THE LUNG PLAGUE. 35 



enfeebled and are seized with pleuro-pneumonia ; or, at all events, and 

 that is incontestable, they become predisposed to the disease, which they 

 easily get on bpiug- exposed to the breathing- of a cold air, or to cold on the 

 surface of the; SKin." 



Here, again, it is not difficult to trace the real effects of an abundant 

 milk secretion in stables that are close and ill-drained. Up to the time 

 when the lung disease first appeared in London it was not uncommon 

 for cows to be milked for several consecutive years. Large milkers were 

 always kept on, and had a calf annually until too old or killed by disease. 

 The disease that killed them was not pleuro-pneumonia, but tuberculosis. 

 That malady, once so i^revalent, is almost unknown now, inasmuch as 

 the London cow feeders have ceased to breed from their cows, and the 

 average duration of a cow's lifetime in a London shed does not exceed 

 six mouths. 



DRINKING COLD OR IMPURE "WATER. 



It is hardly necessary to refer at length to this reputed cause of pleuro- 

 pneumonia. ]N"ot only is there an absence of fact in support of the 

 production of the malady by cold water in winter and stagnant in 

 summer, but it is well known that the malady is usually most rife in 

 many cities during the summer, when cattle are allowed, as in Washing- 

 ton, to roam at pleasure during the day, coming in contact, and, there- 

 fore, infecting each other, yet w^hile the supply of water is good, and 

 indeed unexceptionable. Were it worth whilel could easilyfuruish mauy 

 facts under this head indicating that there is no relation whatever 

 between the condition and quantity of water cattle drink and the devel- 

 opment of the lung disease. 



CHILLS — BREATHING A COLD AIR. 



East winds in Scotland were blamed by Professor Dick as the active 

 agency inducing bovine pleuro-pneumonia. He overlooked the fact that 

 the east winds prevailed before 184:3, when the lung plague had not yet 

 penetrated Scotland. I have seen on the coast of Fife a herd of cattle 

 of all ages seized with bronchitis — a curable, benignant, and acute inflam- 

 mation, presenting none of the characters of the lung plague; and there 

 is no doubt that deficient shelter, intense cold, and rapid changes of the 

 weather, may induce sporadic and non-contagious inflammations of tlu^ 

 respiratory organs. But this is not pleuro-pneumonia. 



It is not at all uncommon in Great Britain, Holland, and elsewhere, 

 for farmers to ascribe the disease to chills; and its prevalence among 

 drift cattle lias been referred to transportation for long distances in open 

 railway cars, on steaudjoats, and exposm^e in markets. Bur who cxcr 

 heard of western cattle being struck with the lung plague in passing 

 from Illinois to New York ? Spanish cattle, reared in a country free i'n m 

 pleuro-pneumonia, suffer all the hardships of rough weather at sea, but 



