380 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



The history of the contagious pleuropneumonia of cattle can not be 

 traced with any certainty to a period earlier than the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century. No doubt it existed and ravaged the herds of 

 Europe for many years and perhaps centuries before that time, but 

 veterinary knowledge was so limited that the descriptions of the 

 symptoms and post-mortem appearances are too vague and too limited 

 to admit of the identification of the maladies to which they refer. It 

 has been supposed by some writers that certain passages in the writ- 

 ings of Aristotle, Livy, and Virgil show the existence of pleuro- 

 pneumonia at the time that their works were composed, but their 

 references are too indefinite to be seriously accepted as indicating 

 this rather than some other disease. 



As early as 1713 and 1714 it seems quite plain that pleuropneu- 

 monia existed in Suabia and several Cantons of Switzerland. Even 

 clearer accounts are in existence of its prevalence in Switzerland in 

 1732, 1743, and 17()5. In 1769 a disease of cattle was investigated in 

 Franche-Comte by Bourgelat which was called mingle, but which im- 

 doubtedly was identical with the pleuropneumonia of to-day. From 

 that period we have frequent and well-authenticated accounts of its 

 existence in various parts of Europe. During the period from 1790 

 to 1812 it was spread throughout a large portion of the continent of 

 Euroj^e by the cattle driven for the subsistence of the armies, which 

 marched and countermarched in all directions. It was generally pre- 

 valent in Italy in 1800. It appears to have been unknown, however, 

 in the Department of the Xord, France, until 1826, but during the 

 yeai-s from 1820 to 1840 it penetrated into most parts of that country. 

 During the same period it was introduced into and allowed to spread 

 over Belgium and Holland. 



This contagion is said to have been carried to Ireland from Hol- 

 land in 1839, and is reported as existing in England in 1842. The 

 disease was brought to the United States at several different times. 

 Probably the first introduction of the contagion was with a diseased 

 cow sold in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1843. It came to New Jersey by im- 

 porting affected animals in 1847. Massachusetts was infected in the 

 same way in 1859. 



South Africa was infected by a bull brought from Holland in 1854, 

 and Australia likewise received the contagion with an English cow in 

 1858. It is also reported as existing in various parts of the continent 

 of Asia, but the time of its first appearance and the extent of its dis- 

 tribution are very uncertain. 



Some countries, which had been infected for only a short time, such 

 as Xorway, Sweden, and Denmark, have succeeded in eradicating the 

 disease without much difficulty by slaughtering all affected and ex- 

 posed animals. Other countries long infected and in which the con- 

 tagion was thoroughly established, like Australia, South Africa, 



