TYPHUS CONTAGIOSUS BOUN. 355 



Typhus Contagiosus Baun— Contagious Ty- 

 phus of Cattle— Hiaderpest— Cattle Plague- 

 Steppe Disease— Loserdurre, etc— This is one of 



those epizootic diseases which have, at distant and differ- 

 ent periods of the workl's history, attacked the ox tribe 

 of Europe, and consists in inflammation and irritation of 

 the fibrous, serous tissue, or white membranes of the nose, 

 windpipe and chest, and instead of serum or fluid being 

 poured out as a consequence, as it does in cases of epi- 

 zootic pleuro-pneumonia, the membranes become deteri- 

 orated, and portions become detached, and some partially 

 adhere, but all decay, and become a dangerous poison, 

 which is gradually absorbed into the general circulation, 

 speedily followed by fermentation of the blood within the 

 body, resulting in boils, or small carbuncles containing 

 pus, which soon break and discharge. All of which is 

 accompanied by sympbtthetic fever, but typhus so called, 

 gradual and progressive in its character, till the blood 

 and tissue of the body are no longer fit for the purposes 

 of life, the animal dying, an exhausted and miserable ob- 

 ject, in from ^.fe^w days to one, two and three weeks from 

 the time of attack. 



Causes. — Certain conditions of the air and earth, as 

 heat and moisture, cold and dryness, contagion. These 

 may be called the exciting causes ; something still being 

 wanted in the system of the animal to form the predis- 

 posing cause, as debility, and^^a low standard of general 

 health. Indeed, those conditions which sometimes exist, 

 and form pleuro-pneumonia, are capable of producing 

 contagious typhus. I am borne out in this opinion by 

 Jessen, who among the discordant opinions and theories 

 of Europe, has declared the disease to be associated with 

 pleuro-pneumonia; and Dr. Greenhow says that conta- 



