296 EPIDEMIC CATARRH IN CATTLE. 



HOOSE, COLD, COUGH, INFLUENZA, OR EPIDEMIC CATARRH, 



IN CATTLE. 



There is one cause given in most books which treat of 

 cattle, to account for all their diseases, and accordingly we 

 find it in many set down as the reason for influenza. Fat 

 cattle, certainly, are not exempt from the disorder, but the 

 editor has found poor, exposed beasts, the most liable to be 

 attacked. There is no known cause for the disease. We 

 do not know how to check it, or how to encourage the 

 spread of it. It is, therefore, entitled an epidemic, and 

 supposed to consist in something peculiar in the air. This 

 is a very convenient explanation under which to conceal 

 our ignorance. 



Lean cattle, much exposed, are the most liable to be 

 attacked by, though no description of beast is altogether 

 free from, the ravage of this complaint. The animal is first 

 seen to neglect its feed ; to look dejected, and altogether to 

 present a very rugged appearance. Shortly afterwards, 

 some part or parts of the body begin to swell. It may be 

 one, or all four legs. The eyes, the glands under the jaw\ 

 &c. &c., in short any one of these, or all together, may 

 begin to enlarge. They are seldom very tender, though of 

 course the animal does not relish to have them handled. 

 The weakness is excessive. The cow can hardly stand 

 or crawl, and a sense of uneasiness forbids it to be quiet. 

 The nose takes to running at first a clear fluid, which 

 shortly grows thicker, because of white bodies floating 

 about in it, and then takes on the purulent stage. 



Such, with the signs of general constitutional disorder, 

 is a description of the influenza. Much force has been 

 laid upon the cough, but though usually, it is not always 

 present ; and when it is, being loud at first, it quickly 

 becomes suppressed and sore, the pain it occasions causing 

 the poor beast to stamp with the fore foot. 



The practitioner called into such a case first feels the 

 pulse, which he finds weak and quickened, indicating the 

 presence of debility. He next looks up the nostrils, which 

 he 6nds inflamed if he be called in early, or clogged with a 

 copious purulent discharge, if his patient have suffered long. 

 Ropy saliva may be hanging from each side of the mouth, 



