106 Discussion on Disinfectants. 



there in the Cattle Plagrie a peculiar cell ? It was most important to 

 know that this was a statement that could be depended upon. 



Mr. Lees remarked that a more j)owerful analyst than the micro- 

 scope was the screen, the action of which was most extraordinary. 

 Had these cells been examined in that way ? 



Professer Voelcker said it was not his intention to touch upon the 

 medical question. He merely alluded to it in order to have a conve- 

 nient op2x:)rtunity of showing that we had to deal in this disease with 

 a material substance. He could not say whether the microscopic cells 

 were in existence or not. He had no intention to open this qxiestion, 

 although it was most important that we should know whether the 

 disease had a material origin. 



Mr. ToER asked what proportion the acid bore to the sawdust ? 



Professor Voelcker said the sawdust should be mixed with about 

 20 per cent, of carbolic acid. 



Colonel Talbot said he was a practical farmer, holding a dairy- 

 farm close to London, and the owner, dm-ing the last five months, of 

 100 cows, not one of which had been attacked by the Cattle Plague 

 till last Thursday (December 7th). When the plague was first heard 

 of, being of opinion that charcoal would be a good antisejitic, he 

 gave his bailiff orders to administer to each cow a quarter of a pint 

 of prepared charocal daily, and an ounce of nitre dissolved in a pint 

 of cold water each other day. His bailifi*, a practical man, who had 

 for twelve years had the charge of 300 cows, told him a few days 

 afterwards, that the unpleasant odour of the cows' breath, which 

 he had exjDcrienced in drenching them, had disappeared. He also 

 used very largely Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid, which he believed 

 was chloride of zinc ; he used it freely in the drains, with a watering- 

 jwt, and poured it about the sheds and mangers. He also lime-whited 

 the buildings. The result was that the sheds were perfectly inodorous, 

 although generally the smell of a cowshed is discernible two or three 

 hundred yards off. The animals were bought at farm-houses, and not 

 at fairs and markets : and when they reached home they were washed 

 with Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid. They were kept in the most per- 

 fect isolation that he could devise ; but yet, after all, the plague at 

 last attacked them. 



He could not in any way trace the origin of the disease. It 

 attacked an old cow ; not one of the new ones. He had read every- 

 thing that had been written on the subject, and by chance he heard 

 of a medicine called Worbcna,* — a most potent medicine. On Friday 

 night last he had 11 cows suffering from the plague. One of them he 

 treated homoeopathically, and she died. The other 10 he treated with 

 the Worbeua. To-day 6 of them had perfectly recovered, and one 

 yielded 19 quarts of milk a-day ; and they were so ravenous for food, 

 that they were eating haybands. 



The proper course to pursue was to watch with the gxeatest care 

 every animal in the herd and the moment they found any one the 



* Col. Talbot has since informed the Editor that this, and all other remedies 

 he had tried, proved inetfectual at last. 



