48 COLD AND COUGH HOOSE. 



and with little appetite. It should be well ascertained whether the 

 fever has quite left the beast, because listlessness and disinclination 

 l9 move, and loss of appetite, and slight staggering-, may result as 

 much from the continuance of fever as from the debility which it 

 leaves behind. If the muzzle is cool and moist, and the mouth not 

 hot, and the pulse sunk to nearly its natural standard, or rather below 

 it, and weak and low, the following drink may be ventured on ; but 

 No. I must be returned to if there is the slightest appearance or in- 

 crease of cold or fever. 



RECIPE (No. 3). 

 Take eiTiPtic tartar, half a drachm; nitre, two drachms; powdered gentian root, 

 one drachm : powdered cliamomile flowers, one drachm ; and powdered ginser, half a 

 drachm. Pour upon them a pint of boiling ale, and give the infusion when nearly 

 cold. 



When the beast begins to recover, he should not be exposed in any 

 bleak situation, or to much rough weather. 



In some years this epidemic disease destroys a great many cattle. 

 In the winter of 1830, and in the spring of 1831, thousands of young 

 cattle perished in every part of the country. Some of them were 

 carefully examined after death, and the membrane lining the wind- 

 pipe was found to he inflamed, and the inflammation extending down 

 to and involving all the small passages leading to the air-cells of the 

 lungs. 



In a great many instances the windpipe was nearly filled, and the 

 small passages of the bings were absolutely choked by myriads of 

 little worms. These cattle had had their flanks particularly tucked 

 up, and had stood and coughed with a violence that threatened every 

 moment to burst some blood-vessel ; and well they might cough thus 

 violently, when the delicate and sensitive lining of the air-tubes was 

 incessantly irritated by the motion, if not by the bites, of these 

 worms. The origin of the worms no one has satisfactorily ascer- 

 tained. There is no doubt that there are innumerable little eggs of 

 various animalculae, too small to be seen by the unassisted eye, 

 always floating in the air, and only waiting for some proper situation 

 or nest in order to be nursed into life. The proper nidus or nest of 

 these animals is probably the mucus of the air-passages, and they are 

 plentifully lodored upon it in the act of respiration. 



I scarcely know what to advise in the treatment of these aggravated 

 cases. The violent cough is an effort of nature to expel the parasites. 

 Can we assist her in accomplishing that expulsion ] There are cer- 

 tain medicines which afford us much relief when we have difflculty 

 in expectorating a quantity of thick viscid phlegm. After a dose or 

 two of liquorice or squills we find the cough considerably loosened, 

 or, in other words, the phlegm is a great deal more fluid, and easily 

 got rid of. The same effect, although not to such an extent, is pro- 

 duced in cattle, and a (eAv^ at least, of the worms are expelled. The 

 following prescription may be tried with advantage: — 



