334 Contac/ious Disease amony Cattle in Mecldenhurg. 



amelioration. The animal then staggers, falls, rolls on the 

 ground, gasps for breath, SAvells up, is seized with convulsions, 

 and dies. 



Treatment. — In respect to the treatment of the disease, writers 

 differ materially, some recommending bleeding, others strongly 

 condemning it. Professor Baumeister and Dr. Duttenhofer pre- 

 scribe, as a remedy in the first stage of the disease, calomel 2 dr., 

 burnt acorns h oz., marsh-mallow h oz., made up with honey into 

 pills, two or three of which to be administered daily ; but another 

 writer (Marteus) candidly admits that none of the innumerable 

 remedies hitherto prescribed have been of much efficacy. 



Contagious character. — All the writers I have consulted concur 

 in regarding this murrain as in the highest degree contagious. 

 Hide, hoofs, horns, in short every part of the animal, as well as 

 the excrements, are impregnated with the virus, which is more- 

 over so volatile that it may be communicated at the distance of 

 twenty paces. In the open air the virus loses its force in six 

 days, but when closed up retains it for months. The contagion 

 is limited to horned cattle — other animals, as well as human 

 beings, not being affected by it. The mortality among the cattle 

 attacked by the disease averages in the steppes 50 per cent. ; in 

 Germany from 80 to 90 per cent. During the first stage of the 

 disease the liesh retains its natural colour, and may be eaten 

 without detriment. It afterwards becomes pale, withered, and 

 nauseous, and is, of course, unfit for food. 



Precautionary measures. — When the disease breaks out, or is 

 in an adjacent country, the most stringent regulations to prevent 

 its spreading or introduction should be instantly adopted and duly 

 enforced by the competent authorities. The most effectual way 

 of checking the disease would be to slaughter the cattle attacked 

 by it at once. But whether they be slaughtered or die of the 

 disease, their carcasses as well as their excrements should be burnt 

 or otherwise destroyed, or at least thrown into deep pits, dug for 

 the purpose, and carefully covered up with earth. The hides, if 

 preserved, should be tanned as soon as possible. The clothes of 

 the attendants, the stalls, cowhouses, &c., should be purified vv^ith 

 chlorine, and the cowhouses well ventilated before other cattle 

 are stalled in them. 



The PL^L:MO^^\RY Muerain. — Origin or cause. — Marshy mea- 

 dovv's, bad and too irritating food, as frozen potatoes, &c., want of 

 fresh water, removal to another district, and, above all, infection. 



Symptoms. — The disease is described as an induration, with a 

 sarcose change in the texture of the lungs. The symptoms are 

 much the same as those of the steppe murrain ; in fact so similar, 

 that the two diseases are often confounded. The first stage of the 



