736 DISEASES AND ABNORMALITIES OF THE YOUNG ANIMAL. 



Etiology. 



From its mode of origin and extension, as well as its com'se, this 

 •disease is now generally recognised as due to micro-organisms, though 

 their exact characters are not yet accurately ascertained. The best 

 authorities class it with the miasmatico-contagious maladies, trans- 

 missible from a diseased to a healthy animal, the infecting agent being 

 most abundant in the excreta. Kotelmann^ asserts he was successful in 

 conveying the malady from the Calf to the Lamb ; though Gutmann- 

 did not succeed in producing it by making animals ingest diseased 

 excreta. Neither could Pranck produce the disease; for though he 

 administered in milk a quantity of the intestinal matter (which swarmed 

 with bacteria) to Sheep, Goats, and Eabbits, no positive result was 

 noted. This, however, can scarcely be deemed a satisfactory experi- 

 ment ; and it would be better to try the effects of the morbid products 

 on sucking calves or other creatures at the teat. 



According to Roloif,^ it is due to a " stable miasma " ; while Obich,* 

 who was the first to differentiate it from gastro-intestinal catarrh, 



certainly partly filled with fat granules, but there was otherwise no indication of fatty 

 degeneration. 



A very special feature of the disease was always found in the microscopical examina- 

 tion of the contents of the true stomach and small intestine. In these were discovered 

 great quantities of epithelium, and crowds of minute organisms. This purulent-looking 

 matter appeared to be a kind of bacteria-pulp {Balcterien-hr-ei). Besides innumerable 

 micrococci, there were also immense numbers of vibratile staff-shaped bodies {achwingende 

 Stcibcken). In the present state of uncertainty of the question with regard to minute 

 vegetable organisms, Franck declines to give an opinion as to the species to which the 

 last-described bodies belong. 



^ Archiv. fur WissenschaftUche unci Praktische Thierhtilkunde, 1885, p. 298. 



^ Ellenberger's JahresbericJit for 1883, p. 93. 



^ Miitheiiungen aus der Thierdrztlicheii Praxis, 1875, p. 119. Eoloff says : "The 

 malady will suddenly appear in a cowshed, and vanish again after a time, without any 

 alteration having been made in the feeding or management of the Cow. I was consulted 

 in a case of this kind, where, in a large cowshed, during eight weeks every Calf pro- 

 duced therein had perished. The Calves were generally, about the second day after birth, 

 uneasy ; they bellowed, appeared to be suffering from abdominal pain, had no appetite, 

 rapidly lost conditicm, passed watery stools, and died within twenty-four hours. All 

 remedies tried — among them, large doses of opium — were useless. Some of the new- 

 born Calves were fed on skimmed milk, othera on boiled milk diluted with water, while 

 others received no milk at all, but were fed on oatmeal gruel with which preparations of 

 iron were mixed— but all to no purpose, as they died all the same. The feeding of the 

 Cows was in every way good, and had not varied from that of other times, when this 

 disease did not appear. Roloff therefore concluded that the mortality was due to a 

 miasma in the shed ; consequently all the Cows which had not yet calved were removed 

 to another dry and airy shed. In this they brought forth at various times, and the 

 Calves remained healthy." 



In a second instance, the malady broke out suddenly in a cowshed at the commence- 

 ment of 1874. The Calves were apparently healthy when born, but in about two days 

 they became unwell and soon died in the usual way. As an experiment, some new-born 

 Calves were not allowed to get milk from their parent, but were fed on milk from Cows 

 in other sheds where the disease did not exist. On the second day, however, the Calves 

 sickened all the same, and succumbed. The feeding of the Cows was modified, but 

 without benefit. 



In a third instance, Roloflf mentions that, for a long time, all the Calves in a large 

 cowshed had perished in a similar manner, and though many of them had not received 

 any of their mother's milk — some of them no food at all — yet it made no difference. 

 This instance was particularly conclusive that the milk of the parenb was certainly not 

 the cause of the disorder. The Cows near their time for calving were moved from this 

 shed into another some distance away, and the change was attended with the happiest 

 results. 



* Wochenschri/t fur Thierheilhmde, 1865. 



