The Cattle-PIariuc. 249 



Several physicians of the last century have left their views 

 respecting the cattle-plague Avhich then made its appearance. 

 They characterise it as a pustular eruption, allied to small-pox. 

 Dr. Mortimer describes " scabby eruptions in the groins and 

 axillEP, which itch much ; for a cow will stand still, hold out 

 her leg, and show signs of great pleasure when a man scratches 

 these pustules or scabs forher." * Dr. BrockLESBY remarks : 

 *' Frequently w^e may observe pustules break out on the filth or 

 sixth day, all over the neck and fore parts." t In 175S, Dr. 

 Layard whites thus : " Whoever will compare the appearances, 

 progress, and fatality of the small-pox with what is remarked by 

 authors of authority, as Ranazzixi, LanCISI, and other observers, 

 relative to the contagious distemper amongst the horned cattle, 

 Avill not be at a loss one moment to determine whether this 

 disease be an eruptive fever, like unto the small-pox, or not." % 

 ViCQ d'Azyr, a great French authority on epizootics, writing to 

 Layard, said : — " 11 me parait, comme a vous, que c'est toujours 

 la meme maladie qui a regne depuis 1711 ; et qu'elles a des 

 grands rapports avec I'eruption varioleuse." § In support of 

 these opinions such men recommended and practised inocula- 

 tion. 



For Dr. MuRCHlSOx's view-s we must refer to the 'Lancet' of 

 September last, his ' Official Report' not having yet appeared. He 

 there puts forth a series of propositions, upon which he attempts 

 to establish the identity of rinderpest M'ith small-pox. The 

 main points of resemblance he considers to be in the prominent 

 symptoms, the anatomical lesions, the peculiar odour after 

 death, the duration of the fever stage, the extreme contagious- 

 ness, and the facility with which the poison is transmitted by 

 fomites. He lavs great stress, too, on the pustular eruption 

 of rinderpest, and contends that, as small-pox is the only acute 

 contagious exanthema in man that assumes a pustular form, 

 identity must be more than probable. Beyond this, both 

 diseases can be propagated by inoculation, which can be said of 

 no other human malady than small-pox. It is necessary here to 

 observe that these propositions were advanced as recommenda- 

 tions to the practice of vaccination, Avhich, as Dr. MURCHISON 

 fully admits, has since proved of no avail. 



It would be of no service to carry these quotations further. From 

 what we have seen, the disease appears to have no analogue in 

 the morbid affections of the human race. To several of them it 

 presents a singular resemblance, but with none an exact identit}-. 

 A slight acquaintance with it has led pathologists to adopt a 



* 'Philosophical Transactions,' 1745. Vol. xliii. p. 554. 



t Essay on the ' }iIortality among the Horned Cattle." London, 1746, p 33. 



X ' Philosophical Transactions,' 175S. Vol. 1, p. 531. § Ibid, 1780. 



