DISEASE AMONG SWI^E AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 123 



Mr. Thomas 13, Tyler, Ottuinwa, Wapello County, Iowa, says: 



llog-cholera has beeu the prevailing disease among farm -animals here, and it has 

 been very fatal and destructive. There is more or less ot this disease every year, and 

 those attacked seldom ever recover. The cause, in my ojiinion, is the lack of proper 

 care. Large numbers are kept together, and they are allowed to sleep in old rotten 

 straw-stacks, which engenders disease. With proper care I think the disease would 

 entirely disappear. 



Until this fall cattle have been very healthy in this vicinity. A disease is now pre- 

 vailing among them which is very destructive. It is called "black-leg." The Weekly 

 Courier of this place says : " William Shepherd, living four miles north of this city, 

 has within a very shorttime lost eleven head of fat cattle from a disease which seemed 

 to balUe the skill of the most successful veterinary surgeons. Yesterday he lost another 

 line animal, and sent for Dr. Hinscy for the purpose of holding a 2;o.v^/»or/c;» examina- 

 tion. The examination was held, and the doctor informs us that he found that the 

 cattle had been dying of 'malignant anthrax,' or black- leg. In the case he examined 

 he found the cavities of the heart occupied by a clot of blood as black as ink, and 

 nearly the size of his fist. The mass was firm and tough, and when removed the blood 

 of the arteries, of the same consistency of that of the center of the heart, followed its 

 removal in strings the full size of the arteries and several inches in length. The dis- 

 ease is very contagious from a dead carcass, or from the blood of the animal when 

 tasted by other cattle. * * * The doctor gives it as his opinion that when stock 

 is afiV.cted by this disease the farmer would, in the event the case proves fatal, do 

 well to bury the carcass of the animal without even removing the hide. So far as 

 known there is no remedy for the disease, and the best thing to do is to prevent its 

 spread. Two or three other farmers have recently lost cattle." 



The following treatise on this disease i§ from the pen of Professor Shaefer: 



" Its attacks are confined almost entirely to animals that are in high condition or 

 rapidly improving ; we shonld say too high condition and too rapidly improving. In 

 some instances the disease will give some warning of its approach ; but generally the 

 beast will appear to-day perfectly well and to-morrow he will be found with his head 

 extended, his flanks heaving, his breath hot, his eyes protruding, his muzzle dry, his 

 pulse quick and hard — every symptom, in short, of the highest state of fever. He 

 utters a low and distressing moaning; he is already half unconscious; he will stand 

 for hours together motionless, or if he moves or is compelled to move, there is a pecu- 

 liar staggering referable to the hind limbs, and generally one of them more than the 

 other; by and by he gets uneasy; he shifts his weight from foot to foot; he paws 

 faintly and then lies down; he' rises, but almost immediately drops again; he now 

 begins to be, or has alreadj^ been, nearly uuc(Miscious of sui-rounding objects. 



"There are many other symptoms from which the different names of the disease 

 arose. On the back or loins or over one of the quarters there is more or less swelling. 

 If felt when it first appears it is hot and tender and firm ; but it soon begins to yield 

 to the touch, and gives a singular crackling noise when pressed upon. One of the 

 limbs likewise enlarges, sometimes through its whole extent, and that enormously. It, 

 too, is at first firm atfd hot and tender, but it soon afterward becomes soft and flabby, 

 or i^its when pressed npou, i. e., the indentations of the fingers remain. When exam- 

 ined after death, that limb is full of red putrid fluid ; it is mortified, and vseems to have 

 beeu i)utrefying almost during the life of the beast. Large ulcers break out in this 

 limb, and sometimes in other parts of the body, and almost immediately become gan- 

 grenous ; pieces of several pounds in weight have sloughed away ; three-fourths of 

 the udder have dropped off", or have been so gangrenous that it was necessary to re- 

 move them, and the animal has beeu one mass of ulceration. The breath stinks hor- 

 ribly ; a very offensive and sometimes purulent and bloody fluid runs from the mouth ; 

 the urine is high-colored or bloody, and the fieces are also streaked with blood, and 

 t^je smell from them is scarcely supportable. 



"In this state the beast will sometimes continue two or'three days, at otlier times 

 he will die in less than twelve hours from the first attack. In a few instances, how- 

 ever, and when the disease has been early and properly treated, all these dreadful 

 symptoms gradually disappear, and the animal recovers. 



" It is to a redundancy or overflowing of the blood, the consequence of the sudden 

 change from bad to good living, that tLis disease most commonly owes its origin. It 

 is most prevalent in the latter part of the spring and in the autumn, and very often 

 at these seasons of the year proves destructive to great numbers of young cattle in 

 different parts of the States. It is sometimes, however, seen in the winter and the 

 early part of spring, when the cattle are feeding on turnips. Some situations are more 

 subject to this complaint than others. It is most frequent in low, marshy grounds and 

 pastures situated by the side of woods. 



" It is a disorder of high condition and over-feeding. The times of the year and the 

 character of the cattle prove this. It occurs in the latter part of the spring, when the 

 grass is most luxuriant and nutritive, and in the autumn, Avhen we have the second 

 liush of grass; and the animals attacked are those principally that tire undergoing 



