40 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



it is possible that in some cases counter-irritants may be useful. The difficulty is to choose 

 those cases ; and, as a rule, I am satisfied that any but the mildest stimulants applied to 

 the skin irritate and do harm. 



It is highly important that any medicines given to cattle with this disease should be 

 given carefully, to avoid choking. Farmers are often very rough in giving drenches to 

 cattle. They should go up to the off shoulder of the animal, pass the left hand into the 

 angle of the mouth on the left side, draw the head around gently, without unduly eleva 

 ting it, and pour the draught out of a small horn in moderate quantities, giving the animal 

 time to swallow. I remember, as far back as 1851, being asked by a Yorkshire veterina 

 rian to prepare a number of draughts, the active agent of which was carbonate of ammonia, 

 for a herd of cows affected with the lung disease. The draughts were supplied to the 

 farmer, and the very first day they were being administered by himself and servants, 

 according to order, in gruel, a messenger summoned me to attend an animal which 

 was killed by the medicine. On arriving at the farm, I perceived, from the animal s 

 breathing, tremors, difficulty in standing, anxious expression of countenance, protruding 

 and blood-shot eye-balls, that it was choking. I informed the farmer of the fact that the 

 drench had been poured the wrong way, and, since he was indignant at the declaration, I 

 opened the trachea with my penknife, and, in a fit of coughing, a quantity of gruel, smell 

 ing strongly of ammonia, was forcibly ejected. This alone saved the reputation of the 

 medicine and its compounder. 



INOCULATION OF THE LUNG PLAGUE. 



In 1836 pleuropneumonia was imported from Flanders among cattle fed at the distil 

 lery of Messrs. Willems & Platel, at Hasselt, in Belgium. The town was rich in horned stock, 

 and the malady formed one of its fixed stations and continued uninterruptedly from 1836 

 to 1852. Dr. Didot* ascertained beyond a doubt, by personal inquiries among the Hasselt 

 distillers, that this was a fact, and that the disease had never been absent from their stables 

 during these sixteen years. The Belgian government had adopted an imperfect system of 

 slaughter to stamp out the disease ; but the indemnity was small, and the distillers found 

 it more profitable to sell their cattle to butchers ; and the inhabitants of Hasselt, Liege, 

 Lou vain, Tirlemont, Brussels, and Antwerp were supplied with a large amount of diseased 

 meat. Dr. Didot learned that, whereas government officials slaughtered one to two per 

 cent, of the infected animals, the butchers purchased and disposed of fifteen, twenty, or 

 twenty-five animals per week, according to the extent of the outbreaks. In the town of 

 Hasselt alone it is computed by the same authority that 16,540 head of sick cattle were 

 consumed during the above period. The government paid one-third of the value of 845 

 head of cattle during the same period. So late as 1851 M. Maris, one of the government 

 veterinary surgeons at Hasselt, saw 1,300 cases of lung disease in that city alone. 



From 1840 to 1850f the value of the horned stock lost by pleuropneumonia in Bel 

 gium amounted to 2,531,409 francs and 30 centimes. The sum paid by the government 

 in indemnities amounted to 1,751,777 francs and 40 centimes. The disease continued 



* Deux Jours i\ Hasselt. Essai sur I lnooulaiion clc la Plciiropiieumonic Exsiulativc des BCtes Bovim-s. Bl-nxellcs, 

 1853. 



t Rapport Decimal &amp;lt;le 1840 a 1850. Rtfsnmd statistique, page 10. 



