ON FEVERS AMONGST HOESES, CATTLE, ETC 239 



]r)ict, — From the manner in which our cattle and sheep are 

 supplied with food, there is no doubt whatever that much harm 

 exists, and the production of anthrax in this country is con- 

 siderably increased thereby. Owing to the general excellence 

 of British soil, system of tillage, &c., food for stock is raised in 

 large abundance, and from the want of a precise method it is 

 often too lavishly furnished, particularly to those being fed 

 indoors, and where the production of manure is held as an im- 

 portant object. Pastures are likewise heavily manured, and the 

 result is a luxuriant crop, which feeds rapidly. Again, food, not 

 only grain and the artificial kinds, but also the grass and herb- 

 age of pasturage, may be deficient in natural moisture, and thus 

 providing an excess of nutritive elements to the blood, while the 

 disposition to take necessary exercise is also proportionately 

 diminished, a poisoned state of the blood is induced favourable 

 to the development of the conditions which mark the special 

 disease. One of the forms of anthrax peculiarly common to stall- 

 fed cattle is known as splenic apoplexy — so called from the spleen 

 being considerably enlarged, its substance engorged with blood, 

 and "not unfreq[uently disorganised and ruptured, occasioning 

 sudden death in the most promising animals. It is also common 

 among younger stock which graze upon the richer and drier 

 herbage of high lands ; and from similar causes, when the dispo- 

 sition to pletiiora is already present, we find cows in which the 

 secretion of milk is nearly arrested are peculiarly liable to it. 



In horses the production of such fevers from diet alone appears 

 to be of rare occurrence. 



Among sheep splenic apoplexy does not prevail so commonly 

 in this country as in others, but in its place we have the for- 

 midable "braxy," so well known in the Highlands as resultinglfrom 

 a change from succulent grasses to the harder, drier, and often 

 more nutritious kinds of food. Thus, after these animals are 

 confined to the fold and have less exercise, the disease shows 

 itself. 



In young stock the same or similar conditions bring about 

 another form of disease known as black-quarter, quarter-ill, 

 black-leg, &c., and nothing proves so fertile in its production as 

 the feeding of a rich pasture after the short keep of winter, 

 although it must be admitted that towards autumn many deaths 

 arise from a change from moist to dry herbage, or from valleys 

 to higher lands, which amounts to the same thing. 



From repeated observation, we are led to conclude that the 

 food of our domesticated animals should very properly contain a 

 proportion of moisture, in order to render them assimilable, and 

 when by change of season or of food less succulent can be 

 obtained, or highly nutritious food is necessarily resorted to, 

 care should be observed in providing sufiicient moisture by an 



