COLD AND COUGH II COSE. 47 



The inflammation is slight; the animal is scarcely ill at all ; the 

 cough remits and returns, with or without his observation. He adds 

 to it, perhaps, by improper treatment. He exposes the beast unne- 

 cessarily to cold or wet; or he crowds his cattle into stables sliame- 

 fully small compared with the number of the animals, and the air is 

 hot and nauseous, and charged with watery fluid thrown ofl' from the 

 lungs and from the skin. The cough increases, it becomes hoarse, 

 and harsh, and painful ; and that aflTection is established which oftener 

 lays the foundation for consumption and death than any other malady 

 to which these animals are exposed. 



That farmer is inattentive to his own interests who suflers a cough, 

 and especially a hoarse, feeble cough, to hang about his cattle longer 

 than he can help. He should be warned in time, before his cows are 

 getting off their feed, and becoming thin, and are half dry ; for then 

 it will generally be too late to seek for advice, or to have recourse to 

 medical care: the disease has fastened upon a vital part, and the 

 constitution is undermined. 



Cough occasionally assumes an epidemic cliaracter — from sudden 

 changes of the weather, chiefly and particularly in the spring and the 

 fall of the year : it then spreads over a great part of the country, and 

 is often particularly severe. 



The symptoms of epidemic cold or catarrh, or influenza, as it is 

 sometimes called, are frequently serious. Tiie beast is dull and 

 heav}', with weeping at the eyes, and dry muzzle ; the hair looks 

 pen-feathered, or staring; the appetite fails; the secretion of milk is 

 diminished ; there is considerable heaving of the flanks ; the pulse 

 is from GO to 70, and the bowels are generally costive or sapped. 



Cattle that have been tenderly managed during the winter, and 

 cows after calving, are very subject to it, especially if they have been 

 poorly fed, or driven long distances, and exposed to a cold, piercing 

 wind. 



It will be necessary to commence the treatment of this disease with 

 bleeding. From four to six (juarts of blood should bo tak(Mi, and then 

 a dose of physic administered. The following will be a good purga- 

 tive medicine in such a case : — 



RECIPE (No. 2). 



Purghur Drink. — Take epsnm salts, ono p<iii?i(l ; powdered caraway-seeds, half aa 

 ounce. Dissolve in a quart of warm gruel, and give. 



After that the drink No. 1 should be given morning and night, the 

 drink No. 2 being repeated if the bowels should be costive. 



It will be proper to house the beast, and especially at night; and a 

 mash of scalded bran with a few oats in it, if there is no fever, should 

 be allowed. It is necessary carefully to watch the animals that are 

 labouring under this complaint; and, if the heaving should continue, 

 or the muzzle again become or continue dry, and the breath hot, more 

 blood should be taken away, and the purging drink repeated. At the 

 close of the epidemic catarrh, the animal will sometimes be left weak 



