MURRAIN, OR PESTILENTIAL FEVER. 81 



farm. The sick ojily should be taken away, and that as speedily as 

 p.>ssible. 



In the early stage of the disease there can be no doubt of the pro- 

 priety of bleeding! The fever, which, accordiiior to every account, 

 characterises the first attack, should, if possible, be subdued ; ollier- 

 wise its prolonged existence would aggrivate, if it did not cause, the 

 subsequent debility. The animal should be bled, in proportion to ids 

 size, condition, and the degree of fever : he should be bled, in fact, 

 until the pulse began to falter or he began to stagger. The blood 

 should be taken in as full a stream as possible, that the constitution 

 might be more speedily and beneficially atfected. When the blood 

 Hows slowly, a quantity may sometimes be taken away before the 

 animal begins to feel it, the loss of which would afterwards produce 

 alarming debility; but if the blood flows freely, the beast will show 

 symptoms of faintness — the etfect we wish to produce — before one- 

 fourth of the quantity is drawn that would be lost if it ran in a slow- 

 stream. We want to attack and subdue the fever, without under- 

 minino- the strencrth of the frame. 



Then we should with great propriety administer a brisk purgative. 

 If fetid and obstinate purging so so(m follows, we should be anxious 

 to get rid, if we can do so, of a portion of the offending matter; and 

 therefore a pound or twenty ounces of Epsom salts should be given 

 in a sufficient quantity of thin gruel. 



Next, as it is a disease so much and so early characterised by de- 

 bility, we should attend to the diet. Green succulent grass would 

 scarcely be allowed, because it would probably not a little increase 

 the purging; but mashes of bran, with a little bean-meal, carrots, or 

 sweet old hay, should be given in moderate quantities. The animal 

 should be coaxed to eat; for it is necessary that the constitution be 

 supported against the debilitating influence of such a disease. The 

 animal should not be at first drenched, for this might produce nausea 

 and disgust for food ; but if two or three days should pass, and the 

 beast should obstinately refuse to eat, plenty of warm thick gruel 

 must be forced upon him. As for medicine, I scarcely know what to 

 advise. The fact stands too clearly upon record, that nineteen animals 

 out of twenty, seized with the murrain, have died. That on which I 

 should put most dependence would be the following : — 



RECtPE (No. 35). 

 Drink for Murrain.— Take swt-nt s])irn of nitre, half an ouncn ; laudanum, ha/f 

 an outice ; chloride of litne, in powder, two ounces; prepared chalk, an ounce. Rub 

 them well together, and give them with a pint of warm gruel. 



This may be repeated every six hours, until the purging is consi- 

 derably abated ; but should not be continued until it has quite 

 stopped. 



The purging being abated, we must look about for something to 

 recall the appetite and recruit the strength, and I do not know any 

 thing better than the following : — 



