314 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



of incubation, varying from four to fourteen days. This 

 is simply nonsense. Where is tlie repeated incubation in 

 cows when affected with pleuro-pneumonia? Nowhere, 

 but in the minds of men who know nothing of pathology. 

 Is incubation to be taken for blindness, and ignorance for 

 science and education ? It may be asserted, with equal 

 truth and justice, that the condemned culprit, or rather 

 suspended animation, can date the period of incubation 

 from the time of condemnation, however long that may be 

 before the moment he is launched into eternity. The 

 weeping eye, the acrid drop from the inner corner of the 

 nostrils, together with slight rough sounds from the wind- 

 pipe, will tell the intelligent and scientific observer that 

 something is wrong, and all this can be told from twelve 

 to twenty-four hours from the time of attack. Where, 

 then, is the period of incubation ? Echo seems to answer, 

 where? The husky cough, with dullness and prostration, 

 follow the weeping eye and nostril. The back is arched, 

 appetite and rumination irregular, the rigor and the chill 

 tell that blood poison is present, and suppuration is going 

 on as a remedial and natural measure, to get rid of the 

 foreign or poisonous matter in the blood. The breathing 

 soon becomes labored, the heat of the body is variable, 

 while the skin and hair look unhealthy, and fever gets 

 high. If the mouth and nose be examined, eruptions and 

 sores will be seen ; and these sometimes extend to the feet. 

 All the foregoing symptoms are now speedily followed by 

 discharges, from the nose and eyes, of pus streaked with 

 blood. Salivation and diarrhoea supervene, together w^ith 

 stupor, and all the phenomena of approaching death. In 

 this disease, as in pleuro-pneumonia, cows heavy with 

 calf or otherwise debilitated, die sooner, and do not bear 

 up so well as animals in better condition. The intelligent 



