746 DISEASES AND ABNORMALITIES. 



Treatment. 



Curative treatment of this form of joint disease being, under the most 

 favorable circumstances, very unsatisfactory unless it is adopted at the 

 very commencement, the greatest importance must be attached to pre- 

 ventive measures, and especially if the malady is enzootic. On the Con- 

 tinent, those veterinarians who adopt Roloff's view lay great stress on the 

 necessity for preserving the young animals, and particularly the female 

 parents, from the effects of improper feeding. These are to be well fed 

 during pregnancy, and aliment rich in earthy salts is to be given. In 

 addition, bone-dust may be mixed with their prepared food, or with bran, 

 meal, or oil-cake. 



When it is continually prevalent in districts, it is recommended to im- 

 prove the pasture lands, and to restore to them, by means of top-dress- 

 ings, the mineral elements abstracted by the growth of forage, or the 

 herbage consumed by the animals grazing upon them. Attention i-^> 

 drawn to the fact, that in a hundred days a medium-sized Cow will 

 remove from the soil about a kilogramme of phosphoric acid, which is 

 present in the milk yielded during that period. 



If we have reason to believe that the malady is of septic origin, as Bol- 

 linger and others are, from clinical and anatomical investigation, assured 

 of, then the preventive measures recommended for omphalitis must be 

 adopted. In all cases where the affection is enzootic, or even sporadic, 

 every means should be resorted to, in order to discover tlffe predisposing 

 and exciting causes, as on the successful removal or suppression of these 

 must loss be mainly averted. And with modern means of investigation 

 and clinical and physiological knowledge, there should be no difficulty in 

 arriving at correct conclusions in this direction. 



Curative treatment, as has just been said, is generally unsatisfactory, 

 and this not only from the comparatively small value of the animals 

 affected, and the difficulty in applying remedies to them, but also from 

 the very serious nature of the disease, and the character of the tissues 

 involved. Even when the life of the creature affected with arthritis is 

 preserved, only too frequently its health and condition are irretrievably 

 impaired. 



Zundel remarks that counter-irritants to the joints augment the pain 

 and increase the debility, and emollients have only a doubtful effect. In 

 the hands of Strauss, refrigerants were productive of good results, the 

 inflamed joints being enveloped afterwards in linen bandages. Anodyne 

 lotions and embrocations have also been recommended,- in order to allay 

 the pain and irritative fever ; as well as the application of tincture of 



histology of the domestic animals. The study of these subjects can alone place the onerous and responsible 

 duty of the meat inspector on a surer footing. 



In connection with this subject, it may be interesting and important to remark that a very melancholy 

 case of wholesale poisoning from the consumption of diseased meat, was reported from Wurzen, a small 

 town in Saxony, in the summer of 1877. A local farmer, finding one of his recently-calved Cows to be suf- 

 fering from puerperal fever (not puerperal apoplexy), with accompanying abscess and ulcers, and beyond 

 all hope of recovery, employed the services of two neighboring butchers to slaughter the beast and dress 

 the carcase ; after which the trio managed to dispose of the meat, partly in the form of sausages, and 

 partly as joints. Among those who partook of it, at least 206 cases of illness occurred, and in seven in- 

 stances such illness terminated fatally. The symptoms observed during life were analogous to those of 

 Asiatic cholera, and in the fatal cases decomposition of the bodies rapidly set in. In six of these cases, 

 post-mortem examinations were made, and in all were found most extensive inflammation of the mucous 

 membrane of the stomach and intestines, with peculiar extravasations of blood in the mucous membrane, 

 and marked swelling of the glands of the small intestine. The other sufferers recovered, though convales- 

 cence was slow, and in many instances attended with serious relapses. Inquiries instituted by the author- 

 ities clearly showed the origin of the outbreak ; and the heartless culprits, whose miserable cupidity had 

 led to such sad results, were committed to prison to await their trial. • 



