the Clerk of Her
      Majesty's Privy Council, the Local Authority within the City
      of London, and the liberties thereof, shall be the Lord
      Mayor; in any municipal borough in England or Wales, the
      Mayor; in any Petty Sessional Division in England or Wales
      (exclusive so far as relates to the jurisdiction of the
      Inspector of so much of the said division as lies, within
      the limits of a municipal borough for which an Inspector has
      been appointed), the Justices acting in and for such Petty
      Sessional Division. The Local Authority in any burgh or town
      in Scotland which is subject to the jurisdiction of a
      Provost or other Principal Magistrate, shall be the Provost
      or such Principal Magistrate; and in any other place in
      Scotland not within the jurisdiction of such Provost or
      other Principal Magistrate, the Justices of the County in
      Sessions assembled.

      6. Every Inspector shall from time to time report to the
      Local Authority by which he is appointed, the steps taken by
      him for carrying into effect the regulations prescribed by
      this Order; and the Local Authority shall certify, in such
      manner as may be directed by one of Her Majesty's Principal
      Secretaries of State, the number of days that such Inspector
      has actually been engaged in the performance of his duty,
      and the number of miles travelled by him while thus engaged.

      7. Every Inspector shall furnish the Lords of the Council
      with such information in regard to the said disorder, as
      their Lordships may, from time to time, require.

      8. Every person having in his possession, or under his
      custody, any animal labouring under the said disorder, shall
      forthwith give notice thereof to the Inspector of the
      district within which such person resides, or if no
      Inspector shall have been appointed for the district within
      which such person resides, then to the Officers hereinafter
      named, according to the place of residence of the person
      obliged to give notice; that is to say: within the
      Metropolitan Police District, to the said Clerk of the Privy
      Council; within the City of London, and the liberties
      thereof, to the Lord Mayor; within any other borough, burgh,
      or town subject to the jurisdiction of a Mayor, Provost, or
      other Principal Magistrate, to such Mayor, Provost, or other
      Principal Magistrate; elsewhere in England, to the Clerk of
      the Justices acting in and for the Petty Sessional Division;
      and elsewhere in Scotland, to the Clerk of the Peace of the
      county.

      9. Every Inspector shalt have power to enter upon and
      inspect any premises or place in which any animal or animals
      may be found within the district for which he is appointed,
      and to examine and inspect, whenever and wherever he may
      deem it necessary, any animal within such district.

      10. Every Inspector shall have power within his district to
      seize and slaughter, or cause to be seized and slaughtered,
      and to be buried, as hereinafter directed, in any convenient
      place, any animal labouring under the said disorder.

      11. Every Inspector shall have power within his district to
      cause to be cleansed and disinfected, in any manner which he
      may think proper, any premises in which animals labouring
      under the said disorder have been, or may be, and to cause
      to be disinfected, and if necessary destroyed, any fodder,
      manure, or refuse matter, which he may deem likely to
      propagate the said disorder. And every owner or occupier of
      such premises shall obey any order given by such Inspector
      for that purpose.

      12. Every Inspector shall have power within his district to
      direct that any animal which he suspects to be labouring
      under the said disorder, shall be kept separate from animals
      free from the said disorder. And every person having in his
      possession, or under his custody, such animal, shall obey
      any order given by such Inspector for that purpose.

      13. Every person having in his possession, or under his
      custody, any animal labouring under the said disorder,
      shall, as far as practicable, keep such animal separate from
      all other animals, and shall not, if the animal be within a
      district for which an Inspector has been appointed, remove
      the same from his land or premises, without the licence of
      the Inspector.

      14. No person shall send or bring to any fair or market, or
      expose for sale, or send or carry by any railway, or by any
      ship or vessel coastwise, or place upon, or drive along, any
      highway or the sides thereof; any animal labouring under the
      said disorder.

      15. No person in any district for which an Inspector has
      been appointed shall, without the licence of the Inspector,
      send or bring to or from market, or remove from his land or
      premises, any animal which has been in the same shed or
      stable, or has been in the same herd or flock, or has been
      in contact, with any animal labouring under the said
      disorder.

      16. No person shall place, or keep, any animal labouring
      under the said disorder in any common or unenclosed land,
      or, if the animal be in a district for which an Inspector
      has been appointed, in any field or pasture, where, in the
      judgment of the Inspector, such animal may be likely to
      propagate the said disorder.

      17. All animals having died of the said disorder, or having
      been slaughtered on account thereof; shall be buried with
      their skins, and with a sufficient quantity of quick-lime,
      or other disinfectant, as soon as practicable, and shall be
      covered with at least five feet of earth, or shall, in
      districts for which an Inspector has been appointed, with
      the consent of the owner, be otherwise disposed of; in
      manner directed by the Inspector.

      18. During the continuance of the "cattle plague" within
      the said City of London, or that part of the Metropolitan
      Police District which is under the jurisdiction of the
      Metropolitan Board of Works, no animal shall be brought or
      sent to the Metropolitan Cattle Market, or any other market
      within the said City or the said part of the Metropolitan
      Police District, except for the purpose of being there sold
      for immediate slaughtering; and every such animal, as soon
      as sold, shall be marked for slaughter, in the manner in
      which cattle are ordinarily marked for slaughter in the
      Metropolitan Cattle Market.

      19. Whenever any Local Authority, as hereinbefore defined,
      declares, by notice published in any newspaper circulating
      within his or their jurisdiction, that it is expedient that
      animals, as hereinbefore defined, or some specified
      description thereof, shall be excluded from any specified
      market or fair within that jurisdiction, for a time to be
      specified in such notice, it is hereby ordered, that after
      the publication of such notice, it shall not be lawful for
      any person to bring or send such animals or description
      thereof into such market or fair: provided always, that this
      clause of this Order shall not, unless renewed by a further
      Order, be in force after the expiration of three calendar
      months from the date of this Order.

      20. Every person offending against this Order shall, in
      pursuance of the said Act, for every such offence forfeit
      any sum not exceeding twenty pounds which the Justices
      before whom he or she shall be convicted of such offence may
      think fit to impose.

             (Signed)             ARTHUR HELPS.

FOOTNOTES:

[R] Since these lines were put into the printer's hands, the French
Government have proposed to other nations to take measures collectively
to prevent the pilgrimage to Mecca continuing to be a cause of the
spread of cholera. We hasten to render justice to this prudent
initiative. But why not take the same measures against typhus which are
judged necessary against cholera?

[S] The typhus which broke out fifteen days ago near Roubaix, in France,
bordering upon Belgium, where the epizootia rages, appears to have been
stifled in its focus by the instantaneous extermination of the whole
herd in which it declared itself.

[T] "It is amusing to read authors of the last century on the treatment
of this disease. They were far more confident in their powers than we
helpless creatures pretend to be. The directions given are full and
distinct, and in chapters boldly headed 'The Cure.' The beast is to be
bled, washed, and hot vinegar and water, with aromatic herbs, may be
placed in the stable to revive the cattle. The animal must be rubbed a
quarter of an hour, both morning and evening, and the bags of a milch
cow should be anointed morning and evening with warm oil. A rowel is to
be made in the dewlap by taking a skein of hemp, tow, or twisted
packthread, a foot long, and as thick as a man's thumb. _The
prescriptions are most amusing._ They may serve to entertain those who
want the cure at present, and for this reason I reproduce one or
two."--_Gamgee, Letter on 21st August._

[U] Dr. Letheby reported that 12,916 lbs., or more than five tons of
meat, had been condemned in the City markets during the past week as
unfit for human food. It consisted of 64 sheep, 4 calves, 7 pigs, 142
quarters of beef, and 361 joints and pieces of meat; 5377 lbs. were
diseased or from animals that had died of disease, and the rest was
putrid. All of it was destroyed. Yesterday, a sub-committee of the
Metropolitan Plague Committee, at a meeting at the Mansion House, passed
an unanimous resolution, on the motion of Mr. Brewster, recommending
that, as unexpected and insuperable difficulties had arisen in carrying
out the purposes for which they were appointed, the money already
subscribed should be returned to the subscribers, after deducting, _pro
ratâ_, the expenses already incurred.

[V] For the disinfection of railway trucks and cattle ships, see Special
Memorandum.




THIRD PART.

_To Farmers and Graziers._


You would have had just cause to reproach me with a want of common sense
if I had obliged you to read a book of two hundred pages, and to lose
your time in looking for the advice you will require, if the cattle
plague should visit your stalls and herds, instead of being able to turn
at once to the matter which concerns you. I have taken up my pen on
purpose to be of service to you; this is my principal duty, which I am
now going to fulfil by summing up in a few pages the most important
facts which have been described in the two first parts of this work.

The cattle plague, which has lately fallen upon horned beasts, is a
plague, no doubt: but there are different species of plagues, and it is
necessary that you should know that this disease is one arising from
the absorption of seeds and germs with which the air is impregnated, and
which is drawn by the animals into their bodies when breathing the air
around them. When these germs, these infectious poisons, have penetrated
into the lungs and blood of the animals, these seeds of infection remain
there from eight to twelve days without producing any very perceptible
effects; but after that time the tainted animal becomes dejected, loses
his appetite, is seized with fever, laborious breathing, and
diarrhoea, to which sum of disorders in the health of oxen, cows, &c.,
the name of _typhus_ has been given; or, as this distemper is contagious
in the highest degree, it has also been called the _contagious typhus_.

You may compare this disease, in order to form a more precise idea of
it, to the small-pox, which sometimes afflicts your children, or to
typhoid fever. These complaints, which are familiar to most of you, have
some resemblance to the typhus of the ox. Only in the small-pox, which
is caught by contagion, and which seldom attacks more than once, like
typhus, the disease is localized on the skin; whilst in the cattle
plague the internal organs are the principal seat of the evil.

This comparison will show you at once that the cattle plague, or rather
the cattle typhus, can only be cured when the disease has run its full
course, as you have observed in a person tainted with small-pox; so that
your task must be to help the sick animal to endure his complaint until
the end, or until he is cured; and you must not attempt to check it by
violent means, for if you did you would hasten the death which you
desire to prevent. You will likewise understand that if the disease--as
is certainly the case--does not attack the same animal twice, it would
be very beneficial to inoculate the animal whilst he is sound and
healthy, whenever this scourge threatens--as in the present time--to
attack all cattle. Perhaps you may be told that inoculation, which
prevents small-pox in man, cannot be applicable to cattle; that animals
inoculated with the virus of the typhus have all died of the
consequences of the operation, and so on. To all these objections you
will answer, with that downright good sense which belongs to your class,
_that Nature cannot have two weights and two measures_; and that if the
inoculation of the typhus kills animals, whilst the inoculation of the
small-pox saves men, both maladies being governed by the same laws, it
is the inexperience of physicians, and not the operation itself, which
must be made to account for it.

In a word, to sow virus is to reap it; but there are many ways of sowing
it, and one man will reap a rich harvest, whilst another shall gather
nothing but tares. Let those unbelievers say what they like, and take my
word for it, that we shall one day cure typhus as frequently as we do
small-pox, by inoculating it, and when it appears in spite of that
course, by treating it medicinally.

This contagious disease is very frequent in certain countries,
principally in Russia and Hungary, on the banks of the great rivers
which empty themselves into the Black Sea. In those remote countries,
when the seasons are either too rainy or too hot--and you know what a
summer that of 1865 has been--the pastures generate the pestilential
poisons of the typhus, the cattle absorb these destructive principles,
and die of them.

But as the herds of cattle in those countries are bred for sale, and are
sent for that purpose to other countries, to France, Italy, England,
&c., the animals which have had the germ of the disease transport it
with them wherever they go. Thus, it is certain that some oxen conveyed
from Russia and Hungary, where the typhus frequently rages, brought the
disease with them into Great Britain in the month of last June; and as
the complaint is communicated from one animal to another, and afterwards
at great distances, it spread with great rapidity over England and
Scotland. So great are its powers of contagion, that some of the cattle
sent back from England have transmitted the disease to Holland, in the
first place, and afterwards to Belgium; and it was feared at one time
that all Europe would be invaded by it.

The first belief was--and everything tends to make good the
opinion--that the typhus originally came from abroad; but many
respectable authorities, seeing the foul and nauseous state of the
stalls and cowsheds both in London and elsewhere, the overcrowding of
the animals, and the general neglect to which they are exposed, have
asserted that the disease had its origin in London. This, we repeat, is
not likely to have been the case, but it is not absolutely impossible;
at all events, there can be no question that the grievous conditions in
which some of your brethren keep their cattle have contributed to spread
the distemper, independently of other causes.

Moreover, it is necessary to tell you, that sheep and horned cattle are
of all living animals those which are most sensitive to the influence of
contagious diseases. Every year you see instances of this fact in your
own fields and meadows. Your sheep, you all know, easily contract the
small-pox, worm diseases both on the skin and in the interior of the
body; your oxen have aphthous diseases, disorders of the blood and the
lungs, scabs and carbuncles--diseases which are all more or less
contagious, and which are generally brought on by want of care, and,
above all, by improper feeding: by which you see how much of the
sufferings of the cattle, and of the heavy losses to you which follow
them, depends upon yourselves and may be avoided. Besides, these poor
creatures, which some of you treat so harshly, are extremely
susceptible, and the blows they receive may easily affect their whole
mass of blood. You must, therefore, for your own sakes, treat them more
kindly and gently.

Therefore, the typhus which was imported from Russia into England,
finding your cattle in such wretched conditions of cleanliness and
health, was propagated amongst them with fearful rapidity. When once the
disease had developed itself within your sheds and stalls, it would have
been the wisest plan immediately to kill the sick cattle, or to treat
them medicinally, carefully abstaining from driving to market any of
your beasts which had been exposed to the contagion. But unfortunately
you did not act in this manner; many amongst you could not put up
patiently with your losses, and only consulting your private interest,
to the detriment of the general good, you sold your sick cows and oxen,
and sowing the contagion about the country and through the markets, the
scourge was soon scattered in every direction, so that instead of
stifling the disease at its birth everything was done to propagate and
diffuse it.

Now, if we add, that the germs of this typhus penetrate everywhere, that
it is sufficient to convey sick cattle along the public roads, and by
this means to pass near farms and meadows containing healthy cattle, to
transmit the contagion, that these noxious germs impregnate your own
clothes, the fleece of sheep, and every article, implement, and vehicle
used in agriculture, you cannot but see how often, though unwillingly,
you must have disseminated the evil far and wide.

The germs, the miasmata of the disease, insinuate themselves not only
upon animals and men, but they shed their virus upon the grass of the
fields, the walls of the stalls and stables, and every agricultural
utensil. Every tainted animal scatters the pestilential and contagious
germs, not only by the air he expires, but by his droppings, and after
death by his mortal remains--his hide, his horns, his entrails, his
flesh--all of which disseminate the deadly germs into the atmosphere,
which afterwards diffuses them in every direction.

The germs of this virulent distemper have no doubt smitten some cattle
which appeared in the best health and conditions, those of the rich as
well as those of the poor; but, just in the same manner as the cholera
chiefly fixes itself upon the sickly, the ill-fed, the unclean, upon
those who live in crowded dwellings and badly ventilated rooms; so, too,
does the typhus choose its victims among the stalls and stables of those
graziers who keep their cows tied up for years to the rack, giving them
neither air nor exercise, and feeding them, not on that diet which their
health requires, but on those things which add to their milk and
increase their flesh. It follows, of course, that the greater number of
these cows, more or less disordered by this long course of baleful
treatment, and many of which die of consumption, after their
deteriorated milk has infused into men the seeds of diseases, must
afford an easy prey to the typhus, _to receive which they seem almost
expressly to have been trained_.

It is highly important then, farmers and graziers, that you should be
able to recognise this ox-typhus; in the first place, that you may take
the necessary measures to prevent its contagion; and secondly, that you
may apply the treatment which shall have been recommended to you.

You must at all times, but above all when the contagious disease is
raging, keep a watchful eye on your cattle. If you notice in their gait,
in their looks, about their ears, any unusual signs; if they seem to you
less eager, less active, less vigilant, if they leave any part of their
rations when in the stables, or if, when in the fields, they no longer
browse with that continual alacrity which sometimes it is difficult to
divert them from, be upon your guard, and dread the outbreak of the
complaint. If to these changes of minor importance is added an appetite
really less acute, if the rumination is less regular, if the animal
looks sad and dispirited, if he exhibits an unwonted look of gloom, if
his leaden eye continues fixed, astonished, be sure a morbid change is
inwardly at work, and that this cruel distemper is spreading through his
frame.

By-and-bye the animal loses his appetite more and more; rumination is
shorter and less frequent; he holds his head down, his ears sink and
fall; he grinds his teeth. Then as to the cows: their milk, which was
already diminished, suddenly dries up altogether, and that lowness of
spirits which had been visible for some days before, passes into stupor.
If at this time you touch their horns, their extremities, their hide in
any part, you find that all these different parts are sometimes warm,
sometimes cold. From this day forward you will witness, one by one, a
succession of disorders in the animal's health: partial shiverings at
the attachment of the fore and hind limbs, loud panting breathing, with
slight cough, the urine scanty and thick, the droppings hard and
constipated, and finally, general excessive warmth. If you press the
back the pressure will be painful, and all the signs of intense fever
will be manifest.

Already these indications have divulged the nature of the malady you
have to deal with; but others more significant succeed them which remove
every doubt. The breathing becomes more hurried and oppressed, more
puffy; from the eyes, nostrils, and mouth there issues a discharge
which, thin and irritant at first, soon becomes thick and purulent, and
of a fetid smell. Diarrhoea takes the place of constipation; the
sexual organs of the cow are red and inflamed, and furrowed with livid
streaks. The cattle grow leaner and leaner, some of them dying at this
period. If they still hold out, the diarrhoea becomes more frequent,
more fetid, and sometimes bloody; gases are developed under the skin,
along the spine, where they form wide flat tumours, which crackle when
pressed upon with the fingers. Finally, the mucus which runs from the
head becomes still thicker and more fetid; a glutinous foam stops up the
mouth; the eyes, filled with humour, sink in the orbit; the bodily
warmth decreases, the animal sways his head from right to left, becomes
insensible, cold; his head lolls on one side, and he dies, panting, from
exhaustion and asphyxia, the tenth or twelfth day after the disease has
been confirmed.

The carcass exhibits a repulsive appearance; the hide is dry,
excoriated, and cracked; it sticks to the bones, which show the form of
a skeleton, and the putrid decomposition, which had already set in
before death, seizes rapidly on all the tissues.

The course of the disease is not always the same. Sometimes the animal
is agitated at first, and all the functions of life are so disturbed
that death comes on in the two or three first days. At other times, the
lungs are more affected than the other internal organs; the cough is
more intense, the breath hurried and obstructed, the excess of mucus
preventing the air from passing into the chest.

When once you have seen this disease it is impossible to mistake it for
any other, unless it be the chest complaint called peripneumonia, which
is likewise contagious. But in this disease, as the Report of the Royal
Agricultural Society states, the attack is generally insidious; the eyes
preserve their vivacity, and the appetite is not lost until towards the
close. A short, dry cough shows itself from the outbreak, and persists.
The breathing is frequent and painful; the sides of the chest when
struck with the fingers give out the hard, solid sound of a full barrel,
this percussion being painful. The eyes, nose, and mouth do not
discharge those purulent secretions seen in typhus; the diarrhoea only
comes on at the end, being less frequent and fetid. In the milch cows
the milk decreases, but is not quite suppressed. The heat of the horns
and lower extremities is retained. The peripneumonia, in a word, runs
its course more regularly, and carries off the animal about the fourth
week. Thus it will be seen that the two distempers widely differ in
their symptoms.

Every beast which dies of the contagious typhus, bears on its digestive
organs the traces of the malady, more or less strongly marked. The third
and fourth stomachs and the intestines exhibit red or livid patches, and
at other times ulcerations.

The cattle plague is by far the most formidable malady which can affect
animals. When left to itself, or treated without discernment, it carries
off ninety cattle out of a hundred. In prior visitations, especially
that of 1750, when six millions of horned beasts were swept off in
Europe, England lost from three to four hundred thousand; and we may
suppose that the number of cattle which have perished since last June
exceeds sixty thousand.

_The treatment_ is very difficult, owing to the contagious character of
the disease, and it has given rise to much discussion. In some
countries, the governments, considering the distemper incurable, only
seek to stamp it out wherever it may appear. They slaughter all the sick
cattle, and even those which had come near them, allowing a compensation
of half the value of the beast. This measure has not always proved
successful, the disease having in spite of it sometimes extended over
the whole of the country thus defended from its diffusion.

England protected by the sea, and which has been spared for a century,
was taken somewhat unawares, so that some uncertainty has been witnessed
in the measures employed to arrest its course. In some districts, the
parties interested have had the good sense to form assurance funds; and
it is much to be regretted that the same plan has not been adopted for
the metropolis.

But we cannot help what has been done; let us, therefore, be reconciled
with the past, and see what is best to be done in future for the
interests of all. What is the present state of the matter? A certain
number of districts, both in England and Scotland, are still exempt from
the typhus; in others the disease is generally extending its ravages.

Those districts which hitherto have been spared, should institute
assurance funds, and take every precaution to secure themselves against
this scourge. In France, in Belgium, even in Great Britain, some places
managed, in 1750, to successfully protect themselves by prohibiting the
importation of any foreign cattle or animal. These preventive measures
may now be taken with some chance of success in certain parts. Ireland,
which, thanks to the published Orders in Council, seems to have escaped
up to this time from the contagion, shows us the effectual results of
these sanitary measures.

As for the districts already infected, it is of the highest importance
to send no more tainted beasts to the different fairs and markets,
otherwise the distemper will spread indefinitely: the unsold cattle, the
sheep, the pigs, which are placed only a few yards apart, must
necessarily convey the contagion everywhere. It would even be necessary
at this time not to collect oxen and other animals together in the same
markets; we urgently invite the attention of all public authorities to
this most important question.

At all events, the farmers and graziers who, after all the cautions they
have received, all the orders which have been published, and all the
dangers which have been clearly exposed to them, should still persist in
driving their cattle out of their abodes, would deserve censure, and
ought to be heavily fined. The best they can do, since the contagion has
not been prevented, is to submit their cattle to the treatment which we
are now going to explain to them in detail.

It has been abundantly proved by the many convictions at the various
police courts, that the flesh of cattle seriously diseased has been sold
to the consumers, to the great injury of the public health; and if the
cholera, which is steadily and surely advancing towards us, should mix
its fatal germs with those of the ox-typhus, we must all expect
deplorable consequences, in case the flesh of tainted oxen should
continue to be sold by the butchers, as during the last three months it
has been.

Every farmer or grazier who shall have fully ascertained that the ox
typhus has insinuated itself into his farm or his stables, must
instantly have recourse to the necessary measures and safeguards by
means of which he may limit its pernicious influence, and prevent the
spread of the contagion to his other cattle still sound and healthy. Let
him immediately divide his stock of animals into three classes or
lots--the first class must consist of healthy cattle, having had no
direct contact with the infected beasts; the second class must contain
those cattle which, though not yet sick, may become so, because they
have been in contact with those tainted; the third class will be
composed of cattle smitten with the typhus.

The sound and healthy cattle forming the first class must be removed
from the farm, and driven to the field separately, by some other road,
in different pastures, and only after the dispersion of the morning
mists. Those which are accustomed to continue at the rack must be taken
out twice a day, for the twofold object of taking wholesome exercise,
and allowing their stalls and sheds to be cleaned.

Their feeding must be attended to and watched with very particular care;
the rations of those which were being fattened up must be decreased, and
they ought to be sold to the butcher for consumption as soon as
possible. Let the following provisions be added to their daily
sustenance:

  Pounded oats                 4 pounds.
  Pounded juniper berries      1 pound.
  Powdered gentian             1 ounce.
  Sulphate of iron             2 drachms.
  Carbonate of soda            2   "

The herdsman who tends the cattle whilst feeding in the fields must have
them cleaned every day: he will carefully wash and scrub them; he will
not allow them to drink out of the ponds, or at any stagnant and muddy
watercourse.

Those belonging to the second class must receive the same strengthening
and tonic ration in the morning; and, twice every day, one of the
following anti-contagious preparations: either a solution of _chlorate
of potash_ or of _permanganate of potash_; two drachms of either of
these salts dissolved in eight ounces of warm water, mixed afterwards
with a gallon of an infusion of sage or hyssop, just at the time when
the drink is given to them.

Or you may employ, for the same purpose, a solution of arseniate of
soda--two grains dissolved in four ounces of water, and mixed with
their drink in the same way. You need hardly be told that these doses
must be reduced one half, when you have to treat a calf or a heifer, and
that the same diminution will hold good, in their cases, for all other
medicaments. _The use of these anti-contagious drinks is of the highest
importance; I recommend you earnestly to study their effects, and to
continue them even after the distemper shall have broken out._

These drinks having no disagreeable taste, the cattle take to them in
general; should the contrary be the case, give them in a bottle as all
men who are cattle owners know how to do.

If the health of any of these animals among which the outbreak of the
typhus is apprehended should seem below the standard, you must apply a
purgative to those whose bowels do not operate well, and even have
recourse to bleeding in exceptional cases.

During the absence of those cattle which are undergoing the preventive
treatment, let the hygienic conditions of their stalls and sheds be
looked to; for no circumstance must be overlooked or neglected if we
hope to withstand the propagation of so formidable a malady. Be careful
to take out the litter every day, to wash the floor and cleanse it of
the droppings, to ventilate the place thoroughly, to fumigate it with
burnt sulphur or aromatic plants, such as juniper berries, sage,
rosemary, salted with nitrate of potash and arsenic acid; in order to
promote the combustion and give effect to its disinfectious properties.
At night, camphor or tar, or naphthaline, or creosote, or even iodine,
may be left in the stable to diffuse their vapours; all these measures
are very effectual in modifying the air.

Let us now see what must be done with respect to the sick animals
themselves.

The typhus, as we have said, when once it is developed in an ox or cow,
usually pursues its fatal course until the last period of its cure;
generally death alone can arrest its march. Besides, the disorders which
this disease produces in the various functions of the body are not the
same at the different stages of its duration. Thus, for instance, the
fever produces great excitement in the beginning, but later it produces
exhaustion. Without being a physician, a man can understand that the
treatment to be applied to these different states ought not to be the
same. We must, moreover, observe that the typhus is of all known
distempers the most difficult to treat. It requires in the doctor a
degree of skill, of practical experience, vigilance, decision, and
sureness of hand which no man can be expected to possess at the first
outbreak of the epizootia.

On the other hand, the constitution of the ox, so easily shaken,
undergoes in two weeks all the commotion which a man labouring under
typhoid fever would be subject to in a month. The phenomena succeed each
other with terrific swiftness, leaving scarcely time for us to act, or
for the medicines to operate. Do not, therefore, marvel at the great
mortality among your cattle, and at my repeated recommendations of the
preventive treatment by means of inoculation.

At the outbreak, you must reduce the violence of the fever, prevent the
derangements in connexion with the nervous centres, assuage the thirst,
empty the stomachs and intestines, which will be the principal seat of
the complaint, and sometimes let blood.

But how are you to obtain these results? By abolishing the solid
feeding, which is easily done, since the animal has lost his appetite.
Give him to drink, three or four times a day, half a pailful of a
decoction of good hay, adding thereto a sprinkling of salt; or a
decoction of wall-wort, with a drachm of nitrate of potash; or water
whitened with bran and flour, or whey, with a little vinegar. If the
animal has a tendency to cold, if he coughs, if his breathing is
oppressed, give him warm drinks, consisting of an infusion of mallow
leaves and borage, or else a light decoction of barley and oats, and
cover the animal's body warmly over.

Now, with respect to purgatives: give the animal, night and morning,
according to the effect produced, 6 or 8 ounces of Epsom salts (sulphate
of magnesia), or an equal dose of Glauber's salt (sulphate of soda),
dissolved in two pints of honey-coloured water; or 12 ounces of linseed
oil in some warm drink; or a decoction of senna leaves and prunes, with
an ounce of sulphate of soda added thereto.

We might point out a larger number of purgatives, but we shall desist
from so doing. Those which we have just prescribed, not being irritant
to the intestines, are the best which can be employed.

If the animal is very restive, if he passes through alternate fits of
dejection, stupor, and great excitement, you must have recourse to
bleeding, particularly local bleeding, by opening the small veins of the
head. If the excitement does not abate you must add, night and morning,
to one of his drinks, 2 grains of extract of belladonna, or a half ounce
of powdered belladonna leaves. If the fever, at first, is irregular, and
tends to become malignant, you must then have recourse to sulphate of
quinine, 20 grains in the morning, and the same quantity during the day.

When the disease is principally seated in the lungs, add to one of the
pectoral drinks 4 ounces of oxymel of squills, and 2 grains of opium,
giving also an emetic--5 grains of tartar-emetic to 4 pints of water--to
be taken in four times, at intervals of two hours.

Whilst this medication is applied to the internal organs, let the animal
have unusual care taken of him; let his head be washed several times a
day with vinegar and water.

Such is the course of treatment to be adopted during the first three or
four days. It must be, of course, followed methodically, watching and
obeying the signs of nature. The purgatives must not be given on those
days when the sick animal is bled, and the doses must vary with the
effects they produce.

From the fourth to the seventh day the symptoms change, diarrhoea
shows itself, and the running appears at the nose, mouth, and eyes; you
must then continue the use of purgatives, but the dose must be weaker.
Those mentioned above are suitable in every way. The drinks, too,
continue the same. Sometimes, at this period of the disease, the animal
is utterly cast down, nothing can draw him from his stupor: he lies down
the whole day; in this case you give him acetate of ammonia, from 1 to 6
ounces, in a pint of water, gradually increasing from 1 to 2 ounces a
day, according to the effect produced; and meanwhile, plain
non-acidulated drinks should be administered.

At this stage of the disease it is right to assist the depurative work
of nature. This is effected by inserting a seton in the neck, and the
secretion of this issue is kept up by means of such an ointment as the
basilicon with powdered cantharides. Finally, the mouth, nose, and eyes
must be washed very often with an infusion of camomile and sage.

At the last period of the distemper, the beast sinks into a state of
general exhaustion; his life seems all but extinguished through excess
of weakness. You must now sustain and keep him up by every possible
contrivance; give him bitter and stimulating drinks, beer diluted with
water, adding thereto some powder of Peruvian bark, or sulphate of
quinine. This is prepared by steeping in 8 pints of boiling water,
Peruvian bark, gentian root, centaury leaves and flowers, and hops, 1
ounce of each; or else prepare a drink consisting of veterinary treacle,
extract of juniper, 1 ounce of each, dissolved in 2 ounces of alcohol,
and then mixed with 3 pints of water.

When the diarrhoea becomes fetid and bloody, give, night and morning,
a clyster composed of a decoction of Peruvian bark, and a teaspoonful of
powdered charcoal from the poplar, well sifted. If the running from the
nostrils begins to stop, you must inject into the nasal orifices some
spoonfuls of a sternutatory solution, thus composed--

  Spanish pepper                 1 ounce.
  Essence of turpentine          1   "
  Camphor                        2 drachms.
  Vinegar                        2 pints.

Should any sores form on the skin, or should they arise from the opening
of purulent deposits, dress them with the following ointment--

  Acetate of copper             ½ a drachm.
  Calcined alum                 20 grains.
  Sal ammoniac                  20   "
  Camphor                       ½ a drachm.
  Common ointment               ½ an ounce.

If the natural heat diminishes greatly, if the chill reaches the hams
and skin, let the beast be rubbed all over, three times a day, with
wool, moistened with the following liniment--

  Laurel oil                    ½ an ounce.
  Green soap                    ½     "
  Volatile oil of lavender      ½ a drachm.
  Solution of ammonia           ½     "

Simultaneously with the above, give the following cordial, to be drunk
in two draughts--

  Cinnamon                      ½ an ounce.
  Extract of gentian            1 ounce.
  Red wine                      2 pints.

Should the animal fall into a state of lethargy, you must have recourse
to strokes of fire, according to surgical usage.

This distemper must extend to its extreme degree of gravity before it
advances towards its cure; you need, therefore, not despair until the
last moment. At this period of exhaustion, the drinks above-mentioned
are given up, or you add nutritive beverages to them, such as beef-tea,
fat soups, milk, and farinaceous drinks.

If the animal holds on, and his appetite returns, which will be shown by
the desquamation of the nostrils, by the return of rumination, by the
habit of the beast to look right and left, to question you in a manner,
add cut straw to his nutritive drinks: send him out every day into the
open air, and let him return by slow degrees to his habitual feeding.
But it is extremely important to watch the intestinal functions; to
diminish and change the food, if the diarrhoea returns; as such
relapses often cause the death of an animal considered out of danger.

Such, then, farmers and graziers, is the treatment to be opposed to the
ox typhus: it is simple as respects the remedies, and I have deemed that
it ought to be so, in order that the medicines prescribed might be had
everywhere, and at a cost which the poor man could command as well as
the rich. The disease is variable, it is not always equally deadly; and
there comes a moment when in some sort it cures itself, with a little
assistance and watching. The great point is, to be careful and vigilant,
to attend to nature and the instincts of the suffering cattle, and lend
yourselves to both.

I cannot reproduce here the instructions given by the Privy Council to
protect your cattle from contagion, and above all not to propagate it,
but I shall refer you to Doctor Thudichum's _Memorandum_, page 257. This
exposition is too complete to need anything added to it by me; study it
well; let it be your monitor and guide; read it over again and again;
your own interests and those of the whole country depend on the manner
in which you shall treat this admirable warning.

There are in this disease, as in every other, unforeseen varieties and
complications, such as those which are brought on by the gestation and
abortion of cows, and those proceeding from prior disease; for these
accidents you will provide. Moreover, such a terrible distemper can only
be treated according to the advice of a professional man. Call him in,
then, follow his advice and prescriptions with rigid exactness, and do
not attempt to do better than he; and, above all, arm yourselves against
the insidious pretensions of quacks and charlatans, whatever mantle they
may put on to hide their ignorance.




FOURTH PART.

    _Suggestions on the Improvements to be effected in the Study
      of Medical Science, in order that we may be in a Condition
      to confront Diseases generally, but Epizootic and Epidemic
      Diseases in particular._


The epizootia of bovine typhus which is now extending its unrestricted
ravages over this island, and which has assumed the magnitude of a
general calamity, has naturally excited and stirred up the public mind.
Thoughtful and earnest men could not look on and witness unmoved the
ever progressive march of the scourge; but each observer has,
consistently with his means and qualifications, striven to find a remedy
to resist the evil. Thus, we have seen, and with respectful interest we
have watched, the gentlemen of the press, and other men of letters,
economists, scientific men, and, above all, physicians, producing from
day to day in the newspapers articles and letters of remarkable merit
on the all-engrossing subject of this epizootia. The re-opening of the
medical colleges furnished the skilful professors at their head with a
seasonable opportunity to consider this dire distemper, according to the
views of general pathology and medical philosophy, and this they have
done with unquestionable talent and ability. Still, something remains to
be said on this important matter, and since I have taken up my pen, like
others, I wish to mingle my voice with that of my brethren, and inquire
whether the time is not come to avail ourselves more fully than we have
done yet of the grand discoveries of the exact sciences, which, with
respect to the science of medicine, are the instruments of its progress.
And my object in doing so, is, that we may, as far as possible, rise to
a level with the ordeal which the future may have in store for us.

Medicine is at once an art and a science. An art it has been at all
times, and in every age of civilized man; but it became a science only
when human knowledge had acquired a certain expansion; when natural
phenomena had been tested and explained; when mathematics, physics,
chemistry, botany, general anatomy, general pathology, had enabled the
inquiring physician to study with important results whatever belongs to
his theme; to understand the serial chain and connexion of bodies with
each other, in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, and to
investigate their immutable laws. Uric acid, as we see with the
microscope, will always crystallize in rhombohedrons, according to a
fixed law; the vegetable cell, the germination of a seed, must obey, and
always submit to, the innate and indestructible forces inherent in them.
That which is true in the vegetable is true in the animal world, as
regards the pre-established order which regulates and controls the
phenomena of life. These laws which govern the development of organic
phenomena being immutable and everlasting, permit the different
generations which succeed each other on our globe to build upon a
durable basis, which certifies to the slow and laborious, but
irresistible march of human progress.

Medical science being in truth only the application of other positive
sciences to the preservation of health and the cure of diseases,
continues like them to perfect itself incessantly; but all it can do is
to follow them at a distance, and it can never hope to reach their
degree of superiority.

These are truths which have been long admitted and felt by us.
Therefore, we have appealed for assistance to the discoveries of the
natural sciences: physics, chemistry, have in our hands become effectual
means of observation and analysis; and we, in our age, gain more
knowledge in fifty years than our forefathers did in several centuries,
for they were then necessarily rather artists than scholars. In a word,
medical science or biology is constituting itself, and if it be fully
conscious of its impotence in the case of many diseases, it also knows
its progressive improvement. It is striving to achieve the highest place
among social institutions, and the day may come when it shall obtain it,
for nations will then owe to us their health and life--that is to say,
their earthly happiness.

The laws by which organic phenomena are regulated, are, we have said,
everlasting; we may also declare that they are general. One of these
laws common to the plant, to the shell, to every species of vertebrata,
reappears in man, whose organization comprises all the functions divided
among the other organic kingdoms. Not only does the organization of man
obey the laws which govern the vital phenomena of other animals; not
only does he possess their organs and functions, but he is a tributary
subject to their diseases. So that the knowledge of the laws affecting
the functions and diseases of those creatures which are placed below him
in the scale of animals ought to be the first foundation of all medical
study.

These truths are too manifest to be new; they are written and professed
everywhere, and every one amongst us has received general notions of
comparative anatomy and physiology at the beginning of his course of
study. But let us admit that these notions only served to expand the
circle of our knowledge and ideas, and that we seldom or never apply
them to the practice of our art. It would have been very different had
we received at the beginning of our medical novitiate, not merely in
theory and books, but practically and experimentally, precise notions of
anatomy, physiology, and, let me add, of the _pathology of all
animals_. Let us suppose for a moment that the task had been imposed
upon us before entering upon the study of human maladies, to observe the
structure of plants and animals, to submit their tissues to
microscopical examination and chemical analysis; to study experimentally
all their functions and diseases, and acknowledge that had such been the
case, the anatomy, physiology; and pathology of man would have been far
better understood, and that most of the difficulties against which we
now contend in vain in our helplessness, might easily have been
overcome.

Comparative anatomy and physiology are the first conditions of all
medical instruction of a serious character; there can be no doubt on the
subject, but the evidence being not perhaps so palpable with respect to
comparative pathology, it will not be useless, therefore, to enter into
fuller particulars as to this subject.

We know not whether any one has ever sought to retrace the first origin
of our diseases in the animal kingdom, but it would undoubtedly be a
study of great scientific interest. As for us, we gladly believe that
man, created to be the sovereign lord of the earth, did not originally
receive the principle of every organic disease with which we see him
affected. It seems to us probable that he was created sound in body and
in mind, but unequal is his vital powers, and in his faculties and
talents, the social functions being various and dissimilar, and subject
to physical and moral infirmities. We think it likely that plants and
animals, from which, in course of time, man's substance is formed, have
transmitted the first causes, the germs of some organic diseases with
which they were themselves affected. We see in this transmission of
animal diseases to man, a connecting link, which appears to us to be a
condition of harmony, order, peace, and happiness among all living
beings. It seems to us that the first injunction of a legislator should
be--_love other animals like yourselves_; for if man had practised this
maxim, he would have logically applied the same to his fellow-creatures;
and no doubt, with such principles to guide them, past generations would
not have bequeathed to us the innumerable calamities we have had to
deplore.

We think that we receive from animals some of their diseases, because
the fact is palpably evident; thus they have parasitical diseases, such
as favus, tænia, psora, trichinosis, which they transmit to us. They are
likewise smitten with small-pox, typhoid fever, and with typhus; and
under certain given conditions they may transmit them to us. They die of
consumption and cancer, and it is probable that they transfuse into us
through their milk and flesh the germs of these diseases. Finally, we
have our epidemics as they have their epizootics; and here we will limit
our instances of this reciprocation.

It is certain that the study of these maladies in animals would have
been for us the source of precise knowledge, which, if well understood
and explained, would have often led to their preventive treatment. This
is what has occurred in the case of small-pox; it is what will one day
occur in typhoid fever, in times of epidemic, as will be the case in a
certain number of other general or local diseases.

In truth, some complaints now looked upon as inherent to the human
species, were originally foreign to it; most parasitical diseases
belong to this class. Thus man has not the _psora_, or itch--the
disease does not properly belong to him; the parasite which engenders it
is not bred in him, it is always transmitted to him by animals. It is
the same with the tænia, or tape-worm, with the trichina, or fine
hair-worm.

Medical science, instituted on the bases of comparative pathology, would
have made the study of diseases in the brute creation, not the
collateral, but the principal object of its inquiries. It would have
applied itself to the cure of the lower animals; and whilst learning to
cure them, it would have ensured the cure of men's diseases.

If such be the case, can any one believe that the treatment of diathetic
and hereditary maladies would be, as they still are, insoluble problems;
and that the physician would have the misery of seeing decimated, whilst
he helplessly looks on, a large part of the population, condemned
inevitably to die of consumption and cancer? Would every man smitten
with hydrophobia be irrevocably condemned to death? Assuredly, it would
not be so.

That the physician should have been reduced to the painful necessity of
confessing his want of means, when medicine could be nothing more than
an art, we admit; but now that science has grown up and come of age,
society has a right to challenge him to do, what in past ages could not
have been expected of him. Briefly, we think that the time is come, by
blending comparative pathology with anatomy and physiology, to construct
one of the bases of the tripod on which medical science will have to
rest. The success which has already been achieved in this direction is a
certain guarantee for those which we may hope for hereafter.

Such is our deep conviction, and perhaps we have some title to speak out
decidedly on this point, as we have long since exemplified our precepts
by actual proofs.

Persuaded for many years that comparative pathology afforded to
industrious men a new mine, rich in precious veins for working, we
several times endeavoured to explore this fertile field. But,
unfortunately, our means of action not being consistent with our
sanguine expectations, we were repeatedly compelled to suspend our
pursuits, until at last we found at the Ecole Vétérinaire d'Alfort, the
favourable opportunity and the essential conditions of which we had so
long been in quest.

Grieved at our helplessness to stay the ravages of pulmonary
consumption, I formed one day the resolution to study that wasteful
complaint in animals in order to discover, or at least to look for, the
required remedy. With that view, I confined in a dark, cold, and damp
cellar a number of animals to practise on: birds of different species,
rabbits, a monkey, a dog, &c. To these animals I dealt out a deficient
quantity of food. The monkey, as might have been expected, was the first
to be affected, since in our climates they all die of consumption. Next,
and for the same reason, it was the parrot's turn; then the chickens and
ducks died; after them the rabbits;--in fine, at the end of fourteen
months, the dog alone survived. All the rest had sunk under consumption,
and exhibited tubercles in different organs--in the lungs or mesentery.

It was then necessary to have the counter-proof: to place a second set
of animals in the same conditions, to produce the disease again, and
attempt its cure. But the first experiment had been a long one, and I
was forced to relinquish the inquiry, which, moreover, was above my
means at that period.

On another occasion, it seemed to me strange that we should be obliged
to open the bladder of patients suffering from the stone, or to subject
them to lithotrity, which has also its perils. Nature, I said to myself,
forms calculi by uniting organic elements, by crystallizing them, and by
cementing them with vesical mucus. But would it not be possible to cure
the disease by employing contrary means--dissolving the calculi in the
bladder by means of continued injections, changing the chemical agents
according to the composition of the calculus, and adding thereto the
action of a galvanic current?

After this, I pursued my inquiry in this direction. I studied for
several months the chemical composition of calculi by examining them in
their dissolved state; and I saw that those in which the alkaline bases
prevailed, being submitted to a diluted solution of tartaric acid, which
would not injure the bladder, crumbled after a time; that the calculi
with excess of acid were also attacked by an alkaline solution; in
fine, that the calculi of oxalate of lime alone seemed to resist the
action of these chemical solutions. But it is well known that they
sometimes defy all lithotrite instruments, and compel us to have
recourse to the knife.

These preliminary experiments over, it was necessary to come to their
application, and for that purpose to make experiments on some animals.
The canine species, omnivorous like ourselves, was chosen in preference.
Bitches were selected to be practised on; for as their urinary passages
are wider and more flexible, it enabled me to insert in the bladder
fragments of calculi already analysed, which were to serve as the nuclei
to the stones they were intended to develop.

This second assortment of animals, penned up apart from each other, were
supplied with different modes of sustenance: some of them were put upon
a diet of meat only, others on a farinaceous diet, and a third set on a
mixed course of food. These experiments were being regularly followed
up, when an important and unforeseen event compelled me to desist at the
end of six months. The poor animals were destroyed; but all of them, as
I had anticipated, had generated calculi of various chemical
composition.

These unfinished inquiries concerning comparative pathology, thus
interrupted in spite of myself, might, had circumstances allowed them to
reach the goal, have authorized us to undertake in man the dissolution
of stone in the bladder. And how would this have been effected? By
seizing the stone between the two ends of the catheter with the double
current, and by injecting a well-sustained series of dissolvents into
the patient, whilst lying at his ease in a recumbent posture.

Nor is this all. They would likewise, I believe, have thrown some light
on the organic production of calculi, on the lithic diathesis, and the
particular formation of the stone; and led us, in some degree, to their
preventive treatment, which is always superior to the curative remedy.

On a subsequent occasion, I betook myself to my task under more
favourable conditions. I undertook at Alfort, conjointly with Professor
Delafond, a course of experiments on the cutaneous diseases of animals
in relation to comparative pathology, having already, whilst walking
the hospitals, published a work on the "Entomology and Pathology of
Psora in Man," which had been printed at the expense of the Academy.

These inquiries and examinations at Alfort were persisted in for five
years, and were considered to have led to very satisfactory results as
regards general pathology. But I have spoken of these labours in the
first part of my book.

Pardon me, reader, and do not suppose that vanity or any desire to
parade myself has induced me to refer to these experiments. No; my only
object is to show to what results similar studies might lead, if they
were executed on a large scale and on the whole animal kingdom; if,
instead of these partial efforts made under favour, some special and
appropriate medical institution encouraged earnest experimentalists,
supplying them without stint with all necessary resources, and with the
best and completest instruments of observation.

Will any one deny, that if medical science had been settled on this
foundation fifty years ago--that is to say, since the exact sciences
first began to provide us with the means of investigation, it would now
be so impotent? Epizootias and epidemics would not thus flout us as they
do; the cholera would no longer be an enigma, nor the ox typhus so
incurable. No! a hundred times no! Medical science would not he helpless
and impotent in our day, had our forerunners been more mindful and
provident.

But, instead of this, the science for which we plead would have done
good work. It would have made and confirmed an infinite variety of
observations on the brute creation; it would have transmitted our
diseases to them as they transmit their diseases to us; it would have
treated and cured these diseases, and every such cure would have been a
new triumph, a new victory for mankind.

For instance, during an outbreak of cholera, this science would have
been ready and prepared to try different experiments on men and animals;
it would first have communicated the cholera to animals, and then
submitted them to a variety of experimental treatments. This cholera,
which is not an infectious fever, with its regular and assigned periods,
like typhus, and which we are not obliged to suffer to run its course,
but which, on the contrary, is a nervous affection produced by some
poisonous miasma, the toxical effects of which first of all assail the
nervous system and then more particularly the great sympathetic; the
cramps being but the result of a reflective action--_this cholera, we
say, must be curable_, and well-advised experiments would reveal the
remedy we want for it, nor should we have to wait long for the
revelation.

As for me, I once made a desperate attempt in this direction. It was
during the cholera of 1854. We remarked whilst dissecting subjects, as
is always the case, that the mucous membranes of the stomach and
intestines, which were in a manner paralyzed, had suffered the fluid
parts of the blood to ooze out on the surface. Hence the cause of those
vomitings, and those watery and colourless diarrhoeas which nothing
can stop, so that at a given moment the patients die, poisoned, of
course, but dying more particularly through want of circulation, the
blood being reduced to its solid parts and unable to circulate any
longer. Relying on this fact, and trusting for want of better to the
secondary effects, I strove to restore to the blood its aqueous part,
and, if possible, to re-establish the circulation.

With this view, I went to the Hôpital de la Charité, provided with all
the requisite instruments. Choleraic patients were being brought there
every hour. The experiments being new, venturesome, and _dangerous_, in
the eyes of the hospital directors, I was only suffered to operate on
the moribund. The first patient, considered to be in a state
sufficiently desperate to be given up to me, was a woman, forty-five
years old. She was literally insensible, and thoroughly cold. I
hesitated for a moment to try the operation under conditions so
unreasonable, so preposterous--almost upon a corpse. The radial arteries
in the arm had ceased to beat, and the heart alone kept up a feeble
circulation at the central parts. At length I opened the vein, from
which not a single drop of blood proceeded, and taking the usual
measures to prevent the air from having access, I gradually and slowly
injected two ounces of alkaline solution, the process of injection
lasting twelve minutes. It was scarcely over before the patient
half-opened her eyelids, and looked about her with astonishment; the
pulse became perceptible for a few moments, and all present thought she
was saved. We put a few questions to her; the patient could not answer
us, but she nodded as much as to say "yes," when asked if she felt
better. But this was all we could do in her case. The circulation
stopped again, the patient relapsed into her state of insensibility and
died two hours after the injection.

The result obtained in this instance had not answered our expectation.
However, the circulation had for a minute or two resumed its course, and
a flash of reason had once more shown itself.

I thought the experiment ought to be repeated, and accordingly the next
morning I made another trial. The patient this time was a working
shoemaker, thirty-eight years of age, exactly in the same far-gone,
hopeless state as the patient of the day before. In his case, the inward
commotion caused by the injection was more powerful; twenty minutes
after the injection he was able to see, to understand, to speak, to
raise his head; but this vital recovery was, as in the former case, but
of short continuance, and two hours and a half after the operation the
man expired.

After these experiments I dissected the two bodies, and then, finding
that their lungs were infiltrated with water, I understood that the
alkaline solution had not been assimilated, that it had stopped in its
passage into the pulmonary parenchyma, to the detriment of the functions
of the hæmatosis. I also understood that the proper injection, instead
of distilled alkaline water, would have been the serum of the blood,
drawn at the very moment from some man or animal.

The conclusion which I drew from these experiments was that a variety of
operations, made at different stages of the malady, might lead to
beneficial results, especially if we succeeded in transmitting the
cholera to animals, as that would enable us to test a large number of
curative agents and to pursue a methodical course of experimentalization.

From all I have said, I infer that life, health, and disease, being
subject to the same laws throughout the whole animal kind, it is certain
that the physician should possess precise knowledge as to the
organization, the functions, and diseases of animals. That by proceeding
in this manner, we shall advance from the simple to the complex, from
the plant to the animal, and from the animal to man. That we must of
necessity emerge from the state in which we are now entangled BY FOUNDING
AND ESTABLISHING IN LONDON A COLLEGE OF THE NATURAL AND MEDICAL SCIENCES.
Every medical pupil might spend two years in this college, receiving in
it an experimental and practical training; he would devote himself in it
to the chemical analysis of all bodies, to physiological experiments and
tests, without limit and of every kind.

Most deeply do I appreciate the many difficulties and obstacles that
would interfere with the execution of such a design. In our civilized
age, nations seem rather bent on seeking out the means of exterminating
each other than of protecting themselves and animals from epidemics and
epizootias. It is believed that every first-rate kingdom now spends from
400 to 500 millions of francs (16 to 20,000,000_l._) annually in
maintaining their land and sea forces, whilst one-half of their
populations are living in misery and ignorance, in disease and
corruption. The time is not come--shall we ever see it?--to employ the
vital powers of the peoples, to better incessantly their social
condition. Perhaps, by reason of its organization, the Government of
this country would not be authorized to devote 100,000_l._ or
200,000_l._ to the establishment of an institution like the medical
college I suggest, notwithstanding its paramount necessity. But England
is in the habit of doing great things independently of the Government.
In default of the ruling powers, then, let me appeal to the national
initiative, for if the spectacle which we are at present witnessing was
not, in the case of England, one of those trials which invigorate a
people by the salutary teachings which they bring; if it did not induce
them to take some energetic resolution by which their interests would be
saved and their power enlarged, it would indeed be a deplorable sign of
the times and make us despair of its future.

Moreover, to show the urgency of founding a _College of Natural and
Medical Science_, let us add, that in every other country they are
endeavouring to unite this indispensable complement to medical
education. The German universities, the Faculty of Paris, have, for
several years past, incorporated a course of comparative pathology, with
the other series of public lectures.

It is not a mere Utopia that we propose, but an extension and
improvement, all the parts of which are already prepared. If this
College could be thrown open to-morrow, competent professors would be
ready at the call of duty to indite the programme for this instruction
within twenty-four hours; and as for the professors themselves, there
would be enough to choose among the large body of efficient scholars who
do honour to the country.

If we have been rightly understood, we desire to see established in
London an institution which would afford an equivalent to what exists in
Paris, at the Museum and Collège de France, where numerous courses of
lectures on anatomy, physiology, physics, and chemistry are given. Only
in London this special college would be formed and organized on such a
scale as to bear away the palm from every previous foundation of the
same kind; it would be an institution unexampled in the world, out of
whose halls would one day come anatomists, physiologists, and
pathologists of the very highest order of excellence.--But organic
matter would not be the sole object of this instruction, for the animal
is something more than matter. Courses of medical history and
philosophy, of really general pathology, would introduce the students to
the grand phenomena of nature, to the great laws which govern the worlds
and the globe; and descending from the heights of science to the
observation of the infinitely minute, they would never forget the
important part of the vital powers, and of that unknown power called at
different times by the names of +pneuma+, _archéc_--_mind_ and _soul_.

The Regent's Park would, we think, be the proper site for this college,
as the contiguity of the Zoological Gardens would afford continual
opportunities for investigating the diseases of animals.

Moreover, this college would not trench upon or interfere in any manner
with those medical and veterinary establishments which at present exist;
it would ally itself with, and complete them, nothing more. The
instruction received at this "College of Natural and Medical Science"
would be so useful and necessary, and so attractive withal, that the
sons of the great families would come to it to finish their collegiate
studies, to the great benefit of the country. Other young men, in
considerable numbers, would flock to it from various parts of the world.
The foundation of such an institution would be an epoch in the history
of science, and would give England another claim to the esteem of
nations.

I conclude, then, with a conviction that a nation which owes to Lord
Bacon, the founder of experimental philosophy, his imperishable book on
the _restoration, the method and teaching of the sciences_; to Harvey,
the circulation; to Priestley, the constitution of chemistry; to
Sydenham, the modern Hippocrates, his treatise on "Practical Medicine";
to Jenner, vaccination; and to Charles Bell, the discovery of the
sensitive and motor nerves--is a people too great and too enlightened to
retrograde; and that, if the epizootic of ox typhus did find them at
first unready and disarmed, they will in the end convert this disaster
into a new source of greatness and strength.

Such is the sincere hope which I cherish and the prayer I offer up for
the happiness of a country which, for the future, has become my own.




APPENDIX.


NOTE A.

  BREMEN, August 30.

The following report, drawn up by two German veterinary surgeons, of a
recent visit to London to examine into the cattle murrain, has been
furnished by the agent of the North German Lloyd's at Nordenhamm:--

"On Wednesday, the 9th instant, we, the undersigned, were requested to
be at Nordenhamm, if possible, the following morning. Upon our arrival
we were asked by the agent of the North German Lloyd's, who had
consulted with several of the chief cattle exporters, to undertake a
voyage to London at once in the steamer _Schwan_, in the interest of the
cattle export from the Weser. The object of our mission was, first, to
examine as closely as possible into the epidemic cattle disease raging
in and around London for some time past; then carefully to observe the
treatment of cattle upon the vessel during the voyage, upon arrival, and
at the time of disembarkation; lastly, to use every means in our power
to prevent obstacles being opposed to the continued export of cattle
from these ports to England.

"Furnished by the agent of the North German Lloyd's with letters of
introduction to cattle dealers in London, and with the necessary funds,
we left Nordenhamm in the steamer _Schwan_, Captain Christensen, at 4
P.M., on the 10th instant. The vessel carried 347 head of large
cattle, 2 calves, and 260 sheep. Favoured by very fine weather, we
arrived in the Thames at 2 P.M., on the 12th. At the beginning
of the voyage the animals were rather uneasy, trampled a good deal, and
caused considerable motion in the ship; after a time, however, they
became quiet. A sharp, penetrating smell was easily perceptible in the
'tween decks of the ship, which was quickly removed upon a light breeze
springing up, by means of the excellent ventilation and numerous
air-pipes and wind shafts. The animals were several times watered, and
it was easy to see how greatly they were refreshed. The hay in the
racks, on the other hand, was hardly touched.

"Upon arriving in the port we were introduced by the captain to the two
veterinary surgeons stationed here to inspect the cattle, and witnessed
the rapid disembarkation of the cargo, all of which were thoroughly
healthy, not one being condemned. The cattle, when landed, were
immediately brought to carts standing in readiness and transported to
London, where they are cleansed and then driven into the adjacent
fields.

"After doing all in our power to attain the object of our journey, we
went back to the port to wait for the _Schwan_, having first thoroughly
cleansed the clothes we had worn during our inspection of the diseased
cattle. The _Schwan_ came in shortly after our arrival, and disembarked
256 head of large cattle, 12 calves and 400 sheep, all in good
condition. Mr. Philipps, the London agent of the North German Lloyd's,
was on the spot, together with several reporters from newspapers, who
wished to see by personal investigation how and in what condition cattle
are brought from the Weser.

"We re-embarked on the _Schwan_ upon the 19th. The crew were engaged
during the voyage in carefully cleansing the ship. The weather was fine,
and we arrived safely at Nordenhamm upon the 21st.

  (Signed)

  "G. J. RIPPEN,
  "Veterinary Surgeon at Seefield.

  "H. FASTING,
  "Veterinary Surgeon at Schwey."


NOTE B.

Professor Simonds having had such opportunities of investigating those
diseases as they existed in England and in foreign countries as were
possessed only by a few Englishmen, might be permitted to offer a few
observations. He had been appointed by the Royal Agricultural Societies
of England and Ireland to proceed to the Continent in 1857, when there
was a rumour that the disease which existed among cattle in this country
at the present time was prevailing in Mecklenburg. Consuls sent
despatches that the rinderpest was prevailing largely, and the
Government, as a precautionary measure, closed the ports against the
introduction of cattle from the Baltic to this country. He found,
however, from his observations abroad that since 1817 there had been no
disease of this kind westward of a line between Revel in the Baltic and
the Gulf of Venice, but to the eastward of that line it had existed. He
came up with the affection at the Carpathian mountains, where it was
raging in 1857 just as it is raging in England at the present time. Not
only had it existed there, but it had been carried into the interior of
Russia in the ordinary method of the cattle trade. A person who was in
the habit of purchasing cattle attended a fair and bought a number of
animals, and took them to his own farm, and in the course of ten days
one or two were seized with the disease, and the result was there was a
gradual spread of the evil in that district. It gained ground until the
Government instituted the sanitary police regulations, which, though
they were such as would be considered strange in England, were, he
believed, absolutely necessary for the extirpation of the plague. It was
undoubtedly true that no foreign animals had been seized at our ports or
in the metropolitan market; but it was not necessary for the case they
had in hand to say whether the disease was or was not of foreign
importation. There was this fact before them, that it was not until the
month of June that the disease appeared in England. A certain number of
animals came out of a diseased district. He had documentary evidence
that animals came from Revel and came from the district of Esthonia. He
had before him proof that the disease now in England was raging in that
district. They had proof that shortly after the arrival of those cattle
in England the disease manifested itself here. He admitted there were
difficulties in the way of checking the importation of foreign cattle.
The Government had its eyes open to the matter, and he did not think it
possible for the Government to have done more than they had done or to
have done more quickly what they had been doing. At this moment half the
supply of the metropolitan market came from foreign countries, and he
did not wish to convey any reflection by saying that this disease had
its origin from abroad. He would admit that the animals from Germany and
Hungary were coming in a healthy condition; but he could not admit that
they came from Russia, Poland, or Galicia in so perfect a condition,
because the regulations there were not sufficient to stamp out the
disease. The Government had made an inquiry as to the general health of
cattle on the Continent. They believed France, Belgium, Holland,
Schleswig-Holstein, Oldenburg, and a large part of the Continent that
supplied cattle to this country were free from disease. This went to
show that we had admitted a disease not from where we received our
supplies of meat, but from some other district. Then it must be
associated with the fact that it came into this country when animals
arrived here from an infected district in Russia. Animals from Germany
and Hungary were often shipped and mixed with others from a diseased
district. As regarded the disease being spontaneous, we had been free
from it for twenty years. What was the state of our cowsheds fifty years
ago? Were they not in a more filthy condition than they are now? If,
therefore, the disease had been induced from common causes it would have
been here years and years ago. It was no reflection to say that a great
many cases could be traced directly to the metropolitan market. Take one
case which occurred in Sussex. Certain cattle had been bought in the
metropolitan market and were taken home. In three or four days they were
ill, and presented symptoms of this affection. In a few days more the
cows and calves were dead. In another instance calves were bought in
Chichester Market, where they had been taken from London. The result was
the death of twelve cows and ten calves. The people had other cattle on
the same farm, and not one of them took it. He could say, too, that
persons who had only one animal had lost it by the disease. How had the
disease got into Norfolk and Kent but by the animals which went from the
metropolitan market? He could prove by documentary evidence that it was
so. He could show there was not a single instance where the origin of
the disease could not be traced to the metropolis. It was the most
fearful visitation that had ever been seen in England. They had adopted
a system of compensation in Norfolk, and if by this meeting something
was done to shut out the animals of infected districts, no doubt the
promoters would receive not only the thanks of London, but the country
generally.

Mr. Gibbins--Now, if the disease came from abroad, and diseased cattle
were shipped on the other side of the sea, no doubt the voyage would
concentrate and aggravate the disease. The Government inspectors
reported, however, that not one instance had been seen of foreign cattle
so diseased, nor had any been seized and destroyed in London or anywhere
else. Whether the disease came from abroad or elsewhere he was not able
to state. Sir George Grey asked him whether he had found any disease
among the foreign cattle that came into the market. He said not one.
They had, no doubt, many instances of the disease amongst the cows that
were ordinarily called milch cows, but that were not milch cows when
they came to market, because one effect of the disease was to deprive
the animal of milk. These were then sent to the market and sold as fat
stock. He could only say they had had no cases, except in cows, whether
they came from the dairies in London or elsewhere.


NOTE C.

M. Dembinski, Professor of Analytical Chemistry and Natural Science, had
also addressed a communication to the Lord Mayor on the subject. The
prevalent Rinderpest, he said, originated in the steppes of Podolia,
from which considerable herds of cattle were exported through the
steppes to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, and Revel, and thence to the
ports of Memel, Königsberg, Dantzic, Hamburg, Kiel, and the Hague.
_Deprived of congenial food and pure water on their transport through
the steppes, and then arriving at marshy lands, the exhausted animals
drank the stagnant water, which, during hot weather, exhaled a
pestiferous malaria, and infected them with a predisposition to the
epidemic in question, which developed itself into a kind of fever on the
voyage to England in a crowded condition._


NOTE D.

  INTERNATIONAL VETERINARY CONGRESS, VIENNA,
  August, 1865.

With regard to the cattle plague, it may be well to state that Austria
has been most unfortunately situated, from the readiness with which
Russian cattle have been admitted into the country at various parts of
the western and southern frontiers. At the opening of the Congress this
difficulty was particularly noted by the Ministerial counsellor, Dr.
Vell, who attended on behalf of the Government, for the purpose of
welcoming the assembly, and giving an assurance that its deliberations
would meet with all the attention they deserved. He specially referred
to the fact that the laws relating to cattle disease prevention had been
entirely revised in 1850, but that the Steppe murrain continued to be
introduced by smuggled stock into the western and southern provinces of
the State. It was therefore necessary to attempt a more effectual
control over the propagation of so disastrous a malady.

Herr Pabst welcomed the meeting on behalf of the Minister of Trade. He
said that the value of the cattle of the Austrian dominions considerably
exceeded one hundred million pounds sterling (one thousand million
Austrian florins), and that cattle plagues completely put a stop to the
development of that essential branch of agriculture which embraces the
improvement and increase of live stock in a country. He assured the
assembly that all would be done that was possible to improve the
existing state of matters, and that he hoped they would greatly aid the
Government by the discussions which would take place and the conclusions
at which they would arrive.

I may state, by the way, that an opinion rather generally expressed by
some, and stoutly maintained by others, was that the peculiar
disposition of some of the Austrian subjects, and the feeling existing
in Hungary against State measures, rendered the law, to a great extent,
inoperative. I can, from personal experience, state that although
stringent and most efficient means are used for the suppression of
cattle plagues, and with the best results in Austria proper, there is
great difficulty in carrying out the law in districts where Austrian
rule is at a discount. Indeed this is clearly indicated by the manner in
which the Rinderpest penetrates into Austria, where the laws are similar
to those in the kingdom of Prussia, which is, and has long been,
completely protected from invasions of the disorder.

At the meeting of the first International Congress, held in Hamburg in
1865, Dr. Röll stated that owing to the length of time to which the
quarantine for Russian cattle extended on the Austrian frontier, herds
of cattle were often smuggled through, and companies had been formed for
the purpose of insurance against seizure by the authorities. The
unlawful traffic was therefore carried on with comparative safety to the
dealers, who cared not what misfortune they brought on a country if only
their personal ends could be served. This question was the first to
occupy the attention of the Congress last week; when a resolution was
proposed to shorten the period of quarantine for cattle from Russia
into any country from twenty-one days to ten. The discussion was keen.
It was stipulated, however, that the quarantine should be carried out
most strictly over all parts of the frontier, without respect to any
breed of cattle or other circumstances which might be brought forward as
exceptional reasons for retaining animals in quarantine. The committee
appointed to prepare a succinct report on the subject included
Professors Unterberger, Seifmann, Werner, Zlamal, Hertwig, Haubner, and
Röll; and the committee decided in favour of the shortened quarantine,
on the following conditions:--First--When the establishment of
quarantine institutions is effected in accordance with the requirements
of trade and the peculiarities of the frontier, special attention must
be paid to the erection of quarantine stables, &c., where there are
facilities for procuring an abundance of fodder and water. Second--The
animals to be kept under efficient veterinary supervision wherever they
have to submit to quarantine. The inspectors must be properly qualified
veterinary surgeons. Third--The use of a brand to indicate that the
animals have been in quarantine. Fourth--The effectual disinfection, by
washing and otherwise, of animals as they leave the quarantine.
Fifth--The introduction of a poll-tax along the eastern frontiers, and
the appointment of proper veterinarians to be on the watch as to the
health of cattle along the frontiers. Sixth--Careful supervision to be
placed over the traffic in cattle wherever it takes place in a country.
Seventh--The punishment to the full extent that the law allows of all
who break the rules relating to quarantine or other means for the
prevention of the cattle plague.

Professor Hertwig, of Berlin, whose opinion is always listened to with
great respect in veterinary circles, stated his reasons for adopting
these resolutions now, whereas in 1863 he was against shortening the
period of quarantine. He referred chiefly to the importance of not
offering temptations for cattle dealers to evade the law by insisting on
unreasonable restrictions. The feeling of the assembly was greatly in
favour of avoiding vexatious and expensive measures, which might greatly
interfere with the employment of capital in cattle traffic. A small
number of professors, not exceeding eight or nine, held out for a
quarantine of twenty-one days.

It may be as well to state that quarantine regulations, which have been
regarded as almost useless in the prevention of human disorders, from
the great difficulties in the way of carrying them out efficiently, are
recognised as of great value in controlling the propagation of cattle
plagues. It is possible to control the movement of herds, and the
governments of Central Europe have found it absolutely essential so to
do. Indeed, the ablest medical men who have written against the adoption
of a quarantine system for human small-pox and cholera, such as
Professor Siegmund, of Berlin, acknowledge its value and absolute
requirement with regard to the Rinderpest. A professor from Galicia
argued in favour of controlling the movements of people wherever the
disease appeared, and no fact seems to have been better ascertained than
that of the communication of the Rinderpest from herd to herd by human
beings. Professor Jessen, of Dorpat, states that in Russia the malady
was at one time speedily propagated by the people, who regarded the
destruction of their stock as a visitation of Providence, and who
summoned a priest into their stables to pray with them that the plague
might be stayed. Moving from farm to farm, the malady was by this means
rapidly transmitted. In Hungary, many outbreaks result from people
dressing the carcases and hawking about the meat, which, even where
human beings remain uninjured, is deadly to the cattle whenever the
water with which it is washed is thrown about the yards, or the meat is
hung up near sheds containing living animals.

The members present at the International Congress spoke in favour of
establishing a fund, apart from the Government grants, for the payment
of diseased or infected animals which have to be slaughtered with a view
to the prevention of the plague. Special precautions were suggested as
to the transmission of articles the product of diseased animals.

1. Perfectly dried skins, the points of horns cut off, as they often are
for commercial purposes, the salted and dried intestines of cattle,
melted tallow, wools, cowhair, &.c., could be freely allowed to pass
unobserved.

2. Entire horns, hoofs, &c., which are detached from the soft parts, but
which often contain adhering flesh, &c., should be disinfected with
chloride of lime.

3. As melted tallow is often conveyed in bags which may be charged with
the poison, those bags should be washed with chloride of lime solution.

4. Fresh bones, fresh skins, and intestines, unmelted tallow, raw flesh,
and fresh sheepskins, should not be sold whenever the Rinderpest exists
in a district.

According to all the accounts which reach us, the foreign observations
and resolutions may be of essential service in England. The members of
the Assembly were informed by Mr. Erner of the origin and the progress
of the cattle plague in England, and were deeply interested by the
account given of the imminent danger in which many countries are placed
that purchase breeding stock in the British isles. The theories of
spontaneous origin amuse the learned here not a little, as they justly
think we ought not to be so far behind every nation in the possession of
knowledge regarding the propagation of such a disorder as the steppe
murrain.


NOTE E.

Now, if the disease came from abroad, and diseased cattle were shipped
on the other side of the sea, no doubt the voyage would concentrate and
aggravate the disease. Whether the disease came from abroad or elsewhere
he was not able to state. Sir George Grey asked him whether he had found
any disease among the foreign cattle that came into the market. He had
not one. He could only say they had had no cases, except in cows,
whether they came from the dairies in London or elsewhere. So far as
they knew, not one single bullock or ox had been condemned.--MR. GIBBINS,
_18th August, Meeting at the Mansion House_.

The very first shed in which the plague must have appeared in London is
a pattern of cleanliness, and the stock was magnificent, as proved by
the animals in a shed to which the disease has not been propagated.
Almost simultaneously the malady broke out in the Essex marshes, and in
every instance we trace a more or less direct contamination by foreign
stock.


NOTE F.

  VIENNA, August, 1865.

On the 28th of August about thirty of the members of the Congress
accepted an invitation to visit the renowned agricultural establishment
at Altenburg, in Hungary. After the visitors had inspected the herds and
other appurtenances of this institution, Professor Maasch, its director,
intimated that the Rinderpest had appeared at Nickolsdorf, about four
German miles from Altenburg. The President of the Congress had known
this fact before the party left Vienna for Hungary; but as he feared
some enthusiasts would first see the plague, and then inspect the
Altenburg herds, he preferred to adopt the stratagem of communicating
the information through Professor Maasch, after the great Agricultural
College of Hungary had been viewed. Nickolsdorf, where the steppe
murrain appeared on the 10th of August, is an exquisitely clean village,
with well-whitewashed buildings and broad roads, constituting the centre
of a thriving agricultural district. Its people are typical Hungarians,
not too anxious to work, and, on the whole, poor; but they are
intelligent, notwithstanding the national proclivity to farm a thousand
acres badly rather than one-fourth the quantity to perfection. Their
wants are not great, and their worldly luxuries, beyond potatoes and
schnaps, are bought with the profits made on large herds of cattle. One
herd only had suffered from the cattle plague when we visited the
village. This herd consisted of 1225 animals, divided into three lots.
The affected portion numbered 450 animals--bullocks intended for work
and slaughter--varying in age from three to seven years. The cows and
heifers had not been smitten. The 450 animals amongst which the disease
appeared were housed in no less than sixteen different sheds in
Nickolsdorf. Out of each of these places sick animals had been taken,
and either slaughtered or permitted to die. We killed four for
dissection on the 29th. Six more had been previously killed, their hides
slacked, and the entire body buried; nine had died, and two we left in
life to be soon slaughtered and disposed of as the others. The district
veterinary surgeon in constant attendance was an extremely active and
intelligent man, who recognised the disease on its first outbreak, and
adopted such measures for separation, destruction, and burial, as
prevented the disease from spreading so rapidly as it has in England.

The cause of the outbreak was the intermingling of cattle-dealers' stock
with the Nickolsdorf herd; and although the animals which carried it
have not been fully traced, they are believed to have been owned by a
butcher who had purchased them in Comorn, where the malady is raging.
Singular variations have been seen in the symptoms exhibited, especially
when animals are first affected. During the Nickolsdorf outbreak there
has been an invariable incubation of five or six days; then furor or
delirium appears: the bullocks stare, roar, stamp with their feet, are
prepared to attack people who approach them, and seem to be dizzy at
intervals. They shiver, their muscles twitch, the eyes soon begin to
discharge, and the mucus which flows from the mouth foams. The pulse is
at first slower than usual, until all the fever symptoms appear. There
is more constipation than diarrhoea, though, on examination, the
mucous membranes are all found to be affected precisely in the manner so
often observed in England during the present outbreak. The differences
in the symptoms are accounted for by peculiarities of breed, the
condition of stalls, the food the animals have lived on, and similar
circumstances. We may hear more of these Hungarian outbreaks, but the
chances are we shall not witness in any part of Austria the wholesale
devastation now going on in Great Britain.--_International Veterinary
Congress._


NOTE G.

At present the cowkeepers send off the infected beasts to the market, or
to some slaughter-house, where they might be killed. There was believed
to be great danger in allowing the infected cows to be driven through
the streets. If the good could be separated from the bad animals, and if
the latter could be conveyed to sanitoriums, where the medical men could
operate upon them, then much benefit would result; and then, too, if the
animals died, they would be buried on the spot. All the professors were
agreed in this, that if a compensation fund were raised, and the
cowkeeper were told that he would be remunerated for his loss, he would
at once inform the authorities when the disease made its appearance in
his cowshed. Shed after shed was being now shut up, and men and women
who seemed to be affluent one day were the next reduced to ruin. An
illustration of this would suffice. One day last week a cowkeeper at
Pimlico had 70 or 80 healthy cows. On Wednesday three of them were found
dead. On Thursday 42 of them were sent to the market. Of these 42 three
showed symptoms of the disease, and then the whole of the 42 beasts had
to be slaughtered because of the disease being among the three. The poor
fellow was thus ruined. Last Monday he sent nine more cows to the
market, and these also had to be slaughtered. At present the man was
absolutely out of his mind. Out of his 70 beasts, he had not one left.
Some persons were saying that the disease arose from bad water, bad
ventilation, and bad cowsheds; but in the case of Miss Burdett Coutts,
who had had 40 head of cattle, which were most carefully housed and
attended to--particularly from the moment she heard that the disease was
amongst them--all were gone, with the exception of one cow; so that,
whether it was a want of water or a want of ventilation which in other
cases caused it, this was an instance in which everything was done that
could be done, and yet the plague raged and the mortality
ensued.--MR. GIBBINS, _Meeting at the Mansion House_.


NOTE J.

Yesterday morning Dr. Jarvis, medical officer of St. Matthew's,
Bethnal-green, received information that Mr. Castell, an extensive
purveyor of milk, had lost eighty-four cows during the past week. Other
cowkeepers in this district have also experienced great losses. The
disease has manifested itself with more or less virulence at St. Anne's,
Limehouse; St. John, Hackney: St. Mary-le-Bow, St. George's-in-the-East,
St. John, Wapping; Christ Church, Spitalfields; St. Leonard's,
Shoreditch; St. Mary, Whitechapel; St. Paul's, Shadwell; the hamlet of
Ratcliff, Stoke Newington, Kingsland, and Tottenham.

Mr. Gibbins, chairman of the Metropolitan Markets Committee, Mr. Rudkin,
a member of the committee, Mr. Tegg, veterinary surgeon to the market,
and Mr. Baldry, clerk to the market, applied to the sitting magistrate
at Clerkenwell Police Court yesterday for summonses against cowkeepers
for sending diseased cows into the market. During the course of the
present week no less than nineteen cows had been seized in the market
and fairs and condemned. The order was asked for under the 8th section
of the recent Order in Council, which recited that it shall not be
lawful to send or bring to any fair or market, or to send or carry by
any railway, or by any ship or vessel coastwise, or to place upon or to
drive along any highway, or the sides thereof, any animal labouring
under disease. The cattle seized had not been examined by a Government
inspector, and no certificate had been given to the owners that they
were fit to be removed. The market authorities wished it to be known
that proceedings would be taken in every case that was brought under
their notice. Mr. Cooke observed that the inspectors had power to seize
and slaughter, or cause to be slaughtered, and to be buried in any
convenient place, any animal labouring under the disease. Had that been
done? Mr. Tegg said that the animals were in some of the cases
slaughtered, and the others would be slaughtered in the course of the
day. The summonses were granted.

Yesterday, the summonses issued at the instance of Mr. Frederick Thomas
Stanley, a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and one
of the inspectors appointed under the Order in Council, came on for
hearing before Mr. Burcham, magistrate at the Southwark police court.
The summons in the first case was addressed to Thomas Meredith, of the
Flying Horse-yard, Blackman-street, for that the defendant, without the
licence of the said inspector, did unlawfully remove from his premises
some animals labouring under the cattle disease. Mr. Sleigh, instructed
by Mr. Gant, appeared to support the summons; and Mr. W. Edwin for the
defendant. Evidence was given that the defendant had been warned that
the cows were diseased, but that he had removed them notwithstanding.
The further hearing of the case was adjourned, as were also the other
summonses of a like nature.

In pursuance of powers vested in him by the Manx Legislature, the
governor of the Isle of Man has issued a proclamation prohibiting the
importation of cattle into the island. Tinder the same Act his
Excellency has power to subject all cattle imported into the island to a
five days' quarantine.


NOTE K.

Tracing, as we have done, the sale of infected stock from abroad as far
back as the 19th of June, we find that each week that the disease has
been amongst us a fresh county has been contaminated; and more than that
when we consider that Scotland has not escaped.


NOTE L.

SCOTLAND.--The cattle plague has travelled North to Aberdeenshire, and
has killed a number of animals almost simultaneously on three farms at
many miles distance from one another. The owners of stock in one of the
districts, and the Royal Northern Agricultural Association, are taking,
or resolving to take, sharp and prompt steps to stay the progress of the
disease. The committee of the association having met on Friday,
appointed a committee of inspection, arranged for a public meeting of
persons interested, and favourably entertained the notion of forming a
fund for mutual insurance against the sacrifices and losses which the
extension of the disease might occasion. A meeting of the General
Central Union was also held at Stirling on Friday, and a committee was
appointed to confer on the subject with the directors of the Highland
Society, and report to another meeting to be held next Friday.--
_Scotsman._

The most important communication received to-day is from Scotland. The
malady has undoubtedly broken out near Kelso, on fourteen head of cattle
imported into London and sent north. Twenty-eight animals have been
seized with the disease at Woolwich, and calves from the London market
are said to have taken the malady down to Horsham and Grinstead.

Information has been received concerning the sale of at least fifty-four
diseased and infected animals in the Metropolitan Cattle Market the 3rd
instant.


NOTE M.

Mr. Charles Panter has, at the request of Earl Granville, drawn up a
statement relative to the health of the cows on a farm hired by his
lordship at Golder's-green, on the Finchley-road. In publishing the
statement, Earl Granville says: "When I left England, a month ago, there
were about 130 milch cows in four sheds. In the two largest and best
managed I found only one cow yesterday (Sept. 4). His Royal Highness the
Duke of Coburg informed me last week that what he believed to be the
same disease visited Coburg last year. No one could trace its origin,
and no medical treatment was successful. Air and water were their only
remedies. Some men had died from eating the meat killed at a particular
stage of the disease. His Royal Highness had seen a horse die in four
hours, killed by flies which came from the carcase of a cow which had
been allowed to remain above ground. The disease disappeared in the
autumn as mysteriously as it had come. I understand that Professor
Simonds is of opinion that the disease mentioned by the Duke of Coburg
is not the same as that from which we are suffering here--that its name
is the Siberian Pest." Mr. Panter's statement is dated Sept. 4, and is
as follows:--"On the 13th of July I purchased five Dutch cows in the
Metropolitan Market, and placed them in quarantine at Child's-hill Farm,
one mile from here. On the 22nd of July one of them showed signs of
debility; diarrhoea followed. Thinking it was only a cold, she was
treated accordingly, but continued to get worse, and died in five days.
Two more were attacked in a similar way, when veterinary advice was
called in, but in five days the whole either died or were slaughtered.
Every precaution was used to prevent the spread of infection here; the
men who attended the sick cattle were not allowed to go among the
healthy ones, and _vice versâ_. But, previous to this, bearing of the
disease in the London cowsheds, I adopted precautionary measures, such
as a liberal use daily of chloride of lime, administered one ounce of
nitre in half a pint of water to each cow, and a small quantity of tar,
and painted their noses with tar. But on the 8th of August,
unfortunately, the disease showed itself here in a fat cow that had been
for ten months in the best built, best drained and ventilated shed. No
new stock had been added for nine weeks. In a few hours four more cows
showed symptoms of it. I immediately had them all removed and
slaughtered, and made a _post-mortem_ examination of them, and found the
windpipe in a state of decomposition, the lungs inflated, the small
intestines red and inflamed, and the meat of a dark yellow colour
outside, and dark red inside, which I think unfit for human food after
the first stage. The disease confined itself to the above shed of
forty-eight cows (which are now all gone) till the 20th of August, when
it broke out in another shed of thirty-five cows, some ten yards from
the former one, and continued its ravages, taking from two to four cows
daily, till they are all gone but two, one of which has not been
attacked; the other, which was a bad case, is cured, and partly come to
her milk again. On the first symptoms I had her separated from the other
stock, and did not treat her for two days, when diarrhoea set in; I
then gave her a bottle of brandy and four ounces of ground ginger in
three quarts of old ale. She lay in a kind of stupor for twelve hours,
when I could see a change in her for the better. I continued to give her
daily four quarts of gruel made with old ale and two ounces of ginger.
In four days she was sufficiently recovered to eat a little hay, &c.,
and do without further treatment. In another case the above treatment
failed, and the animal died in three days. In other cases I allowed
anyone to treat them who thought they had a remedy, both professional
men and others. One persevering young veterinary surgeon came up out of
Somersetshire and treated two cases most energetically, but failed in
both; one died in four, and the other in eight days. In other cases
tonics, stimulants, blisters, and setons have been tried, but all
failed. The whole of the eighty-one cows lost were of the English breed;
we have not as yet had any loss out of the other two sheds, consisting
of about half English and half Dutch cows, and standing about forty
yards from the infected shed. It may be interesting for your lordship
to know that I had the shed at Child's-hill Farm immediately cleansed
with disinfectants, and washed with hot lime, &c., and bought twelve
fresh cows and placed them there on the 16th, which are now in perfect
health; and a neighbour situated midway between here and that farm had
twenty-three cows lying in a field; the plague took twenty of them, and
in three weeks he replaced them with new stock, which are still healthy,
he having had them a month. Another neighbour, a mile distant, had a
fine herd of seventy-two cows (English) lying in the fields a fortnight
ago. The plague broke out among them, and now he has only eight left in
health. From my own experience, and from all I can learn, I believe the
disease is atmospheric, and of a typhoid character. The first symptom in
a milking cow is an almost entire loss of milk, then loss of appetite, a
watery discharge from the eyes, nostrils, and mouth, which thickens as
the disease develops itself; rumination ceases, her ears hang down, her
eyes are heavy and sunken, bloody matter is seen in the excrement, great
debility is seen, diarrhoea sets in, and death takes place in from
three to nine days. I have read of iron water being a preventive of the
disease. All the water your cows have drunk comes six miles through
rusty iron pipes."


NOTE N.

THE CATTLE MURRAIN AT HOLLY LODGE.--On the 27th of June an
Alderney bull was purchased at Bushey, near Watford, and placed with the
rest of the herd, then consisting of eleven cows, five sucking calves,
three yearling heifers, and one bull. The bull had been imported from
Alderney for several months. About a month after--namely, on the 29th of
July--a cow in calf was attacked with unusual symptoms. She was
separated from the rest; nourishing drinks were administered; but having
calved, she died forty-eight hours after the first symptoms were
observed. This led to the belief that she died of the disease which then
began to prevail. This cow had been pastured with the others in a field
occasionally used for grazing sheep that were taken to the Metropolitan
Cattle-market, and, if not sold, brought back again until the next
market day; the sheep were separated from the cows by iron hurdles. The
Holly Lodge Estate is partly bounded on the east by the route taken by
drovers with foreign and other cattle to and from the market, some of
which are also occasionally brought back to neighbouring fields. The
high road forms the western boundary within a few yards of the
cattle-sheds and pastures. These facts are stated to show that the
contagion might have been easily communicated to the animals. A few days
later three calves were attacked with cold shivering and twitching of
the muscles. The previous nights having become suddenly and unusually
cold and wet, the symptoms were at first attributed to that cause.
Although these calves had been pastured quite apart from the cow which
first died, the cow had been driven across the field where the calves
lay to the shed in which it died, the calves having been placed in the
next shed, where two of them died on the 6th of August, unmistakeably
of the cattle plague. The third calf was sent to the Royal Veterinary
College, where it also died. By the 9th of August four cows and the bull
were seized with the disease so virulently that it was thought necessary
to kill them after three days' illness. On the 12th a cow and a heifer
were also destroyed, and on the 14th one of the sucking calves died.
Thus, out of a herd of nineteen animals, twelve had died within a
fortnight. The malady had taken so strong and sudden a hold upon them
that no systematic means of remedy could be applied except separation,
warmth, stimulants, and the medicines ordinarily given in cases of cold
and fever. On the 13th of August two more cows were pronounced incurable
by two of the veterinary surgeons who had been called in; but it was
determined, upon further advice, to try a mode of treatment upon them
not hitherto adopted. One drachm of calomel was administered in gruel,
four hours afterwards one pint of castor oil, and three hours later one
quart of yeast. About two quarts of warm porter were added to a gruel of
yeast and oatmeal, and given at intervals. These remedies acted most
efficiently, and in one case gave much encouragement. The next day the
cow began to eat hay, to chew her cud, and to yield a good quantity of
milk. These remedies, together with bi-sulphate of soda, which
invariably produced a return of the milk, and quinine, were then tried
upon four other patients, with varied success. But in the end all these
cows died, not, it is believed, of the cattle murrain, but of exhaustion
occasioned by the activity of the drugs administered to them. This
belief was strengthened by the healthy appearance presented by the
viscera of the first cow thus experimented upon, on its being partially
dissected after death. The remaining cow thus treated is still alive. It
is impossible to avoid believing that had the medical man who kindly
gave his attention to these animals, been better acquainted with the
constitution of the creature, or had those who tended them had any
knowledge of medicine, three of the cows treated in this manner might
and probably would have recovered; and even when the animals succumbed
the consequences were less serious, the virulence of the poison being
expelled--at least it was undiscernible to those who dissected them.
During the fortnight that the murrain was raging, one cow in calf and
one calf remained perfectly healthy, apparently, until both were seized
within a day of each other; these had always been kept separate from the
sick animals, and tended by other men. The calf died, and the cow was
destroyed, in consequence of the symptoms being so violent. In this case
very little calomel was given. As it may be as well to mention all
particulars, it may be stated here that the men who tended the animals
were provided with a dress, and that it was found desirable that a
certain quantity of stimulants--brandy, coffee, and strong soup--should
be given to prevent nausea and other uncomfortable feelings from which
the men suffered. All the directions respecting the burying of the
animals issued by the Privy Council have been strictly complied with;
clothes, &c., have been burnt, chloride of lime (Macdougall's
disinfectant) was used with others to destroy insects and flies, with
abundance of white-washing. The men were recommended to use, as a wash
for the mouth, manganate of potash. The first crop of grass in the field
where the cattle lay before their sickness, and during it, has been
destroyed also; and it is intended to use some disinfectant, such as
charcoal or lime, to spread over the field. Miss B. C. feels so
persuaded that some mode of treatment could be found to alleviate, if
not to save life, that she has determined to employ a medical gentleman,
who kindly offers his services, and to take also the advice of a good
cow or veterinary surgeon, and to try the effects of various remedies in
some of the cowsheds where persons will be glad to let such experiments
be tried; and it is also her intention to ask the Privy Council to allow
one of the Government Inspectors to assist and report upon the cases. It
may not be altogether unimportant to add that the state of the
atmosphere seemed to have some effect upon the health of the animals, as
upon those occasions the symptoms were most severe during the
thunder-storms which then occurred. The milk which returned was found to
be rather watery, and the cream had a peculiar appearance. At first the
pigs declined it, and it was not thought advisable to continue to give
it at all to any animals for about a week. It is now perfectly good.


NOTE O.

Advices from Holland, dated the Hague, Sept. 6, state: "The cattle
disease has now been observed in the parishes of Kethel, Delfshaven,
Moordrecht, Uaardingen, Averschie, Kvalingen, Nieuwerkerk on the Issel
(two hours from Rotterdam), Spykenisse, Schiedam, Herrjansdam, Maasland,
Sommelsdyk, and Zevenhuisen. It has spread most at Kethel, where it
first broke out among a cargo of cattle not admitted into England. In
the other parishes some sixty animals were infected on the 1st inst. The
post-mortem examination of the diseased beasts presents the abnormal
appearances that have been found in the disease elsewhere, _i.e._,
swollen mucous membranes with red spots, peculiar exudations in the
fourth stomach and intestines, &c. The medical commission declares the
malady to be the _typhus contagiosus bovum_ of modern veterinary
surgery, and recommends that infected animals should be treated with
from three to four drachms of muriatic acid, mixed with six ounces of
treacle and decoction of linseed. Decoctions of Peruvian bark and osier
peelings, with sulphuric ether, are also said to be beneficial to weak
animals. The avoidance of all contact of the cattle-tenders with
infected beasts is especially enjoined, and ventilation and cleanliness
of the stalls strongly recommended. Cattle markets and fairs are
suspended until further orders, and extraordinary measures for
disinfection are applied upon steamboats and railways."


NOTE P.

The following document has been received at the Foreign Office from her
Majesty's Agent and Consul-General at Bucharest:--

(_Translation from the Official "Monitoral," No. 173, August 8-20,
1865._)

GENERAL DIRECTION OF THE SANITARY SERVICE.

From the 1st to the 15th July a typhus epizooty broke out among the
large horned cattle in the districts of Ilfov, Jassy, Bolgrad, Falcin,
Buzeo, and Roman, which still continues, but is on the decrease. The
Direction, in consequence, publishes the above for the information of
those concerned.

  The Director-General,

  (Signed)        D. GLUCH.

  Aug. 2-14, 1865.


NOTE R.

August 14.

THE QUESTION OF INFECTION.--Yesterday afternoon Mr. Alfred
Ebsworth, of 11, Trinity-street, Southwark, the medical officer of
health for the parish of St. Mary, Newington, attended before the
sitting magistrate to make a statement with regard to the condition of
the parish from the influx of diseased cattle, and the manner in which
they were disposed of. Addressing the magistrate (Mr. Burnham) Mr.
Ebsworth said that on that morning he, in his capacity of medical
officer of health for the parish of St. Mary, Newington, received an
order to attend professionally a man who was seriously ill in
Kent-street, within the parish. While paying the visit to the patient
his attention had been drawn to the condition of a slaughter-house on
the other side of the street, where it was reported to him there were
fifteen cows which had been ordered by the Government officer to be
destroyed at the Bricklayers' Arms Station, and then to be buried. The
animals were accordingly destroyed by the men in the employ of Mr.
George Nicholls, the proprietor of the yard in question; and from Mr.
Nicholls he had learned that, instead of the carcases of the animals
being buried, they were carted through the parish of St. George's to
Mitcham, where they were boiled down, and brought back through the
parish of St. Mary, Newington, in the shape of cats'-meat. He (Mr.
Ebsworth) felt it his duty to come before the magistrate with this
complaint, especially when the cattle plague was so prevalent. He had a
right to inquire upon what grounds the carcases had not been disposed of
on the spot where they had been slaughtered, instead of being carted
through the parish he represented, in a way calculated to spread the
infection. He could not but regard this as a most iniquitous proceeding,
and he attended with a view to prevent a repetition of the practice. Mr.
Frederick T. Stanley presented himself, and said that he was a member of
the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He had been appointed an
inspector of cattle under the orders issued by the Privy Council. Within
the district there were no means of burying the carcases of the diseased
and condemned animals, and in the instance referred to they could not
have been buried in the cowshed. It was impossible to bury the carcases
in the London districts, and hence they were sent to the knacker's yard,
where it was supposed they would be disposed of. Mr. Ebsworth: And
that, your worship, is what I complain of. Mr. Burcham: You think that
the practice to which you have called my attention is calculated to
propagate the extension of the disease. Mr. Stanley declared that the
skins were disinfected under his especial orders. Mr. Burcham remarked
that the animals had been taken to the slaughter-house, not for the
purpose of being killed and buried, but that their skins should be taken
off and disinfected. Why should they have been taken to Mitcham? Mr.
Stanley stated that the disease could not be communicated from a dead
animal, and it was conveyed only by inoculation, or through the breath
of a living animal upon the dead body of a diseased ox. Mr. Burcham: I
do not agree with you in that opinion. I believe that infection may be
conveyed by a dead animal. Mr. Ebsworth said that such was his opinion,
and, having regard to 28,000 patients in the parish, he had felt it his
bounden duty to come forward to make this complaint. He thought such
things ought not to occur. Mr. Burcham was of the same opinion, and that
such a commodity ought not to be allowed to be conveyed through the
public streets in open carts. Just before the magistrate was about to
rise, Mr. Stanley introduced to his worship Professor Simonds, and a
long colloquy (in private) ensued between them. At its close Professor
Simonds retired, and Mr. Burcham said: I wish to state that I wanted to
be satisfied that everything was done by Mr. Stanley that could be done
under the circumstances by which he was surrounded, in the midst of
great difficulty. I have had an interview with Professor Simonds, and he
informs me that there are the greatest difficulties, if not
impossibilities, in finding any places near London in which the dead
carcases of diseased animals can be buried. In the case now before me
these animals were slaughtered at the Bricklayers' Arms Station, and
were then taken to the slaughter-house in Kent-street, under the notion
that the owner of the slaughter-house had the means of boiling them
down. It appears that he had no such apparatus, and hence he found it
necessary to send the carcases to Mitcham, the nearest place at which he
believed the carcases could be buried and disposed of, and the
neighbourhood thereby disinfected. Professor Simonds is perfectly sure
that this meat when boiled down cannot by any probability cause the
infection to spread. It was possible, but not probable, that infection
might be introduced by the carcases of the diseased animals on their way
to the place where they had to be boiled down; but it appears to me,
from what I have just heard, that every precaution has been taken to
prevent such an occurrence. It seems that the authorities cannot find a
place within a reasonable distance in which the carcases can be buried,
and, therefore, they are obliged to have recourse to boiling them down,
as the only alternative. It is right that I should add that the conduct
of Mr. Stanley, the inspector, has been quite in conformity with the
directions he has received, not only under the Orders in Council, but
also sanctioned in my presence to-day by Professor Simonds. I trust that
this statement will remove from the mind of Mr. Stanley any unfavourable
impression he may have entertained; and I will only add my opinion, that
the diseased cattle ought to be removed through these populous
districts in closed and not in open carts. The conversation then closed,
and at an unusually late hour the court adjourned.

DISEASED MEAT.--At the Thames Police Court yesterday Henry
Frost, an old man, was charged with having allowed to be deposited on
the premises occupied by him in the rear of the house, No. 13,
Sidney-street, Stepney, four quarters of beef prepared for sale and
intended for the food of man, but which was unfit for human food. Frost
carried on the business of a greengrocer. He asserted that he let the
place to other men, who were the actual offenders. It was intimated that
the vestry had no disposition to press for a heavy penalty. Mr. Paget
fined the prisoner 40s. At Clerkenwell, Mr. Tegg, inspector at the
Metropolitan Cattle Market for the City authorities applied to Mr.
D'Eyncourt for an order to destroy a quantity of diseased meat which he
purposed seizing. Mr. D'Eyncourt said the meat must be actually seized
and condemned upon evidence before he could make the order. In the
matter of the seizure of 32 quarters of beef, weighing about 3000 lbs.,
which was found on the premises of a knacker in Pleasant-grove,
Belle-isle, Mr. D'Eyncourt dismissed an application made against the
defendant under the Nuisances Removal Act. The defence set up was that
the meat was recognised as bad and diseased by the killer as soon as the
animals were slaughtered.


NOTE S.

The Orders in Council seemed only to complicate the matter, and how
effectually to combat the evil was a most difficult question. Some said
the grand remedy was the knife, and others suggested that the diseased
animals should be sent to a sanatorium. To destroy the diseased cattle
was impossible, except the owner of them or the inspector went round and
obtained an order from a magistrate for their destruction. The last
meeting was adjourned, among other purposes, in order that the committee
might take the opinion of the law officers upon the subject. It so
happened, however, that most of the law officers of the Corporation were
at present out of town. Fortunately the Common Serjeant was found, and
he gave an opinion which confirmed the committee in their view that they
had no power to kill, and no power to do anything except in the matter
of isolation. Then the committee passed a resolution that another
committee ought to be formed to raise the necessary funds for
compensating the cattle-owners, and to see that those funds were
properly applied, for the money was only intended to apply to the cattle
plague, and was not meant to go in the shape of compensation for
pleuro-pneumonia, or for the foot diseases. In other words, they were
now legislating for the cattle plague or Rinderpest only. He resided at
Dulwich, and he found that in the villages adjoining there were many
cows, and never in his life had he seen finer cows. Not one of them had
been affected by the disease. There was a cowkeeper at Peckham who had
200 cows, and all of them were in the most healthy state. At Brixton
Hill a man had 30 cows in the same excellent condition. At Dulwich
nearly all the cows were diseased, but there the shed and other
accommodation was exceedingly bad. In parts of Peckham Rye some of the
cowkeepers had lost their cattle, but there again the places were badly
ventilated, and the cows were badly cared for. He believed that the
disease might be prevented by the use of proper precautions on the part
of those who had the greatest interest in keeping their cows in a
healthy state. He believed, too, that this question affected the whole
of the metropolitan district quite as much as it did the City itself.
There were no fewer than 106 head of diseased cattle lately seized; but,
as he said before, they could not be killed without an order from a
magistrate, and a magistrate would naturally feel a difficulty in
issuing an order to kill so many as 106 head. It was necessary, under
such circumstances, that a deputation should wait upon the Home
Secretary and ask him to provide a remedy, and tell the authorities what
they were to do at such a crisis. If, as it now appeared, the inspectors
and the markets' committee had been slaughtering beasts without
authority, who was to pay the costs should proceedings against them be
commenced? Professor Simonds seemed to think that next session a bill of
indemnity would be introduced, and certainly something of this kind was
rendered necessary, for cattle were now coming here which were consigned
to A., B., and C., and then the owners could not be found, and without
the consent of the owners the diseased beasts could not be killed. The
next subject in the report had reference to slaughter-houses. As there
were no places at present to which cattle in an incipient stage of the
disease could be removed from the sheds in which they were placed along
with untainted cattle, it was now proposed that slaughter-houses should
be established in London for their reception. Then came the question,
how were the beasts to be removed from the sheds to the
slaughter-houses? It was the opinion of many that they ought to be
removed in vans, and not driven through the streets; but, however that
might be, slaughter-houses should be erected in the metropolis where the
tainted animals might be killed. Then came the question, how was an
animal to be dealt with when first stricken with the disease? It was
suggested that hospitals or sanatoriums should be provided, to which the
beasts should be sent. But this was a matter of great importance, to
which the attention of the committee to be appointed and that of the
medical men would have to be directed. If the plague went on it would
affect all classes, rich and poor alike, and instead of meat being as
now at a reasonable rate, it would go up 4_d._ or 6_d._ per pound; but
he had hopes that the disease might be checked, particularly as
Professors Simonds and Gamgee had been more successful in the treatment
of it than they had previously been.


NOTE T.

August 31.

DEPUTATION TO THE HOME OFFICE.--Yesterday afternoon the Lord
Mayor proceeded from the Mansion House to the Home Office, and had an
interview with Mr. Waddington on the subject of the cattle plague, and
the desirability of establishing hospitals or sanatoriums within the
metropolitan districts for the reception and medical treatment of
diseased cattle. His lordship was accompanied on the occasion by the
following deputation from the Markets and Cattle Plague Committees:--Mr.
Gibbins (Chairman of the Markets Committee), Mr. Webber, Mr. Gower, Mr.
Brewster, Mr. Rudkin, and Dr. Jarvis (the Medical Officer of Health for
Bethnal-green). Sir George Grey having left London for Falloden.

The Lord Mayor introduced the deputation to Mr. Waddington, and in doing
so, said that their object was to obtain the sanction of Government to
the establishment of hospitals or sanatoriums within the metropolitan
districts, to which diseased cattle could be conveyed from the cowsheds
in order that they might there receive medical treatment, and be, if
possible, restored to health. He observed that similar establishments
had been formed at Edinburgh and other large towns, and that they had
been found to work most satisfactorily, not only in separating the
diseased cattle from those which were non-diseased, but in affording
facilities to the medical profession to exercise their skill and
knowledge under circumstances more favourable to a fair trial of both
than they could expect to find in crowded cowsheds, many of which were
in a filthy condition and badly ventilated. He pointed out the progress
the plague had made, and was still making, in the metropolis, and how
its effects upon the high price of meat and milk were affecting all
classes of the community. The difficulties, he said, of adequately
meeting the necessities of the case were at present very great, and some
of these consisted in the alleged illegality of slaughtering diseased
animals without an order from a magistrate, and also the illegality of
removing those diseased from the cowsheds to the hospitals, supposing
the latter to exist. But he hoped the Government, who had no doubt well
considered a subject of such vast importance, would speedily do away
with those difficulties, and render the fullest aid to the Markets'
Committee and Metropolitan Cattle Plague Committee, who were unceasingly
devoting their time and attention to mitigate, and, if possible, put an
end to the evil. At present, however, the object of the deputation was
limited to that of obtaining the sanction of the Government to the
establishment of the hospitals or sanatoriums. This was an object which
had not only received the general approval of the two committees
mentioned, but also of the medical profession, and he might add, what it
was by no means unimportant to bear in mind, that the cowkeepers
themselves and the salesmen of the Cattle Market were also in favour of
it.

Mr. Gibbins and the several members of the deputation corroborated what
had fallen from the Lord Mayor, and strongly advocated the necessity of
having the hospitals speedily established.

Mr. Rudkin called the attention of Mr. Waddington to the fact that the
day before there were fourteen diseased cows seized at the
slaughter-house of the Cattle Market, which had been sent there from the
cowsheds of the metropolis. He argued that this in itself was a proof
that the Order in Council, as at present carried out, was insufficient
to prevent diseased cows from being sent from the cowsheds by their
owners to be slaughtered for human food.

Mr. Waddington, who listened very attentively to the whole of the
statements, said he would take an early opportunity of communicating
with Sir George Grey upon the subject. In the first instance, however,
he wished the deputation to forward to him their views in writing, and
these also would be transmitted to the Home Secretary.

The deputation promised to comply with the suggestion, and thanked Mr.
Waddington for the courtesy with which he had received and the patience
with which he had listened to them.

YORKSHIRE.--The plague has extended to this district. The cases
reported, however, are extremely few, and precautions are being taken
which it is hoped may stop the further progress of the disease. On
Tuesday a meeting of the Yorkshire Medical Veterinary Society was held
at Leeds, and the question was discussed in all its bearings. It was
stated that four cases had occurred in Leeds, and the disease has also
appeared in the Skyrack division of the Riding. The general result of
the discussion was, that members of the society were recommended, when
diseased cattle were submitted, not to order them to be killed, but to
place them in a sanatorium for medicinal treatment; the wholesale
destruction of the animals being regarded as a blot upon the profession.


NOTE V.

Indeed, information has reached us of the disease existing in
Dumfriesshire, but there is some doubt on this point. So long as we hear
of infected, or probably infected, cattle being disseminated in large
numbers from the great markets of the country, we must have the
propagation of the malady. For the welfare of this country, it is deeply
to be regretted that our Government cannot deal with this question as
Continental authorities do. _I regret to say some of our neighbours
laugh at our expense._ They see us helpless owing to the wretched state
of our laws on the subject, and they are not a little amused at the
theories of spontaneous development of the disease which some still
advocate. The French Emperor has sent over Professor Bouley, who is
still in this country, and who telegraphed on his first arrival, about
ten days ago, that the ports of France should be instantly closed to
British cattle. This has been done, and we may depend upon it the French
people will not suffer as we now must.--GAMGEE, _Lettre du 24 Août_.


NOTE Y.

August 16.

MORE SEIZURES OF DISEASED MEAT.--Yesterday Mr. Paget, in the
course of the proceedings at the Thames Police Court, was informed that
there was a large quantity of meat in a van in the police-yard
adjoining, which had been seized that day by Mr. J. Stevens, the
sanitary inspector of Mile-end Old Town, and which was described as
unfit for human food. The inspector stated, that in consequence of
having been informed that there was a quantity of diseased meat at the
shop of Mr. Frost, butcher, Sydney-street, Mile-end Old Town, he went
there that morning, and found four quarters of beef (two fore and two
hind quarters) which were from a diseased beast. He made a seizure of
them, and heard that the animal had been sent by a person of the name of
Stephens, a cowkeeper in business on Bow-common. The meat was in a very
nasty state, and totally unfit for human food. (Mr. Paget went into the
police-yard to examine the meat, which was in a very shocking state.)
Dr. Freeman, Medical Officer of Health of the Hamlet of Mile-end Old
Town, stated that his attention was called to the state of the meat by
the sanitary inspector. He examined it, and gave his opinion that it
should be destroyed, as it was not only in a diseased condition, but he
believed that it had died from some disease. Mr. Paget: Can you state
the nature of the disease which caused its death?--Witness: I cannot.
Most likely it was the prevailing epidemic; and if it were eaten it
would be very injurious. Mr. Paget, after hearing the evidence, ordered
that the meat should be immediately destroyed, when the inspector took
the van with its contents to a knacker's yard to see the order carried
into effect.


NOTE Z.

NEFARIOUS ATTEMPT TO SPREAD THE PLAGUE.--Yesterday Mr. Gifford,
Sanitary Inspector to the parish of Paddington, asked (at Marylebone
Police Court) for the magistrate's advice under the following
circumstances:--Applicant said that, in consequence of information
received, he yesterday went to a cowshed situate on the Maryland Farm,
Harrow-road. He found the door fastened. On looking through one of the
chinks, he saw a cow which apparently was in the worst stage of the now
prevailing disease, and his opinion was verified after he had burst open
the door and examined the animal. He subsequently ascertained that the
diseased cow had been brought some distance by a man who was at feud
with the owner of the Maryland Farm, and surreptitiously placed amongst
the healthy cattle. This was the first case where the disease had shown
itself in the parish of Paddington. Mr. Yardley referred the applicant
to the Order in Council, dated the 24th of July, 1865, under which he
thought inspectors of nuisances had power to act summarily.


THE END.


  LONDON:
  SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
  COVENT GARDEN.




    +-----------------------------------------------+
    |             Transcriber's Note:               |
    |                                               |
    | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the  |
    | original document have been preserved.        |
    |                                               |
    | Greek words are transliterated and marked     |
    | +like so+                                     |
    |                                               |
    | Typographical errors corrected in the text:   |
    |                                               |
    | Page  62  Ge11e changed to Gellé              |
    | Page  67  Bruneleschi changed to Brunelleschi |
    | Page 142  Röol changed to Röll                |
    | Page 175  charboneux changed to charbonneux   |
    | Page 253  eat changed to ate                  |
    | Page 354  lairs changed to fairs              |
    | Page 377  Boulay changed to Bouley            |
    +-----------------------------------------------+







*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE: OR, CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS IN HORNED CATTLE. ITS HISTORY, ORIGIN, DESCRIPTION, AND TREATMENT ***


    

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