THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. ii«l 



sionally used by brewers to give an intoxicating quality to tbeir malt 

 liquor For fifteen days no alteration of bealtb was perceived, and then, 

 in less than eighteen hours, nearly forty perished. The stables were not 

 crowded, and there was no improper treatment. A man dismterred some 

 of the horses to get at the fat ; swellings rapidly appeared m his throat, 

 and he died in two days. A portion of their flesh was given to two pigs 

 and some dogs, and they died. 



M Brugnone found that bleeding only accelerated the death ot_ the 

 pati^ent. He afterwards tried, and ineffectually, acids, cordials, purgatives, 

 vesicatories, and the actual cautery ; and he frankly attributes to the 

 power of nature the recovery of the few who survived. 



aUherfs Account of the Epidemic o/l795.— M. Gilbert describes a 

 malignant epidemic which appeared in Paris in 1795, characterised by 

 duHness, loss of appetite, weakness, pulse at first rapid and full, and 

 afterwards continuing rapid, but gradually becoming small, weak, and 

 intermittent. The bowels at first constipated, and then violent purging 

 eucceeding. The weakness rapidly increasing, accompanied by loetid 

 breath, and foetid evacuations. Tumours soon appeared about the limbs, 

 under the chest, and in the head, the neck, and loins. If they suppurated- 

 and burst, the' animal usually did well; but otherwise he inevitably 

 perished The formation of these tumours was critical. If they rapidly 

 advanced, it was considered as a favourable symptom ; but if they con- 

 tinned obscure, a fatal termination was prognosticated. . . 



Bleeding, even in an early stage, seemed here also to be injurious and 

 increased the debility. Physic was given, and mild and nutritious food, 

 gruel, and cordials. Deep incisions were made into the tiimoui-s, and the 

 cautery applied. Stimulating frictions were also used, but all were ol 



little avail. , , , ,-, ■ i < 



These cases have been narrated at considerable length, m order to give 

 some idea of the nature of this disease, and because, with the exception of 

 a short but very excellent account of the malig-nant epidemic m the last 

 edition of Mr. Blane's ' Veterinary Outlines,' there will not be found any 

 satisfactory history of it in the writings of our English vetermarians. it 

 is evidently a disease of the mucous membranes, both the respiratory and 

 digestive. It is accompanied by early and great debility; loss of all vital 

 power, ^-itiation of every secretion, effusions and tumours everywhere, and 

 it nins its course with fearful rapidity. If it was seen at it^ outset, the 

 practitioner would probably bleed ; but if a few hours only had elapsed 

 he would find, with Messrs. Brugnone and Gilbert, that venesection would 

 only hasten the catastrophe. Stimulants should be administered mingled 

 with opium, and the spirit of nitric ether in doses_ of three or four ounces 

 with an ounce of laudanum. The quantity of opium should be regulated 

 by the spasms and the diarrhcea. These medicines should be repeated m 

 a few hours, combined, perhaps, with ginger and gentian. 



A piut of stout or bitter ale, or better still, when withm reach, of good old 

 port wine, given three or four times a day, has saved many an animal which 

 otherwise would have sunk prostrated under the virulence of the disease. 

 If these fail, there is little else to be done. Deep incisions into the 

 tumours, or bUsters over them, might be proper measures ; butthe pnn- 

 cipal attention should be directed to the arresting of the contagion^ 1 he 

 diseased should be immediately removed from the healthy AH offensive 

 matter should be carefully cleared away, and no small portion of chloride 

 of lime used in washing the animal, and particularly his ulcers It might 

 with great propriety be administered internally, while the stable and 

 everything that belonged to the patient, should undergo a carefal ablution 

 with the same powerful disinfectant. 



