lU 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



and the healing one commenced, and in most no change 

 of structure can be observed. The terminal portion of 

 the rectum is generally implicated to a far less extent. 



The substance of the liver is healthy ; the gall ducts, 

 however, contain layers of effused lymph ; and some- 

 times to an amount sufficient to block up the passages. 

 The gall bladder is filled with bile possessing its or- 

 dinary characters, but the inner surface of the bladder 

 is not unfrequently in precisely the same state as the 

 mucous membrane of the large intestines. 



The kidneys are healthy, and the urinary and genera- 

 tive systems apparently unaffected. 



The larynx is occasionally slightly ulcerated, particu- 

 larly on the edge of the arytseaoid cartilages. No 

 ulceration, however, has been seen by us throughout 

 the whole extent of the windpipe and bronchial tubes ; 

 but thin layers of effused lymph lying in close contact 

 with the mucous membrane are almost invariably pre- 

 sent. The lungs are healthy, of a normal colour, and 

 often remarkably free from congestion. Their serous 

 membrane is also unaffected. 



The heart is healthy, occasionally rather flaccid, and 

 without blood in its cavities. The blood in all the ves- 

 sels is fluid, evidently from loss of its fibrine. It is 

 also darker in colour than ordinary venous blood. The 

 brain and spinal marrow give no evidence of structural 

 change ; but an increased quantity of fluid is often found 

 in the ventricles of the brain, and especially in the 

 upper part of the theca vertebralis. The flesh is firm, 

 of a good colour, and has but little tendency to pass 

 quickly into decomposition ; indeed, we have not unfre- 

 quently seen it in a state fitted for food. 



Pathology. — It is difficult to sjjeak with certainty of 

 the true nature of the rinderpest, but it is evident that 

 the morbific matter on which it depends, having entered 

 the system through the medium of the organs of respira- 

 tion, soon acts upon the blood, by converting some of 

 the constituents of that fluid into its own elements ; 

 and that, while this process is going on, the animal 

 gives no recognisable indications of being the subject of 

 the malady. This period constitutes the incubative 

 stage of the disease. 



The blood, having thus become contaminated, its 

 vitality impaired, and the poison augmented a thousand- 

 fold within the organism, the brain and nervous sys- 

 tems, as the centres of sensation and motion, have their 

 normal functions necessarily and quickly interfered with, 

 and hence one of the earliest indications of the disease 

 is a spasmodic twitching of the voluntary and other 

 muscles of the body. 



The malady has now arrived at a stage when nature 

 makes a bold effort to rid the system of the poison, and 

 in doing this the force of the morbific matter, so to 

 speak, falls with more or less severity upon the mucous 

 membranes throughout the entire body. Effusions of 

 lymph— the fibrine of the blood — take place into the 

 follicles of the mucous membranes, as an effect perhaps 

 in part of the overtaxing of these grand excretory or- 

 gans, and partly because the fibrine itself is charged 

 with the mnteries morhi, and has probably also lost 

 some portion of its vitality, which renders it unfitted to 

 remain in the vessels. Dark-coloured blood, and which 

 remains fluid even a'ter death from its defibrination, now 

 flows in the vessels ; and dysenteric purging also sets in, 

 under which, as a rule, the animal quickly siaks. 



If, on the contrary, the vis vitce should be sufficiently 

 powerful to withstand so great an exhausting process, 

 then the poison being cast off, and principally by the 

 digestive canal, the patient slowly rallies, and the func- 

 tions of the organism are gradually restored. Healthy 

 fibrine again supplies the place of that which was lost, 

 so that the blood will now clot when removed from the 



vessels, and be once more brought into a state to sup- 

 port the vitality of the prostrated organs. 



Ulceration of the mucous membranes, commencing 

 in the follicles, may attend these processes, but it is not 

 a necessary pathological condition of the pest. It is 

 rather to be regarded as a sequence depending for its 

 existence on the amount of the contamination of the 

 blood, the duration of the disease, and the diminished 

 strength of the vital forces. 



In all this we have a great similarity to the pathology 

 of the small-pox, but in that disease the external skin is 

 the principal focus of the malady ; while in rinderpest 

 the mucous membranes or internal skin are its chief 

 seat. Small-pox frequently proves fatal before the local 

 symptoms are well established ; and so, indeed, does 

 rinderpest, from the great amount of morbific matter 

 with which the system is charged. 



Navies cjiven to the disease. — Of all the terms which 

 have been given to this malady, there is none which we 

 are willing to adopt in preference to " Rixderpest." 

 It is the one which we have employed throughout this 

 Report, although it may be thought that it is too gene- 

 ral in its application, and deficient also in explicitness, 

 to be selected in preference to others which set forth 

 something of the nature of the disease. The term never- 

 theless explains that the affection is a true cattle plarjue ; 

 and, besides this being the one which is used through- 

 out Germany, it is thoroughly understood in nearly 

 every European state — a fact which gives a value above 

 many others. 



" Steppe Murrain," although it tends to throw 

 some light on the chief location of the disease, fails to 

 take cognizance even of the kind of animal which is the 

 subject of it, and leaves the pathology entirely unex- 

 plained. 



" Contagious typhus" is far from being appro- 

 priate, notwithstanding that the disease has some charac- 

 ters which are common to the typhus of man. The 

 differences which are observed in the duration, progress, 

 symptoms, and results of the two maladies, are far too 

 numerous and important to warrant the pathologist in 

 the adoption of a definite term of this kind, and for 

 this reason we have abstained from employing it. 



" Loser durre" is, in our opinion, the most inap- 

 propriate of any of the names we have alluded to. The 

 hardness of the third stomach, or rather of its contents, 

 which the term implies, is not a speciality attatching to 

 the affection. It may often be present, but it is just as 

 frequently absent. The term directs attention to one 

 particular part of the body as the seat of diseased action; 

 and consequently it often leads to incorrect conclusions. 

 We have seen men of ability, who have been called upon 

 to make j)Ost-mortem examinations, hesitate to pro- 

 nounce a decided opinion of the existence of the pest 

 when the third stomach has been found healthy. Hard- 

 ness or dryness of these contents is common in twenty 

 other diseases of cattle, and in nearly every instance in 

 which it occurs it is but an effect of suspended function 

 of the third stomach, as the cessation of rumination is 

 of the first. 



IVeatment. — We have very little to report of a satis- 

 factory description of the medical treatment of the rin- 

 derpest. Indeed, no attempts at curing the disease are 

 now made, in consequence of the inutility of all the 

 means which have been tried, and the greater risk which 

 is incurred of a s;ill further extention of the malady by 

 the keeping alive of animals which would otherwise be 

 slaughtered at once. The advancement which has of 

 late years attached to the science of medicine would seem 

 to hold out a hope that remedies may be found for this 

 hitherto incurable disease. All experiments, however, 

 undertaken for this object, would have, we believe, but 

 little chance of success, unless they were carried out by, 



