EINDERPEST OR CATTLE PLAGUE. 255 



The organized and widely extended inquiries of your department might defermine 

 some very interesting and important questions coiiceming tliis disease. Has it causes 

 wliicb give it a spontaneous origin in certain localities in the Southern States? Can 

 those causes be removed? What are the best methods of preventing the spread of it 

 hoyond those localities, and of suppressing it where it has already a permanent foot- 

 hold beyond them ? What is the best treatment of the animals attacked by it, &c. 



A widespread belief exists that it is caused by ticks. I am sure that this is an 

 error. Bat it is worth investigating for the sake of explodhig it. The ticks which 

 often prey in disgusting numbers on the cattle at the South, both above and below the 

 " distemjjer line," and may well aggravate the distemper, or any other disease, are 

 ■worth investigating on their own accoimt. Cattle may be kept free from them by the 

 regular addition of brimstone to their food or salt. 



Hojping that this very meager and imperfect statement may aid you in directing a 

 more minute and acctirato investigation of this disease, which has been so fatal to 

 Southern cattle and has so depressed their value, 

 I am, very respectfully, yours, 



Hon. Wm. G. Le Due, 



Commissioner of Aoriculture, 



EOTOEEPEST OE CATTLE PLAGUET^^**.,^ ^CV/ 



-1 



The following letter, addressed to the Commissioner of Agriculture, 

 gives the symptoms 2iTLii post mortem appearances of the destructive dis- 

 ease known as rinderpest or cattle plagTie : 



Sir : At your request I will give as fully as possible the symptoms and post mortem 

 appearances of a fatal disease in cattle, known as rinderpest or cattle jdaguo. 



The disease I allude to made only one great invasion in Great Britain during the 

 present centmy (in the years 1865 and 1866), and swept away many thousands of cat- 

 tle, the money loss from its ravages being between ten and twelve million pounds 

 sterling. At' that time (1865 and 1866) I was in practice in a large agricultm-al dis- 

 trict of England (Berkshire), and as soon as the disease visited that county I was ap- 

 pointed by the government one of the cattle-plague inspectors, and therefore had 

 ample opportunities of examining large numbers of animals affected with the disease, 

 and availed myself of the chance of making many post morlcms. 



The disease is purely contagious, and therefore preventable. It is a specific, malig- < 

 nant fever, indigenous to the Asiatic steppes of Russia, runs a definite course, and 

 generally terminates fatally. It is essentially a disease of the bovine family, but may 

 be communicated to the sheep, goat, deer, &c. It has a period of incubation varying 

 from four to ten days ; during this period the animal gives no indication of being 

 aflected. 



Symploms. — Primary fever, as indicated by a rise in the temperature ; a remarkably 

 dull and dispirited condition of the animal, which will stand with its head hanging 

 down, ears drawn back, and coat staring, refusing all food or oven water. Rumina- 

 tion is suspended; if made to move it shows great prostration of strength, and fi'c- 

 quently staggers as if about to fall. The skin is hot in places, and remarkably so 

 between the limbs ; an cruiition on, and a iieculiar appearance and condition of, the 

 mucous membrane of the mouth is seen ; it is red and furred, presenting raw-looking 

 spots, especially on the inner side of the upper lip and along the roof. The breath is 

 fetid, and the mucous membrane of the vagina alters to a dark-red color. These 

 signs are rarely absent. Tears early trickle from the eyes, wliicli are red and express- 

 ive of suficring, and a watery <lischarge Hows from tne nostrils. There is a continu- 

 ous increase of these secretions, which become more or less i»urulent in the advanced 

 stage of tlie maladj'; rigors and twitching of the superficial muscles, failing pulse, 

 opiiressed breathing, sores on the skin, with discharges from the same. Emphysema 

 of the tissues of the neck and back; the extremities are cold at the conmieucement of 

 the disease, and in the latter stages the increased heat of the body gives place to a re- 

 markable coldness along the coiu'se of tin; spin(\ Secretion of milk is aixested very 

 suddenly, the animal grinds its teeth, arches ( he back, moans, and shows signs of great 

 uneasiness. 



At first the bowels are constipated, but soon violent ])urging commences, leading to 

 dysentery, the evacuations being slimy, li(|uid, and sometimes of a dirty-yellow color, 

 tinged with blood, of a fetid character, with much straining. The nrinc is scanty and 

 dark in color. The buccal membrane becomes covered with a yellowish-white mate- 

 rial, which can bo easily stripped ofi', showing au idcerated surface under it. The ani- 



