566 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK vi. 



and desire to rub the skin. Where such an eruption as that described 

 occurs in a number of calves about the same time the diagnosis of 

 ringworm may be accepted. 



Treatment. All the manure should be removed, and the shed swept 

 down and lime-washed, and clean straw supplied in the place of the 

 old litter. The mangers and fittings will require to be well soaked 

 with some disinfectant. Treatment of the skin should be commenced 

 by removing the scurf with soap and water, and afterwards the patches 

 of eruption may be dressed once daily with a solution of corrosive 

 sublimate (two or three grains to an ounce of water) for three or four 

 days in succession ; or a little tincture of iodine may be painted over 

 the surface in a like way. Oxide of zinc ointment may be used with 

 advantage. A paper on " Ringworm in Calves," by Sir George Brown, 

 appeared in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 3rd series, 

 vol. vi., 1893, p. 308. 



RINDERPEST. This is a disease which is due to a specific virus. It is 

 always present in the Steppes of Russia, and other parts, from whence 

 it spreads to neighbouring countries, and may, under favourable circum- 

 stances, be conveyed to remote districts, as the virus retains its vitality 

 for a long time. Owing, however, to the existing methods of inspection, 

 it is not likely to gain a footing in this country again, so that a descrip- 

 tion of symptoms is not called for in such a work as this. It is, how- 

 ever, significant that when introduced into any place where it is not 

 indigenous, it always assumes a great amount of virulence and proves 

 very fatal. 



TUBERCULOSIS. This is a disease to which all the domesticated 

 animals are susceptible, and is caused by the invasion of one or more of 

 the organs of the body by the tubercle bacillus. 



Owing to the very extensive use of cow's milk as a food for children 

 and invalids, tuberculosis in dairy cows assumes special importance 

 in relation to the health of human beings, particularly in cases of 

 generalised tuberculosis, or when the udder is the seat of the disease, 

 because in each of these instances tubercular bacilli are often present 

 in the milk drawn from the affected cow, and it is now admitted that 

 human beings, especially children, are capable of becoming affected with 

 tuberculosis by means of the bacilli so derived from the cow, notwith- 

 standing a slight variation of characteristics in the bacilli common to 

 bovines and those of human beings. Tubercle bacilli of fowls, again, 

 differ somewhat from either of the two former kinds, and do not appear 

 to possess the power of transmitting the disease to human beings to any 

 marked extent, except, possibly, under very exceptional and favourable 

 circumstances. 



The symptoms of tuberculosis vary, according to the organ chiefly 

 affected; thus, when the lungs is the principal seat of the disease, a 

 cough is the most characteristic symptom, accompanied, as in all cases 

 of advanced tuberculosis, with more or less general wasting of the 



