Book VII. DISEASES OF HORNED CATTLE. 1033 



6946. The treatment of the murrain. In the very early stages, all eminent authors rfecommend bleeding ; 

 but which should not only be confined to the very early periods, as to the first two days, but also to such 

 subjects as by their previous health and condition can bear it. The animals should be placed in an open 

 airy place; the litter should be frequently renewed ; and the place itself should be fumigated with the 

 preventive fumigation. (6582.) It has been recommended to burn green boughs with pitch as a substitute : 

 even charcoal fires occasionally carried round the jjlace would be useful. Dr. Layard advised the body to 

 be washed with aromatic herbs in water ; but vinegar would have been better. In the early stages, saline 

 purgatives, as from ten to twenty ounces of Epsom salts, are to be invariably used. If the scouring have 

 already come on, still, however, purge ; but with only half the quantity : an artificial purge will carry off 

 the morbid bile ; and if excessive weakness do not come on, the same may be advantageously repeated. 

 Setons are also recommended in the dewlap. When abscesses appear, they may be opened, and their con- 

 tents di.scharged, washing the wound with brandy or vinegar, if putrid sloughing takes place. The em- 

 physematous swellings or cracklings may also be opened, and the air discharged. The other essentials of 

 medical treatment, as detailed under malignant epidemic among horses, is here applicable in every par. 

 ticular. When recovery takes place, it is usually a very slow process, and requires care to prevent other 

 diseases supervening. The animals should continue to be housed, and neither exposed to sun or wind for 

 some time, and the feeding should be nutritious. 



6947. The prevention of the murrain, or the prevention of its spreading, in many respects is even more 

 important than its medical treatment. Where it has already appeared, all the ouUbuildings, but particu- 

 larly the ox-lodges or stalls, should be daily fumigated with the preventive fumigation (6582.) ; and even 

 the whole of the infected districts should have frequent fires of green wood made in the open air, and 

 every such district should be put under a rigorous quarantine. The cattle on every farm should be care- 

 fully examined three or four times every day, and the moment one is found to droop, he should be removed 

 to a distance from the others. In very bad weather, while it is prevalent, the healthy cattle should 

 be housed, and particularly well fed ; and their pasture should also be changed. The bodies of those who 

 die of the disease should be buried with their skins on, very deep in the earth, and quick-lime should be 

 strewed over them. 



6948. Phrenxy fever, or inflammation of the brain, called also sough, now and then, but by no means 

 frequently, attacks cattle. The symptoms differ but little from those which attack horses. The treatment 

 must be exactly similar. 



6949. Indammation of the lungs occasionally occurs in cattle, in which also the symptoms, progress, and 

 proper treatment are similar to those detailed under that head in horse pathology. 



6950. Ii)flammation of the stomach sometimes occurs from poisonous matters ; and in such cases, when 

 the nature of the poison is discovered, the /jraiwew^ detailed under poison in horse pathology must be 

 pursued. But there is a species of indigestion to which cattle are liable in the spring, from eating vora- 

 ciously of the young sprouts of wood ; to which some woods are more conducive than others. The symp- 

 toms are heat, thirst, costiveness, lessened urine, quick and hard pulse, with heat and redness in the mouth 

 and nose ; the belly is hard and painful, and the stools, when they appear, are covered with glair. When 

 the mouth and nose discharge a serous fluid, the animal usually dies. 



6951. Treatment. Bleed at first, open the bowels by saline purgatives. (6585.) After this give large 

 quantities of nitrated water, and glister also largely. 



6952. The hove or blousn in cattle is also an inflammatory affection of the paunch, ending in paralysis and 

 rupture of its substance. From the frequency of its occurrence, it has become a subject of investigation 

 with almost every rational grazier, and a particular matter of enquiry with every agricultural body ; 

 whence it is now very successfully treated by the usual attendants on cattle, when skilful ; but when 

 otherwise, it usually proves fatal It is observed to be more frequent in warm weather, and when the 

 grass is wet. When either oxen, cows, or sheep meet with any food they are particularly fond of, or of 

 which they have been long deprived, as potatoes, turnips, the different grasses, particularly red clover, 

 they eat greedily, and forget to lie down to ruminate, by which means the first stomach, or paunch, be- 

 comes so distended as to be incapable of expelling its contents. From this inflammation follows, and 

 fermentation begins to take place : a large quantity of air is let loose, which still adds te the distention, till 

 the stomach either bursts, or, by its pres.sure on the diaphragm, the animal is suffocated. The situation of 

 the beast is knowt) by the uneasiness and general s"wel!ing of the abdomen ; with the circumstances of the 

 animal being found with such food, or the presumption that it has met with it. 



6i'53. Treatment. There are three modes of relieving the complaint, which may be adverted to according 

 to the degree of distention, and length of time it has existed. These are internal medicines ; the intro- 

 duction of a probang of some kind into the paunch by the throat ; and the puncturing it by the sides. 

 Dr. Whyatt, of Edinburgh, is said to have cured eighteen out of twenty hoved cows, by giving a pint of 

 gin to each. Oil, by condensing the air, has been successfully tried. Any other substance, also, that haa 

 a strong power of absorbing air may be advantageously given. Common salt and water, made strongly 

 saline, is a usual country remedy. New milk, with a proportion of tar equal to one sixth of the milk, is 

 highly spoken of. A strong solution of prepared ammonia m water often brings off a great quantity of 

 air, and relieves the animal. Any of these internal remedies may be made use of when the hoven has 

 recently taken place, and is not in a violent degree. But when otherwise, the introduction of an instru. 

 ment is proper, and is now very gener^y resorted to. The one principally in use is a species of probang, 

 invented by Dr. Monro, of Edinburgh. Another, consisting of a cane of six feet in length, and of con- 

 siderable diameter, having a bulbous knob of wood, has been invented by Eager, which is a more simple 

 machine, but hardly so efficacious. It is probable that, in cases of emergency, even the larger end of a 

 common cart-whip, dexterously used, might answer the end. But by far the best instrument for relieving 

 hoven cattle, as well as for clystering them, is Read's enema apparatus, which is alike applicable to horses, 

 cattle, and dogs. It consists of a syringe {fig. 870. a.), to which tubes of different kinds are applied, 

 according to the purpose, and the kind of animal to be operated upon. There is a long flexible tube for 

 giving an enema to horses and cattle (a), and a smaller one for dogs, ifi) To relieve hoven bullocks 

 effectually, it is necessary not only to free the stomach from an accumulation of gas, but from the fer- 

 menting pultaceous mixture which generates it; for this purpose a tube (/)is applied to the extremity of 

 the syringe, and then passed into the animal's stomach through the mouth (d), and being put in action, 

 the offending matter is discharged by a side opening. When the same operation is performed on sheep, 

 a smaller tube {e) is made use of The characteristic excellency of Read's instrument is, that there is no 

 limit to the quantity of fluid that may be injected or extracted. The same syringe is used for extracting 

 poison from the stomach of man, for smoking insects, extinguishing fires, and syringing fruit trees. 

 lEncyc. of Gard. 2d edit. 1419.) The introduction of any of these instruments may be effected by the help 

 of an assistant, who should hold the horn of the animal by one hand, and the dividing cartilage of the nose 

 with the other; while the operator himself, taking the tongue in hisleft hand, employs his right in skilfully 

 and carefully introducing the instrument : the assistant bringing the head and neck into such an attitude 

 as to make the passage nearly straight, which will greatly facilitate the operation. But when no instru- 

 ments can be procured, or as cases may occur when indeed it is not advisable to try them, as when the 

 disease has existed a considerable time, or the animal has become outrageous, or the stomach so much 

 distended with air that there is danger of immediate suffocation or bursting; in these instances the i)unc- 

 ture of the maw must be instantly performed, which is called paunching. This may be done with the 

 greatest ease, midway between the ilium, or haunch-bone, and the last rib of the left side, to which the 

 paunch inclines : a sharp penknife is frequently used ; and persons in veterinary practice should always 

 keep a long trochar, which will be found much the most efl'icacious, and by far the most safe, as it permits 

 the air escaping certainly and quickly, at the same time that it prevents its entrance into the cavity of the 





