332 Veterinary Medicine. 



stomach (paunch in cattle) and bowels formed hard balls like 

 cemented sawdust, firmly adherent to the dry mucosa. 



Treatment and Prevention. Treatment by the Indians con- 

 sisted in giving large doses of powdered charcoal suspended in 

 milk. The early physicians attempted to open the bowels by 

 calomel and jalap, olive oil, magnesia citrate, and even croton oil, 

 but the last generally with fatal results. Milder and hardly less 

 effective treatment consisted in large doses of elm bark. Beach 

 believed he got better results with quinine and egg nog. It 

 might be suggested to try such antiseptics as potassium perman- 

 ganate, peristaltic stimulants like eserine or pilocarpine, as an 

 eliminating agent pure water or weak diuretics, and nerve stimu- 

 lants nitroglycerine or ammoniacal preparations. 



Prophylaxis. The time-honored resort of clearing the timber 

 and brush land so as to let the sun act freely on the soil, and the 

 putting in of cultivated crops, is proved reliable and permanent. 

 The other precautions in use are valuable in protecting the herd, 

 but lack the merit of thoroughness and permanence and thus fail 

 to strike at the root of the trouble. They are : ist. the exclu- 

 sion of domestic animals from the infected woods in late summer 

 and autumn and in very dry seasons ; and 2d. the exclusion of 

 stock from such pastures from before nightfall until after the dews 

 have evaporated on the following morning. 



The danger which attends on passing the night in the forest, 

 strongly suggests the intervention for the transfer of the poison 

 of some nocturnal animal, perhaps a night-flying insect, like the 

 anopheles, which transmits the plasmodium of malaria. If the 

 germ and its intermediate bearer (if any) were demonstrated, 

 probably other and simpler means of prevention could be adopted. 



The fact that the propagation of the disease is not constant and 

 wide spreading, like a genuine plague, lessens the urgency for 

 a rigid sanitary police, yet animals kept on such infected farms, 

 should be tested by long or vigorous driving before they are killed 

 for food, and all milk devoted to the production of butter and 

 cheese should be Pasteurized or sterilized before use. It might 

 well be questioned whether the clearing and exposure of infecting 

 places should not be undertaken by the state as a sanitary measure. 



In view of the fact that a milch cow may not show symptoms 

 of the disease, and yet yield deadly milk, and considering that 



