96 



CATTLE, DISEASES OF. 



affecting the lungs of cattle, which was only 

 stamped out in Massachusetts with so exten- 

 sive destruction of the animals affected by it, 

 two or three years since, has been, during the 

 past year, endemic in several sections of the 

 country. Several of the dairy districts of New 

 York, especially Long Island and the Dutchess 

 County milk-producing region, and portions of 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- 

 ginia, have suffered seriously from this disease. 

 The contagiousness of this disease is not fully 

 settled, though many of the most eminent vet- 

 erinarians are inclined to regard it as conta- 

 gious, but its epidemic tendency is well known. 

 It is more generally fatal in cattle than in 

 horses, and the only safe course to adopt is, to 

 kill at once any animal affected with it, iso- 

 lating it, on the first appearance of symptoms 

 of the disease, from the rest of the herd, and 

 using disinfectants freely and plentifully. 



3. Late in the year, in October and Novem- 

 ber, a disease of great severity, and speedily 

 fatal, made its appearance, almost simultane- 

 ously, at widely-distant points. In Polk Coun- 

 ty, Iowa, a hundred cattle or more died very 

 suddenly, after manifesting, for a few hours, 

 extreme pain, accompanied with frothing at 

 the mouth, weakness and stupidity, and gen- 

 eral torpor, and indisposition to rise or move. 

 In Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, N. Y., six 

 cattle died with similar symptoms, and in West 

 Springfield and North Hadley, Mass., five more 

 died, at intervals of a week or two, after a very 

 brief illness, with the same symptoms. There 

 were no indications of contagion here; the 

 season was too far advanced for Spanish fever, 

 and the symptoms were not those of pleuro- 

 pneumonia. Professor Gamgee investigated 

 some of the cases with care, and gave it as his 

 opinion that they had been poisoned by eating 

 freely of smutty corn and corn-fodder which 

 had become extensively smutted in the tassels. 

 There was an unusual quantity and size of this 

 fungous growth upon the corn in Iowa, Eastern 

 New York, and Massachusetts, and it is said to 

 be a virulent poison. Many intelligent stock- 

 raisers, however, discard the " smut theory," 

 but offer no satisfactory one in its place. 



4. The endemic disease of abortion in cows, 

 which has so seriously affected the dairy inter- 

 ests in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 

 vania, still continues, and the protracted and 

 elaborate investigations which have been made 

 seem neither to have discovered its cause nor a 

 remedy for it. 



A remarkable and very fatal epidemic has 

 existed among horses in Texas for two winters 

 past, which seems to be of the nature of the 

 cerebro-spinal meningitis which, in 1863, af- 

 fected both man and beast in North Carolina. 

 Intelligent officers of the Quartermaster's De- 

 partment report that it first appeared during 

 the winter of 1866-'6T, at Camp Verde and 

 Fort Mason, the former sixty-two and the lat- 

 ter one hundred and sixteen miles, in a north- 

 westerly direction, from San Antonio. So far 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



as could then be learned, it was-a disease of the 

 stomach and brain. Horses were seized with 

 apparently great pain, and became very rest- 

 less, plunging and rearing in a frightful man- 

 ner, and, after a few hours, died. Post-mortem 

 examinations showed an inflamed brain, and 

 the stomach very full of undigested food, 

 greatly distended, and also somewhat inflamed. 

 The disease was very rapid and fatal. The 

 private horses of officers suffered as well as 

 public ones, and also the animals of citizens in 

 the neighborhood. In the fall and winter of 

 1867-'68, a similar disease broke out at the 

 San Antonio Depot, and extended to Austin, 

 though less prevalent there. The symptoms 

 were much the same as before, perhaps less 

 aggravated, but accompanied by a disease of 

 the throat and neck. At first a good many ani- 

 mals were lost, but in the course of a few 

 weeks the disease was mastered by a skilful 

 veterinary surgeon, after which but few ani- 

 mals were lost. The treatment most success- 

 ful was, in mild cases, simply blistering the 

 throat, and more or less of the neck, as the se- 

 verity of the case seemed to require, adminis- 

 tering expectorants, and feeding only bran 

 " mash." After the acute form of the disease 

 had passed away, the animal was carefully fed 

 on bran, and quinine was administered. In se- 

 vere cases, blistering of the throat, neck, and 

 top of the head was resorted to with good suc- 

 cess, as also bleeding at the neck. In all cases 

 the animal was " smoked " with a mixture of 

 tar, feathers, .and leather, intended to keep 

 open the air-passages of the nose and head. 

 When this was not done, the symptoms of suf- 

 focation and suffering were far greater. In no 

 cases were purgatives used, unless the constipa- 

 tion was extreme, as they seemed to have a 

 bad effect. This was the whole treatment, and 

 it was very successful. Post-mortem examina- 

 tions showed great inflammation of the throat, 

 glands of the neck, trachea, stomach, and brain. 

 There were also found very large effusions of 

 serum in the cavity of the brain. On the ap- 

 pearance of the disease at the San Antonio de- 

 pot the most rigid police of the stables was 

 enforced, and disinfectants were freely used, 

 under which, and the treatment already al- 

 luded to, it disappeared. The disease mani- 

 fested itself at other military posts in Texas 

 during the same winter. The cause of the dis- 

 ease, after careful observation and study, could 

 not be conclusively ascertained. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. There are at pres- 

 ent in Central America five independent re- 

 publics : Guatemala, San Salvador,' Honduras, 

 Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. 



1. GUATEMALA.* President (1865-1869), 

 Vincente Cerna. The State ministry, in 1868, 

 consisted of the following members : Foreign 

 Affairs, Marquis Pedfco de Aycinena ; Interior, 

 Justice, Instruction, and Worship, Manuel Eche- 



* A full account of the movement of commerce from 

 1857 to 1866 is given in the ANNUAL AMBBIOAN CYCLOPS- 

 DI! for 1867. 



