THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS 223 



a disease-producing organism, and of a very infectious and contagious 

 character, being readily carried by an affected calf from one building 

 to another — a complaint which carries off a large number of calves 

 yearly, and when once established is difficult to deal with, running 

 through the young stock in many cases like an epidemic, varying in 

 degree in accordance with the severity of the attack and the constitu- 

 tion of the animals, making itself manifest in three different forms. 

 The late Professor Nocard, the noted French savant, in conjunction 

 with Professor Mettam, when inquiring into the great mortality 

 amongst the calves in Ireland in the year 1901, reported that the 

 malady white scour in calves was caused by the presence of a microbe 

 which Professor Nocard isolated from numerous other microbic 

 germs, and named it pasteurella ; he also proved by direct experi- 

 ment that joint-felon (septic arthritis) was due to the same cause, 

 and that the germ gained admittance into the body of the calf at its 

 birth through the medium of the navel cord, which is made up of 

 four vessels (par. 760). In many cases, a few weeks after the 

 calves recovered from the diarrhoea, they were noticed to be affected 

 with a bad cough, accompanied by a gradual loss of flesh, general 

 debility, and eventually death, and the post-mortem showed the 

 lungs to be highly inflamed and consolidated. This form of the 

 complaint I have frequently met with in my practice. 



334. In the first or catarrhal form the malady is of a most virulent 

 type, attacking the young calves immediately they are born, and 

 running its course in from three to twenty-four hours. In many 

 instances the calves die before ever getting a drop of milk, giving 

 the impression that they bring the disease into the world with them ; 

 they pass from the bowel with great pain and straining a most 

 irritating fluid of a hot, bloody, watery nature. In the second 

 form, calves with stronger constitutions and a less severe attack 

 show no signs of the complaint until about the time the fifth or sixth 

 meal of milk is offered, which the little animals refuse, and a 

 yellowish bilious discharge is ejected from the bowels, and within a 

 few hours the calves will be found lying stretched out and greatly 

 depressed, with eyes closed, mouth and body cold, breathing very 



