Histoiy of Animal Plagties. 331 



certain thence the best means of prevention of the contagion, and the 

 proper intention of cure to be adopted in the medicinal treatment of 

 such as are already infected. 



'The first apparent symptoms of the murrain are : a dry cough j a 

 shivering and gnashing of the teeth coming on at considerable distances 

 of time ; shaking the ears and hanging down of the head as if from weak- 

 ness 5 stretching out of the neck as when there is a difficulty of swal- 

 lowing 5 moving often slowly from place to place seemingly in a con- 

 stant state of uneasinessj decrease of appetite j diminution or, on the fourth 

 day, total loss of milk in cows which are in a milch state, attended with a 

 lankness of the belly and udder -, and sometimes costiveness. During 

 the time these symptoms only appear, the cattle will eat, chew the cud, 

 and at some times look brisk and lively 5 but after the third or fourth 

 days, the following symptoms come on gradually but quickly, except 

 in those beasts which have the disease in a very mild and gentle man- 

 ner : — A constant heaviness and stupidity ; a general weakness 3 a great 

 decline of the appetite and chewing the cudj a frequent trembling of 

 the whole skin, or of particular parts of it, especially about the flank 

 and buttocks 3 a purging in some, or a discharge from the nose and 

 ears; and a total loss of the milk in milch cows, if it has not come on 

 before. 



' Where the disease is not slight, the above-specified symptoms are 

 soon succeeded by these others : — A refusal of all food, and ceasing 

 entirely to chew the cud; an increase of purging; the excrement be- 

 coming of a very yellow or of a dark green colour, stinking, and, in 

 some cases, coming away of itself from the fundament, which seems 

 continually open and moving ; a difficulty and shortness of breathing, 

 accompanied with groaning, and an extraordinary distention and widen- 

 ing of the nostrils ; a scabbiness of the nose and lips ; a great swelling 



^ Doctor de ]\Ionchy, city physician to Rotterdam, in his ' Remarks on the 

 Mortality among the Horned Cattle,' mentions a decrease of milk and a lankness 

 of the belly in milch cows, and a drowsiness and cough in young beasts, as suffici- 

 ent signs to discover this disease in the cattle. Kut though they may be good 

 reasons for suspicion of it in places where the contagion is already in the neighbour- 

 hood, yet they are by no means alone just grounds to determine that cattle so 

 affected are seized with the murrain when there is no likelihood of tlie hifection 

 having been conveyed to them. The decrease, or even loss, of milk in cows, 

 and the consequential lankness of the belly, are attendant on any consider- 

 able feverish disorder, and the drowsiness and cough in young beasts may arise 

 from colds or other epidemic disorders. I have mentioned this, because Doctor de 

 Monchy's dissertation has lately been translated into English, and such a passage 

 in it may mislead and occasion false alarms respecting the introduction of the con- 

 tagion into our country. 



