88 MURRAIN, OR PESTILENTIAL FEVER. 



farm. The sick only should be taken away, and that as speedily as 

 possible. 



In the early stage of the disease there can be no doubt of the pro- 

 priety of bleeding. The fever, which, according to ever}' account, 

 characterises the first attack, should, if possible, be subdued ; other- 

 wise its prolonged existence would aggravate, if it did not cause, the 

 subsequent debility. The animal should be bled, in proportion to his 

 size, condition, and the degree of fever: he should be bled, in fact, 

 until the pulse began to falter or he began to stagger. The blood 

 should be taken in as full a stream as possible, that the constitution 

 might be more speedily and beneficially affected. When the blood 

 flows slowly, a (Quantity may sometimes be taken away before the 

 animal begins to feel it, the loss of which would afterwards produce 

 alarming debility; but if the blood flows freely, the beast will show- 

 symptoms of faintness — the effect we wish to produce — before one- 

 fourth of the quantity is drawn that would be lost if it ran in a slow 

 stream. We want to attack and subdue the fever, without under- 

 mining the strength of the frame. 



Then we should with great propriety administer a brisk purgative. 

 If fetid and obstinate purging so soon follows, we should be anxious 

 to get rid, if we can do so, of a portion of the offending matter; and 

 therefore a pound or twenty ounces of Epsom salts should be given 

 in a sufficient quantity of thin gruel. 



Next, as it is a disease so much and so early characterised by de- 

 bility, we should attend to the diet. Green succulent grass would 

 scarcely be allowed, because it would probably not a little increase 

 the purging; but mashes of bran, with a little bean-meal, carrots, or 

 sweet old hay, should be given in moderate quantities. The animal 

 should be coaxed to eat ; for it is necessary that the constitution be 

 supported against the debilitating influence of such a disease. The 

 animal should not be at first drenched, for this might produce nausea 

 and disgust for food ; but if two or three days should pass, and the 

 beast should obstinately refuse to eat, plenty of warm thick gruel 

 must be forced upon him. As for medicine, I scarcely know what to 

 advise. The fact stands too clearly upon record, that nineteen animals 

 out of twenty, seized with the murrain, have died. That on which I 

 should put most dependence would be the following : — 



RECIPE (No. 35). 

 Drink for Murrain. — Take sweet spirit of nitre, half an ounce; laudanum, half 

 an ounce ; chloride of lime, in powder, two ounces; prepared chalk, an ounce. Rub 

 them well together, and give them with a pint of warm gruel. 



This may be repeated every six hours, until the purging is consi- 

 derably abated ; but should not be continued until it has quite 

 stopped. 



The purging being abated, we must look about for something to 

 recall the appetite and recruit the strength, and I do not know any- 

 thing better than the following : — 



