THE LUNG PLAGUE. 7 



The first notice, that may be declared less unsatisfactory than all preceding ones, of the 

 ravages produced by an epizootic bovine pleuropneumonia, we owe to Valentini.* There 

 is a fact of great importance in relation to the history and progress of pleuropneumonia 

 that writers generally have overlooked. Valentini s remarks, incomplete as they are, had 

 been anticipated by numerous reports concerning the spread of the foot and mouth disease, 

 or epizootic aphtha?, from east to west. As contagious cattle diseases travel in the lines of 

 communication established by war or trade, so do they appear together or in succession . 

 according to their nature, the length of their period of incubation, and the circumstances 

 under which the movement of cattle is conducted. 



It will serve to clear up many points of doubt if this point is understood. Epizootic 

 aphthae, or the foot and mouth disease, (Maul und Klauenseuche of the Germans,) has a 

 short latent stage of two or three days. It moreover spreads to all warm-blooded animals, 

 so that herds infected with contagious diseases might on their travels, as they often are, 

 be seized by this malady, and then the Steppe murrain or rinderpest, which has a latent 

 stage of a week, or the lung plague, which remains latent for a month, six weeks, or more, 

 may break out wherever signs of communication between cattle of different parts have 

 been furnished by the rapidly-evolving and curable aphth.ee. The poison of one disease 

 does not counteract or prevent the accession of either of the other two, and one animal 

 may have the three maladies in succession. In Germany, France, Holland, and England, 

 the foot and mouth disease has usually preceded outbreaks of lung disease, and even rin 

 derpest. In America this has not been the case, inasmuch as the voyage across the At 

 lantic has usually been sufficient to purge animals of the contagion of epizootic aphthae, 

 even if they had been shipped with the disease on them, which is not likely, from its very 

 obvious and rapid manifestations. 



It is necessary to make one more remark here, which may serve to facilitate the accu 

 rate reading of the history of cattle plagues. Although the lung plague has undoubtedly 

 prevailed more constantly, and -produced a total mortality greater than that due to the 

 Steppe murrain, nevertheless the rapid slaughter of cattle by rinderpest at once sets people 

 to adopt repressive measures, and, both by killing and isolating the disease itself, tends to 

 supersede other cattle pk-gues. When it enters a country like Great Britain, where all 

 animals which had a slight chance of contamination from public markets were more or less 

 infected with the virus of lung plague, rinderpest naturally reached those spots first, cleared 

 the cattle out, and extinguished pleuropneumonia. 



Now we shall see that the histories of the three maladies I have alluded to are in 

 many points practically inseparable, so far as their dissemination in Europe is concerned, 

 and this fact alone would suffice to induce me to refer to the American outbreaks separately. 



* Writing with lint a small selection of books from my library, I am in a position to give only a second-hand refer 

 ence to Valentini s observations, and their importance induces me to reproduce Heusingcr s quotation : &quot; Pnecedeute 

 hyeme pluvioso, sed in fine gelidissimo, sub primo vere et iusolitus aeris fervor ingruebat, qualis ct per omnem a-statis 

 cursnm observabatur ; qua mutatio subitauea non poterat non imcqualem et prieteruaturalem humorum et spirituum 

 motum eausare, quern et homiuum et brutorum strages insecuta eat. Boves sani et vacca) catervatim succumbebaut, 

 cujus rei causa statuebatur inter alia ros corrosivns, lintea macnlis plus minus luteis conspurcans, et omninocorrodens. 

 Ex carnificnm observatione plerumqne phthisi pulmonali necabantnr, ad qnani sine dubio haustus frigidie copiosior 

 post ;estum intensissiraum multum contribuere poterat. Hominibus prater dyscnteriam et febrcs malignas sub finem 

 Junii et initium August! hie locorum infensa erat febris qsedam intermitteus, ut plurimum tcrtiaua.&quot; Ephem. Nat, Cur. 

 et Sydenham, opp. ed Geneva, 1, p. 276 quoted in Eecherches de Pathologic Compare* Cassel, 1853. 



