434 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



CONTAGIOUS PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 



Cattle, like all other creatures which have lungs, 

 are liable to attacks of congestion and inflammation of 

 these organs from the causes which produce in- 

 flammation in other animals, but they are also liable 

 to be attacked by a specific form of inflammation of 

 the lungs, which as yet has been found in no other 

 but the Bovine race. 



This contagious and specific form of inflammation 

 of the lungs and its covering (Pleura) was unknown 

 in this country until the year 1841. According to 

 the literature on this subject, and on the authority of 

 Bourgelat (Founder of the French Veterinary College), 

 this disease existed in France in 1769, and appeared 

 in Prussia and Germany in 1802 ; in Russia in 1824; 

 Belgium, 1827 ; Holland, 1833 ; Sweden, 1847 ; 

 Denmark, 1848; Cape of Good Hope, 1854; United 

 States of America, 1843; Melbourne, 1858; New 

 Zealand, 1864 ; and in all these countries named, with 

 the single exception of Great Britain, it still exists. 



The name by which the disease is known, viz., 

 "Contagious Pleuro-Pneumonia," is a misnomer and 

 very misleading. It is a parasitic disease, and the 

 lung lesions or structural changes in the lung and its 

 covering are the results or consequences of the specific 

 organisms breeding and burrowing in the lung tissue. 

 It is a highly infectious disease, the organisms being 

 given off in the breath of the affected animal. 



The late Professor Dick did not believe in its 

 infection, and as a consequence the bulk of veterinarians 

 held the same opinion, and no measures having been 

 taken to prevent the spread of the malady by infected 

 animals, within a few years of its first appearance in 



