HORSES, CATARRHAL EPIDEMIC AMONG. 



383 



Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. In 1839 

 he erected a magnificent observatory for ob- 

 sarvin" 1 and recording the phenomena of ter- 

 restrial magnetism. In 1869 David Dudley 

 nekl, Esq., of New York, endowed a Memori- 

 1 Professorship of Astronomy with $25,000, 

 ;ipulating that the proceeds should be secured 

 ;o Prof. Hopkins during his life. From 1835 

 ;o 1840 Prof. Hopkins was also Professor of 

 Drench. Astronomy was his favorite study, 

 nd he had made great attainments in that sci- 

 nce, being the constant and valued corre- 

 Kradent of the most eminent European as- 

 onomers. He had also made frequent con- 

 ;ributions on astronomical and philosophical 

 ubjects to the Royal Society of Great Britain, 

 nd in 1869, a vacancy occurring among the 

 orresponding fellows of that Society, he was 

 ected to the vacant fellowship, an honor not 

 onferred on more than two or three Ameri- 

 ans during the present century. But Prof. 

 Hopkins was more than an astronomer : every 

 epartment of natural science had received his 

 areful investigation; he was thoroughly at 

 lome in the realm of physics, an able geolo- 

 ist, and remarkable for his attainments in 

 )hysical geography and meteorology ; a skil- 

 \il botanist, and the projector and pioneer of 

 iose scientific expeditions from colleges, in 

 which Harvard, and Yale, Cornell, and other 

 oileges, have followed with such grand suc- 

 esses. He founded a Natural History Society 

 nd an Alpine Club in the college, to which 

 uceessive expeditions have given a fine muse- 

 in and collection, and in all ways developed 

 le taste for physical science among the stu- 

 ents, by all of whom he was greatly beloved, 

 jich of the work which has been done during 

 le past thirty years, to improve the grounds 

 ' the college, and to adorn the beautiful vil- 

 lage in which it is situated, has been the direct 

 labor of Prof. Hopkins, or inspired by him. He 

 was licensed to preach by the Berkshire Con- 

 gregational Association in 1837, and for many 

 years was a stated supply to Congregational 

 lurches in Williamstown and South Williams- 

 ;own, and much of the time acting college pas- 

 tor. In 1866 he built, largely from his own re- 

 sources, a chapel at White Oaks, a previously 

 neglected district of the town, where he per- 

 formed a truly missionary work, and in 1868 

 organized a church there. His only son, an 

 officer in the late war, fell in battle, in 1863. 

 HORSES, CA.TARRHA.L EPIDEMIC AMONG, OB 

 PIZOOTIO, a wide-spread disease which pre- 

 ailed throughout North America in the au- 

 umn of 1872, and the winter of 1873, among 

 lorses, and to some extent among sheep and 

 attic. It made its first appearance at Toronto 

 -bout the 30th of September (some authorities 

 ij the 8th or 9th of October), reached New 

 ~ork about the 18th of October, and in ten 

 ays there were 40,000 horses attacked by it, 

 ad nearly 13,000 in Brooklyn. In less than 

 ^vo months it had reached Galveston, Texas, 

 Allowing the Atlantic slope in its course, and 



not long after followed the Mississippi River 

 northward as far as St. Louis, and then turned 

 westward, reaching Colorado, Wyoming, and 

 Nevada, in January, 1873, and California a few 

 days later. It had visited Chicago, and the 

 region of the upper and lower lakes, a little 

 before or about the same time that it appeared 

 in New York. It prevailed throughout New 

 England about the close of October and the 

 early part of November, though considerably 

 earlier in the northern than in the southern 

 portion of the New England States. 



The disease received a great variety of names, 

 among which the most common were horse- 

 distemper, horse-plague, epizootic or epizooty, 

 hipporhinorrhoea, horse-influenza, horse-ca- 

 tarrh, etc. Prof. James Law, of Cornell Uni- 

 versity, who had given the subject very careful 

 attention, said, in a lecture delivered in New 

 York late in October: "The disease is by 

 no means a new one. Between 415 and 412 

 B. c., a similar disease raged in Greece, Italy, 

 and Sicily. It has also occurred in A. D. 

 330, 876, 1173, 1259, 1299 (then especially 

 severe), six times in the fourteenth century, 

 39 times in the fifteenth, twice in the six- 

 teenth, five times in the seventeenth, 15 times 

 in the eighteenth, and 17 times in the 

 nineteenth thus far probably not more fre- 

 quently in later times, but apparently so from 

 the lack of full records earlier. It is doubtful, 

 however, whether it had ever before appeared 

 in the United States, certainly not in the pres- 

 ent century, unless in a very mild form. Some- 

 times it has especially attacked horses, dogs, 

 cats, and oxen, and sometimes man. It is es- 

 sentially an influenza." Its character was cer- 

 tainly epidemic rather than contagious. It 

 extended, as we have said, very rapidly, more 

 so than it was possible for animals to pass from 

 one city to another, and occasionally leaped 

 long distances, as from Rochester, or Syracuse, 

 to New York City, and appearing simulta- 

 neously in stables miles apart. 



The first symptom was a chill, or shivering, 

 followed very soon by a high temperature of 

 the whole body, and evident fever. The nor- 

 mal temperature of the blood of the horse is 

 99.5 Fahr., or below in some instances ; but, in 

 the very commencement of this disease, it rose 

 to 100, 102, or even 104. The next symptom 

 was a severe cough, accompanied by copious 

 discharges of a watery fluid from the nose, 

 which soon became a thick, yellow, muco-pu- 

 rulent discharge. At this point the horse 

 usually showed a disinclination to take his 

 food. At this stage, suitable treatment would 

 often arrest the disease, and, after remaining 

 stationary for two or three days, the horse 

 would recover completely in a week or ten 

 days, but, in those cases where its progress was 

 not checked, or where the constitution of the 

 animal was somewhat broken, the early symp- 

 toms were succeeded by those of a more aggra- 

 vated character ; the cough increased, the pulse 

 became more rapid, the heat rising in fatal cases 



