THE LUNG PLAGUE. 25 



Others declare that the disease commenced with the potato disease, and may be produced 

 by feeding cattle on diseased potatoes. The introduction of turnip husbandly, which 

 undoubtedly first made us acquainted with a form of red water in cows, and severe apo 

 plectic affections in sheep, has also been regarded as the cause in Great Britain of the 

 lung disease in cattle. Delafond agrees that the foods named do not cause pleuropneu- 

 monia, and it would be easy to fill a large volume with facts in support of this assertion ; 

 and yet he goes on to say that food that is too succulent, distributed in large quantity 

 among cattle that are being stall-fed, either for the butcher or for the production of milk, 

 may induce (pent occasioner] pleuropneumonia. 



We are not ignorant of the precise results which ensue when an excessive quantity, 

 inordinate richness, or diseased condition of the alimentary matters named may operate in 

 inducing ill-effects. Diseased potatoes induce indigestion and colic. Turnips grown on 

 ill-drained lands give rise to hffimaturia, the red water of cows after parturition. Distil 

 lery products occasion diuresis, disturbed digestion, and, when still charged with alcoholic 

 principles, give rise to cerebral disturbance, apoplexy, and death. These, and not pleuro 

 pneumonia, are known to us as capable of development from the abuse of otherwise useful 

 articles of cattle-feeding. 



STABLING STALL-FEEDING. 



Many have been the high-colored descriptions of the wretched stables, sheds, or what 

 the Scotch people term &quot;byres/ in which cattle are housed. It matters not that for gen 

 erations cattle were similarly housed without suffering from pleuropneumonia. There are 

 always those ready to skim the surface for reasons, and, after noticing the closeness, filth, 

 and torturing narrowness of cattle stalls, ascribe to that any and every plague infecting 

 the cow shed. It is needless to walk the observer through the fetid holes in which cattle 

 are kept for the supply of milk in Copenhagen, where pleuropneumonia has not been 

 observed, nor to refer to the days when the London dairymen, richer in money and cows, 

 kept the latter worse, bred from them regularly, and could maintain country farms on which 

 to graze them while calving. It stands to reason, according to some, that such conditions 

 must induce pleuropneumonia. In America, sensation articles and skillful illustrations 

 have not been wanting, and no one can hesitate in declaring that the cow sheds of Brook 

 lyn and other cities are a disgrace to a civilized people. 



Huzard first described the cow houses of Paris as they were in 1793. It is needless 

 to follow him through a long description of low sheds, in which a man could not stand 

 erect, where cows were crippled into permanent rest, with their horns overgrown and dis 

 torted for want of regular wear and tear, and in which fowls, pigs, and rabbits shared shelter 

 and a pestilential atmosphere. Delafond has described the wretched stabling of hill farmers. 

 How, then, can it be said that in these sheds, where the lung plague always prevails, the 

 conditions do not exist for its spontaneous origin? 



It cannot be disputed that there are conditions as when an animal suffers from pleuro 

 pneumonia, and has but one lung to breathe with under which a large volume of pure 

 air may turn the scale from death to life. It is also undoubted that the concentration of 

 the poison so freely given off in this contagious disease must materially favor its repro 

 duction in the systems of susceptible animals. But no one who has witnessed the slow 

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