CATTLE. 1G5 



partially softened, the effects of which changes are often seen in healthy Texas cattle when 

 slaughtered in Northern markets. 



The blood also undergoes important changes. The red corpuscles are perceptibly 

 modified in form and size, as well as wonderfully diminished in quantity, in the last stages. 

 Hence the reason for the diffusion of the coloring matter all over the body before death. 

 Bile can always be detected in the blood of one of these sick animals, and thus acts as a 

 solvent on the anatomical elements. Cholaemia, therefore, exists, as shown in all the 

 exudations beneath the skin, and in all the internal organs. 



With the condition of the system as seen from & post-mortem examination, treatment can 

 avail but little. Various plans of medication have been resorted to, but thus far with 

 questionable results. No specific medicines have yet been found to stay its ravages. 

 Eliminatives and antiseptics would naturally seem to be called for, and have been given in 

 certain cases with good results. But it is impossible to select even an approximate remedy 

 until the pathology of this contagious malady is better understood; and this can only be 

 accomplished by experimental investigation, which should ever be the theme of a National 

 Sanitary Commission, appointed by the President.&quot; 



Tuberculosis. This disease, which is identical with consumption in the human 

 family, is more common in cattle than any other of the domestic animals. It is also found 

 more frequently in cows than in oxen, those cows that have been kept in dairies a long time 

 been particularly predisposed to it. It would seem from this fact that the drain upon the 

 system by continuous milk production might be regarded as a predisposing cause. Dark, 

 under-ground stables, poor ventilation, cold, damp sheds; insufficient food, or food of poor 

 quality; all tend to the development of this disease. Tuberculosis is also hereditary in all 

 grades and classes of cattle, but particularly so in these which are in-and-in bred. In fact, 

 we believe there is no one cause more potent in the production of this disease than the 

 common, yet pernicious system of in-and-in breeding. 



Calves but from two to three months old have been known to die from this disease, a 

 post-mortem examination showing the lungs and pleura filled with tubercular tumors. This is 

 only one of many proofs of its hereditary character. In-and-in breeding cannot be followed 

 long without a deterioration in the constitutional vigor and hardiness of the stock thus bred, 

 and breeders would do well to give more consideration to this subject and thus avoid the 

 evils resulting from it. 



This disease is also contagious, as has been proved by various experiments on animals. 

 When sound animals are placed in the same stable with diseased ones, so as to eat from the 

 same manger or inhale the air expired from their lungs, infection will follow as a natural 

 result. Hay that has been breathed upon by a diseased animal becomes contaminated, and 

 infection will take place by this means through the digestive organs. Stalls that have been 

 occupied by infected animals will also be the cause of this disease, providing they are occupied 

 by others before being properly cleansed. 



Dr. Villemin of the Val-de-Grace Hospital, Paris, made numerous experiments on ani 

 mals a few years since, with a view of testing the question whether human consumption 

 might not be caused by the introduction of a specific virus into the system. He inoculated 

 rabbits and guinea pigs in various parts of the body, with matter taken from a diseased 

 human lung, which resulted in many of them dying, while others lingered in a suffering con 

 dition until killed, and in every case tubercular deposits were found, thus proving that the 

 disease had been transmitted by inoculation. He also inoculated rabbits with matter from 

 the diseased lung of a cow, with the same result as before, and thus demonstrated that tuber 

 culosis, or bovine consumption, is identical with consumption in man. 



Prof. Chauveau, of Lyons, found in his experiments that this disease can be as readily 

 transmitted through the digestive organs as by any other means. He gave to three calves 



