THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. ' 25 



it has parted with carbonic acid gas and vapor and has 

 absorbed a sufficient quantity of oxygen, to vitalize it and 

 rendered it fit for the renovation of tissues. It appears 

 that carbon exists in venous blood, the lun^ are the pulmonary 

 furnaces ; the air cells are flues or safety valves, one set are 

 permeable to oxygen, others prevent the escape of carbonic 

 acid gas. Pulmonary combustion, therefore beai*s some analogy 

 to the combustion of carbon, or charcoal, in a common stove. 



CATARRH OR "HOOSE." 



Cattle as well as horses are subject to a catarrhal affection, 

 known among English farmers as " hoose ; " it consists of a 

 defluxion from the nasal cavities, acompanied with cough, loss 

 of appetite and flesh ; in popular language it is nothing more 

 than a common cold, induced by the ordinary causes, such as 

 exposure, errors in diet, and management. It generally 

 appears in the season of spring, or towards the latter part of 

 autumn, when the temperature of the atmosphere undergoes 

 the most sudden changes, and it generally selects its subjects ; 

 for many animals subjected to the ordinary causes of cold, enjoy 

 immunity from the same ; hence, I infer that a predisposition 

 to this affection is hereditary, and manifests itself at periodical 

 intervals, without the intervention of the common exciting 

 causes, although they may prove operative in developing a 

 latent disease. 



I conceive that it sometimes has an hereditary origin from 

 the fact that some breeds are more subject to it than others, in 

 some cases, however, this hereditariness exists only so far as 

 the animal is of a peculiar temperament, so that when removed 

 from a warm to a colder region, it is apt to contract catarrh, 

 This is the case with many of the Alderney breed of cows 

 imported into the northern region of the United States ; ere they 

 have been here long, they have an attack of catarrh, which 

 often runs into the chronic stage and ends in consumption. 



Symptoms of Catarrh. — The first symptom which the 

 farmer will observe, is loss of appetite ; succeeding this are 

 3 



