i 9 8 VETERINARY LECTURES 



little or no use to cattle. In all ailments in cattle one very pro- 

 nounced symptom is evident, that being the dryness of the muzzle. 



309. Diarrhoea, or Scour, is acute, chronic, and intermittent, and 

 a very common complaint in cattle. It is due to a variety of causes, 

 such as eating frosted turnips, coarse indigestible or wet grasses, or 

 from worms, liver flukes, and scrofula, or tuberculosis. Young cattle, 

 coming two years old, suffer most, in which case a very common 

 cause is turning them out on to grass in wet autumns, or on to oat- 

 stubble, where the oats have been shaken and have germinated on the 

 ground. These corn growths are very dangerous both to young 

 cattle and sheep, and should be avoided, as they harbour the ova of 

 intestinal and other worms. The crowns or shells of the temporary 

 teeth not coming off at their proper time is also another great 

 inducement to diarrhoea in young stock. The mouth should, there- 

 fore, be examined and the shells removed (par. 368). Worms— the 

 Strongvlus contortus, found in the lining membrane of the fourth 

 stomach and intestines, and flukes found in the liver— constitute 

 other chief causes of chronic or intermittent diarrhoea, as do also 

 myriads of bacilli located in the lining membrane of the intestine, 

 causing thickening and corrugation of the bowel, now known as 

 Johnes' disease, a complaint that has been rife in certain districts 

 for generations past. The animals are known as ' wasters,' but are 

 quite free from tuberculosis, a thickened intestine and enlarged gall- 

 bladder being found on post-mortem. The real nature of the malady 

 has not been known until of late years, and although the animals 

 feed and chew the cud fairly well, they gradually lose flesh, become 

 hide-bound, and finally die from inanition. Young animals under 

 twelve months old, as well as adult cattle, are affected, the malady 

 arising from the animals grazing on certain wet, low-lying, un- 

 drained pastures— nursery-beds for the disease-producing germs, 

 which have been left by previously affected animals, or been carried 

 by floods or other agents. To destroy the germs the land should be 

 dressed in spring or autumn with 5 to 6 cwt. of ground rock-salt to 

 the acre, and McDougall's health-licks or lump rock-salt laid on the 

 grazing-ground in various places for the animals to lick ; whilst for 



