64 THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



purchases, an'd because in bringing them home from Connecticut they had 

 passed through New York City. It is not surprising that these had 

 been already pronounced genuine cases of lung plague. The facts, how- 

 ever, that the five sick cattle were all attacked at once 105 days after expos- 

 ure in New York, and coincidently with a sudden access of cold and damp, 

 which had produced catarrh in men, that none of the original herd suf- 

 fered, and that the symptoms were not quite identical with those of 

 lung plague, procured a favorable diagnosis which has been amply vin- 

 dicated by four months of subsequent immunity. 



Dr. Murray, of Detroit, furnishes an interesting case of pneumonia 

 (in a city dairy cow) which could easily have been mistaken for the con- 

 tagious disease, but here, too, this favorable verdict has been abun- 

 dantly sustained by the continued healthy state of the remainder of the 

 herd. 



Dr. Murray further discovered a series of interesting cases of circum- 

 scribed lobular pneumonia, which, apart from the very limited nature of 

 the lesions, bore a strong resemblance to the diseased changes found in 

 lung plague. A close examination, however, detected the presence of 

 the common Iher fluke (Distomum hepaticum), which he has found 

 to be rather a common denizen of the lungs of Texas cattle, and may, 

 at different times, have brought upon them unneeesary suspicion. 



In one instance, at Elgin, 111., investigated by Dr. Paaren, two cows 

 in the same herd had died of pneumonia, but the facts that no new cat- 

 tle had been introduced upon the farm for six months, that the herd 

 had had no means of communication with cattle outside, that the dis- 

 ea>e occurred in December, 'when the inclemency out of doors and the 

 close air indoors were calculated to induce diseases of the lungs, that the 

 malady killed the subjects in four and five days respectively, whereas 

 lung plague in winter usually takes half as many weeks, and finally 

 that the changes in the lungs were those of simple pneumonia, suffici- 

 ently attest that this was a non-contagious form of pulmonary inflamma- 

 tion like that found in Detroit by Dr. Murray. 



In still another instance in New York, investigated by Professor Law r 

 where a number of cattle had already perished, and in which the lungs 

 of several that had been opened were found to be consolidated, the dis- 

 ease was found to be due to bacteridian poison, and though the lungs 

 were the seat of blood extravasations in one case, the spleen and liver 

 suffered in a second, and the intestines in a third. Appropriate medi- 

 cinal and hygienic measures put a speedy period to the mortality. 



These will serve to illustrate the nature of the different lung diseases 

 which were found existing in the western and southern cattle. While 

 we have found various forms of these diseases among these cattle, as we 

 find them in other genera of animals, we have not, in a single instance, 

 found what a professional man acquainted with the disease could have 

 mistaken for the lung plague. 



"We claim, therefore, with the utmost confidence, that up to the end o 

 the year 1881, the lung plague of cattle has been confined to the vicinity 

 of the eastern seaboard, extending from Putnam County, New York, to 

 Fairfax or Prince William County, Va. Connecticut is sound and North 

 Carolina is sound, so that at present the infection is confined to the 

 States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

 and Virginia, and the District of Columbia. 



THE PLAGUE IN NO WAY DISAPPEARING. 



While we submit the above undeniable proof of the absence of the 

 lung plague from the West, we are not to be held as for a moment in- 



