974 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



sometimes universal, in the form of a bloody suffusion throughout the whole skin. In others, swellings 

 form on the joints, or on the back or belly ; and in fact, no part is exempt from their attack. Sometimes 

 the animal swells generally or partially, and the air being suffused under the skin, crackles to the feel. 

 After any of these appearances have come on, the disease assumes a very malignant type, and is highly 

 contagious. 



6247. Treatment of inflammatory fever. Before the critical abscesses form, or at the very outset of the 

 disease, bleed liberally, and purge also : give likewise a fever drink. (5910.) If, however, the disease 

 be not attended to in this early stage, carefully abstain from bleeding, or even purging : but instead, throw 

 up clysters of warm water and salt to empty the bowels, and in other respects treat as detailed under ma- 

 lignant epidemic. (5767.) It may be added, that four drachms of muriatic acid in three pints of oak bark 

 decoction, given twice a-day, has proved useful. The swellings themselves may be washed with warm 

 vinegar, both before and after they burst. 



624)8. Catarrh or influenza in cattle, also known by the name oi felon, is only a more mild form of the 

 next disease. Even in this mild form it is sometimes epidemic, or prevalent among numbers ; or 

 endemical by being local. Very stormy wet weather, changing frequently, and greatly also in its 

 temperature, are common causes. We have seen it brought on by change of food from good to bad ; 

 and from too close pasturage. It first appears by a defluxion from the nose ; the nostrils and eyelids 

 are red ; the animal heaves, is tucked up in the flanks, and on the third day he loses the cud. There is a 

 distressing and painful cough, and not unfrequently a sore throat also, in which case the beast almost in- 

 variably holds down his head. The treatment does not at all differ from that directed under the same 

 disease in horses. (5765.) Bleeding only the first two days, carefully sheltering, but in an open airy 

 place, and littering well up. 



6249. The malignant epidemicinfluenza is popularly called the murrain or pest; and has at various 

 times made terrible havoc among cattle. Ancient history affords ample proof of its long existence , and 

 by the accounts handed down, it does not seem to have varied its types materially. In 1757 it visited Bri- 

 tain, producing extreme fatality among our kine. From 1710 to 1714 it continued to rage on the 

 Continent with unabated fury. {Lancisi's Disputatio Historica de Bovilla Peste.) The years 17o0 

 and 1731, and from 1744 to 1746, witnessed its attack, and produced many written descriptions of it, 

 among which stand pre-eminent, that of Sauvages, the celebrated professor of medicine at Montpe- 

 lier. The British visitation of the malady in 1757, elicited an excellent work from the pen of Dr. Layard, 

 a physician of London, which was afterwards translated into several other languages. 



6250. Symptoms of the murrain. Dr. Layard describes it as commencing by a difficulty of swallowing, 

 and itching of the ears, shaking of the head, with excessive weakness and staggering gait ; which occa- 

 sioned a continued desire to lie down. A sanious foetid discharge invariably appeared from the nostrils, 

 and eyes also. The cough was frequent and urgent. Fever exacerbating, particularly at night, when it 

 usually produced quickened pulse. There was a constant scouring of green foetid dung after the first 

 two days, which tainted every thing around : even the breath, perspiration, and urine were highly foetid. 

 Little tumors or boils were very commonly felt under the skin, and, if about the seventh or ninth day 

 these eruptions become larger, and boils or buboes appeared with a lessened discharge of fseces, they 

 proved critical, and the animal often recovered ; but if, on the contrary, the scouring continued, and the 

 breath became cold, and the mouth dark in color, he informs us, mortality followed. Sauvages describes 

 the murrain as shewing itself by trembling, cold shivers, nose excoriated with an acrid discharge from it i 

 purging after the first two days, but previous to which there was often costiveness. Great tenderness 

 about the spine and withers was also a characteristic, with emphysema, or a blowing up of the skin by air 

 discharged underneath it. 



6251. Dissections of those that have d/et? of this disease, according to Sauvages, have shown marks of 

 great inflammation, and of a great putrid tendency ; but the solid parts seldom ran into gangrene. The 

 fluid secretions, however, always were sufficiently dissolved and broken down by putridity. The paunch, 

 he says, was usually filled with undigested matter, and the other stomachs highly inflamed : the gall bladder 

 was also commonly distended, with acrid thick brown bile. Goelich, who likewise dissected these subjects, 

 describes the gall as particularly profuse and intolerably foetid. According to him, the whole alimentary 

 canal, from the mouth to the anus, was excoriated ; and Lancisi, contrary to Sauvages, found the viscera 

 of the chest and belly, in some cases, sphacelated and gangrenous. Gazola describes the murrain as ac- 

 companied with pustulous sores ; and so great was the putrid tendency, that even the milk, before it dried 

 up, which it usually did before the fourth day, became foetid. 



6252. The treatment of the murrain. In the very early stages, all eminent authors recommend bleed- 

 ing ; but which should not only be confined to the very early periods, as to the first two days ; but also to 

 such subjects as by their previous health and condition can bear it. The animals should be placed in an 

 open airy place ; the litter should be frequently renewed ; and the place itself should be fumigated with 

 the preventive fumigation. (5913.) It has been recommended to burn green boughs with pitch as 

 a substitute : even charcoal fires occasionally carried round the place would be useful. Dr. Layard ad- 

 vised the body to be washed with aromatic herbs in water ; but vinegar would have been better. In 

 early stages, saline purgatives, as from ten to twenty ounces of Epsom salts, are to be invariably used. 

 If the scouring have already come on, still, however, purge ; but with only half the quantity : an artificial 

 purge will carry off the morbid bile ; and if excessive weakness do not come on, the same may be advan- 

 tageously repeated. Setons are also recommended in the dewlap. When abscesses appear, they may be 

 opened, and their contents discharged, washing the wound with brandy or vinegar, if putrid sloughing 

 takes place. The emphysematous swellings, or cracklings may also be opened, and the air discharged. 

 The other essentials of medical treatment, as detailed under malignant epidemic among horses, is here 

 applicable in every particular. When recovery takes place, it is usually a very slow process, and requires 

 care to prevent other diseases supervening. The animals should continue to be housed, and neither ex- 

 posed to sun or wind for some time, and the feeding should be nutritious. 



6253. The prevention of the murrain, or the prevention of its spreading, in many respects is even more 

 important than its medical treatment. Where it has already appeared, all the out-buildings, but particu- 

 larly the ox-lodges or stalls, should be daily fumigated with the preventive fumigation (5913.) ; and, 

 even the whole of the infected districts should have frequent fires of green wood made in the open air, 

 and every such district should be put under a rigorous quarantine. The cattle on every farm should be 

 carefully examined three or four times every day, and the moment one is found to droop, he should be 

 removed to a distance from the others. In very bad weather, while it is prevalent, the healthy cattle 

 should be housed, and particularly well fed ; and their pasture should also be changed. The bodies of 

 those who die of the disease should be buried with their skins on, very deep in the earth, and quick-lime 

 should be strewed over them. 



6254. Phrenzy fever ^ or inflammation of the brain, called also sough, now and then, but by no means fre- 

 quently, attacks cattle. The symptoms differ but little from those which attack horses. The treatment 

 must be exactly similar. 



6255. Inflammation of the lungs occasionally occurs in cattle, in which also the symptoms, progress, and 

 proper treatinent, are similar to those detailed under that head in horse pathology. 



6256. Inflatnmation of the stomach sometimes occurs from poisonous matters ; and in such cases, when 

 the nature of the poison is discovered, the treatment detailed under poison in horse pathology must be 

 pursued. But there is a species of indigestion, to which cattle are liable in the spring, from eating vora- 

 ciously of the young sprouts of wood ; to which some Voods are more conducive than others. The 

 symptoms are heat, thirst, costiveness, lessened urine, quick and hard pulse, with heat and redness in the 

 mouth and nose ; the belly is hard and painful, and the stools, when they appear, are covered with glair. 

 When the mouth and nose discharge-a serous fluid, the animal usually dies. 



