86 MURRAIN, OR PESTILENTIAL FEVER '. 



the continent of Europe. Its ravages have sometimes heen dreadful 

 in Great Britain. In the spring of the year 1714 more than 70,000 

 cattle died of this pest in England. 



Fortanatejy of late years this destructive malady has hfeen compa- 

 ratively unknown among us, except that in some unfavourable dis- 

 tricts a few cases have occurred every year. Its latest visitation, 

 clothed with all its most dreadful attributes, was in 1768. ' It is thus 

 described by Dr. Layard, an intelligent physician of that period : — 

 *' The animal was found with its head extended, that its laborious 

 breathing might be accomplished with less dread of suflRDcatlon; 

 there was considerable difficulty in swallowing; enlargement of the 

 glands under the ear, and frequently sweilii/g of the whole of the 

 head ; uneasiness about the head ; seemingly itchiness about the 

 ears; dulness ; frequent, but not violent heaving. To these s^^icceeded 

 staggering and great debility, until the animal fell, and was- after- 

 wards either unable to stand long at a time, or" to stand aV all. A 

 constant discharge of green bilious stinking faeces floiv appeared ; the 

 breath was likewise offensive; the very perspiration was sour and 

 putrid ; the head swelled rapidly ; the tongue protruded from the 

 mouth ; and the saliva, at first stinking, but aftetwards purulent, 

 bloody, and more and more offensive, flowed from the mouth. A 

 crackling was heard under the skin when the back or loins were 

 pressed upon; tumours appeared, and abscesses were formed in va- 

 rious parts ; they multiplied and they spread, and discharged a dread- 

 fully stinking fluid. 



" By and by a fresh access of fever seemed to supervene ; the 

 breath got hot, and the extremities were cold; the purging increased, 

 and was even more offensive; the urine and the dung excoriated the 

 neighbouring parts as they passed away ; and on the seventh or ninth 

 day the animal usually died." 



If a milch cow was attacked her milk dried up gradually, her 

 purging was more violent, and her debility more rapid than that of 

 other cattle. Bulls "and oxen were not so violently seized as cow3 

 and calves ; and cows with calf, and weakly cow-oalves, were most 

 in danger. If cows slipped their calves they usually recovered. 

 Calves received the infection from the cow, and the calf, on the other 

 hand, often infected the cow. 



The disease was epidemic. It depended on some atmospheric in- 

 fluence, which we are unable to understand ; but at the same time it 

 was contagious, and that to a very great degree. If it once appeared 

 on a farm, almost all the cattle were sure to be affected : 3'et it was 

 ascertained that the power of infection did not extend more than a 

 few yards ; and that a hedge alone often separated the dead from the 

 living. The murrain seemed mostly confined to cattle, for horses 

 ' and sheep, and swine and dogs, lived in the midst of the infection 

 and escaped, and even some neat cattle seemed to possess a security 

 from infection. 



The favourable symptoms were eruptions on various parts of the 



