DIARRHCEA. 753 



tine. In these were discovered great quantities of epithelium, and crowds 

 of minule organisms. This purulent-looking matter appeared to be a 

 kind of bacteria pulp {Bakterienbret). Besides innumerable micrococci, 

 there were also immense numbers of vibratile staff-shaped bodies {scfnving- 

 mde Stdbcheti). In the present state of uncertainty of the question with 

 regard to minute vegetable organisms, Franck declines to give an opinion 

 as to the species to which the last-'described bodies belongs. 



Causes, 



Zundel is of opinion that the most ordinary cause consists in a modifi- 

 cation in the food of the young creatures, and most frequently in an 

 alteration in the mother's milk, under the influence of some inscrutable 

 agency. Brugnone admitted the existence in the mother of constitutional 

 maladies — as mange, grease, and other skin affections — which might 

 produce the disease in question in their progeny : just as Bouchut asserts 

 that the herpetisme dartreux of woman may similarly affect the child. Dela- 

 fond thinks that the more frequent causes are too rich food given to the 

 mother, the use of highly nitrogenous aliment, too poor regime, innutri- 

 tions food — and particularly that w'hich is in bad condition. In the milk 

 of Cows fed in this manner, is a superabundance of white granular cor- 

 puscles, which are particularly numerous in the colostrum, while the other 

 constituents of the milk are relatively deficient. 



These colostrum corpuscles are supposed to be agglomerated, generally 

 granular, leucocytes — the granules being probably nothing else than the 

 spores of some mycoderm. These leucocytes are greatly increased in the 

 milk when the Cow is excited or disturbed in any way, according to Zun- 

 del ; and he fancies this may lead to the production of diarrhoea in the 

 offspring. But he also insists strongly on the influence of unfavorable 

 hygienic conditions, when the animals are fed without care, and lodged 

 in unhealthy dwellings. 



The supposed causes of this form of diarrhoea Franck enumerated as 

 follows : bad, deficient, or improper food ; an undue proportion of lime 

 salts in the food ; milk too rich in fatty constituents, housing at night, 

 chills, defective stabling, stable miasma (Roloff), or a volatile contagium 

 (Obich). That the nature of the fodder or the milk, or even chills, will 

 not induce the disease, Franck is certain ; and he points to the fact that 

 ample stable room and good food is no safeguard against it. And he also 

 alludes to what is another fact, that some time after birth, young animals 

 are only exceptionally attacked, though the food and stables may be the 

 same. Even when the food or the milk is changed, there is no differ- 

 ence. 



The malady is most intense during permanent stabling ; and with the 

 advent of grazing, when the cattle are driven to pasture it begins to dis- 

 appear, and is no more heard of until the pregnant Cows are again stabled 

 and begin to calve. All this would indicate, according to Franck, that 

 there is an agent at work in the production of the disease, to which the des- 

 ignation of " stable-miasma," for want of a better, may properly be given. 

 This view as to the existence of an infecting agent, would seem to be borne 

 out by the circumstance, that whenever one young creature in a large 

 breeding-shed is affected, other cases soon follow. Obich ( Wochenschrift 

 fur Thierheilkunde, 1865), who was the first to direct attention to the in- 

 fectious nature of the malady, gives several strong illustrations, which not. 

 only support this opinion, but would also tend to prove that the infecting 



48 



