GENERAL REMARKS ON THE CATTLE DISEASES 



REPORTED ON. 



BY JUlIX OAMGEE, JI. D, 



The diseases of cattle -wliicli form tlie subjects of fhe three reports 

 herewith published are typical of three distinct classes of disorders 

 whicli teud to the impoverishment of the farmer and the country at 

 large. 



The first and simplest in its origin and character is an enzootic or indigen- 

 ous affection, localized in corn-rearing States and districts, where, under 

 the influence of abundant moisture, and inattention to conditions which 

 prevent the propagation of parasitic plants on the farmer's crops, a fungus 

 is formed which destroys the nutritive value of cornstalks and grain. 

 These become indigestible, induce impaction of the third stomach and 

 constipation, which speedily terminate in death. The malady is not pro- 

 pagated beyond the farm or stable where the diseased fodder is supplied 

 to stock. 



The third is the American cattle plague of 18GS, which, from an igno- 

 rance of its origin and nature, created serious loss, and, what is proba- 

 bly as bad, a panic that cannot readily be forgotten, on both sides of the 

 Atlantic. Its study has revealed characters hitherto unknown or unde- 

 scribed in relation to any disease of man or animals. The facts rendered 

 show that it is developed in the hotter parts of the United States bor- 

 dering on the Gulf coast where lands are rich, retentive, uudrained, and 

 constitute the hotbeds of malarious or periodic diseases in the human 

 family. Unlike these, so far as present knowledge goes, it is capable of 

 propagation in an intensified form among cattle which feed on pas- 

 tures traversed, in any part of the country beyond the original centers 

 of development, by southern herds. It is not improbable that compara- 

 tive pathology may here shed light on the precise nature of repiittent 

 and intermittent fevers in man; and the fact that these have not been 

 observed to extend by a form of contagion may be explained by the con- 

 ditions essential to the propagation of the bovine periodic fever. Large 

 masses of animals have to travel fresh from the breeding- grounds of this 

 indigenous disease, and discharge large quantities of excrement on the 

 food which is the carrier of the morbid material into the systems of cat- 

 tle that are contaminated and die. It is true that anthrax, Sil)erian boil 

 l>lague, or carbuncular fevers generally, from a peculiar decomimsition in 

 theliciuids and tissues of the a Mected animals, are capable of being trans- 



