CATTLE. 



animal has drunk, generally indicates a more or less serious afifection 

 of the lung. If a severe cough attack the animal, great attention 

 must be paid to it, because in such cases we frequently have to treat 

 commencing hydrothorax. The means to bt adopted when no other 

 symptoms of disease are observed, are : dulcamara, in cough by 

 cold; hryonia (in repeated doses,) in inveterate cough ; belladonna 

 and drosera, in chronic cough ; hyoscyamus, when the attacks are 

 very frequent ; squilla, in cough which comes on after fatigue, and 

 which interferes with the respiration ; chamomilla, in dry cough, with 

 diarrhoea; jmlsatilla. in frequent attacks of dry cough, with loss of 

 appetite ; spiritus sulphuratus, in very obstinate cough. When the 

 cough is the symptom of another disease, it yields to the treatment 

 required by the latter. 



When the entire system has suffered more or less, the affection is 

 accompanied with fever of greater or less severity ; some doses of 

 aconitumy the first remedy to be employed in such cases, never fail 

 to produce excellent effects. If the cold affect but a part of the 

 body, we scarcely ever observe any fever, and hryonia is to be ad- 

 ministered. In many cases considerable benefit has been obtained 

 from dulcamara, nux vomica, and rhus toxicodendron. Arsenicum is 

 good when the digestion is disturbed, or the complaint has been oc- 

 casioned by a cold drink. 



EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 



Catarrh occasionally assumes an epidemic form ; it spreads over 

 whole districts ; is more than usually violent ; associates with itself 

 the symptoms of other and of worse diseases, and is strangely fatal. 

 If a cold yet variable spring succeeds to a wet and mild winter, 

 there will "be scarcely a dairy or a straw-yard in some districts in 

 which a considerable number of cows will not labor under distressing 

 hoose. Obstinate costiveness attends the earl)^ stage of this disease, 

 on which neither Epsom salts, nor common salt, nor linseed oil, can 

 make any impression. All seems to go into the rumen, and has for 

 a while no power on the cuticular coat of that stomach ; and then, 

 whether the purgative course be pursued or suspended, diarrhoea 

 suddenly comes on, and bids equal defiance to all astringent medi- 

 cines. Sometimes, however, diarrhoea is present, and obstinate from 

 the very beginning. 



Tumors about the head, the roots of the ears, the neck, the back, 

 and loins, and many of the joints, soon succeed, accompanied by a 

 singular crackhng sound when pressed upon. There is decomposi- 

 tion going on everywhere, and in the cellular texture among the 

 rest, accompanied by the extrication of gas, the passage of which 

 among the cells beneath the skin is the cause of this crackling. 



While these tumors indicate decomposition in one part, the ap- 

 pearance and odor o: the faeces show that it is not inactive in the 



