Dairy Management. 191 



learnt from the dealer from whom he l)ought them that the re- 

 mainder of the herd of 50, which were sold to six or eight parties 

 who resided at a distance from each other, were also affected 

 with the disease in the same week and with the like result. 



From this, to which numerous instances similar in character 

 may be added, we may infer that the origin of the disease is 

 sornewhat remote. The 50 Galloways being nearly the same 

 age would have been purchased from various breeders, and sent 

 together from. Galloway to Clitheroe, a distance of 150 miles. 

 It seems not improbable that from exposure to a sudden change 

 of temperature to which they were subjected after they had been 

 collected together by the dealer, the process of respiration has 

 been impeded, by which some impurity of the blood is engen- 

 dered, which slowly and imperce^^tibly increases until the sym- 

 ptoms I have described attract attention. 



Cattle from Ireland are more subject to this complaint than 

 others ; they are brought on board vessels, crowded together in 

 the hulls or on the decks, and on reaching land travel usually on 

 foot considerable distances to markets for sale. 



My milch cows are housed during winter in stalls of more 

 than ordinary warmth, and are turned out to grass in the month 

 of May, which in the season 1856 was unusually wet and 

 changeable ; the pleuro has prevailed among them since July. 

 At the commencement of this illness, the feeder states that 

 up to the meal before the cow has eaten up her food, given 

 her iisual yield of milk, and shown every symptom of health ; 

 thus though the disease has hitherto been imperceptible and of 

 slow progress, it arrives at a stage to cause a sudden interruption 

 of the functions, the cow's appetite is gone, and her yield of milk 

 diminished to one-half of what she gave 12 hours before. 



On applying the ear to the side of the animal you distinctly 

 hear the air rushing past, but at the very early stage, as far as 

 the ear can detect, with little or no impediment; the inhalations 

 become frequent and laboured. On opening the vein if you 

 place your finger in the stream of blood a hot sensation is im- 

 parted : if you again place your finger in the stream towards 

 the close of bleeding, the heat is sensibly diminished ; the colour 

 of the blood also undergoes a perceptible change from a dark to 

 a redder or brighter colour. 



A consideration of these symptoms seems to denote a greater 

 consumption of carbon, for the combustion or oxidation of 

 which it seems probable that the animal is prompted to exert 

 her organs of respiration for the supply of the necessary air, 

 whilst the blood at the same time is in an impure state. At 

 this stage immediate relief seems requisite to prevent or arrest 

 damage from over^exertion ; with this objept I resort to bleeding 



