260 . DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



the joints. The theory of Lignicres is that this bacillus is the pri- 

 mary offender, and that once introduced it so depresses the vital 

 powers of the system and tissue cells that the healthy resistance to 

 other bacteria is impaired or suspended, and hence the general and 

 deadly invasion of the latter. 



Inoculations with this bacillus killed guinea pigs or rabbits in 6 

 to 18 hours, and calves in 30 hours, with symptoms and lesions of 

 hemorrhagic septicemia, including profuse fetid diarrhea. 



The predominance of the early and deadly lesions in the alimen- 

 tary tract would seem to imi:ily infection through the feed, and the 

 promptitude of the attack after birth, together with the frequent 

 coincidence of contagious abortion in the herd, suggest the j^resence 

 of the germ in the cow ; yet the escape of the calf when the cow 

 calves in a fresh building is equally suggestive of the infection 

 through germs laid up in the building. This conclusion is further 

 sustained by the observation that the bacillus evidently enters by 

 the raw, unhealed navel, that it is diffused in the blood, and that a 

 very careful preservation of the navel against infection gives im- 

 munity from attack. 



Prevention. — The disease is so certainlj^ and speedily fatal that it 

 is hopeless to expect recovery, and therefore prevention is the ra- 

 tional resort. 



When a herd is small, the removal of the dam to a clean, unused 

 stable a few days before calving and her retention there for a week 

 usually succeeds. It is in the large herd that the disease is mainly 

 to be dreaded, however, and in this it is impossible to furnish new 

 and pure stables for each successive gi'oup of two or three calving 

 cows. The thorough disinfection of the general stable ought to suc- 

 ceed, yet I have seen the cleanest and purest stable repeatedly dis- 

 infected with corrosive sublimate without stopping the maladJ^ It 

 would appear as if the germ lodged on the surface or in the bowels 

 of the cow and tided the infection over the period of stable disinfec- 

 tion. Though insufficient of themselves, the supply of separate 

 calving boxes and the frequent thorough cleaning and disinfection 

 of both these and the staldes should not be neglected. The most 

 important measure, however, is the disinfection of the navel. 



The cow should be furnished with abundance of dry, clean bed- 

 ding, sprinkled Avith a solution of carbolic acid. As soon as calvino- 

 sets in the tail and hips and anus and vulva should be sponged with 

 a carbolic-acid solution (one-half ounce to the quart), and the vaoina 

 injected with a weaker solution ('2 drams to the quart). Fresh car- 

 bolized bedding sliould be constantly supplied, so that the calf may 

 be dropped on that and not on soaked litter nor manure. The navel 

 string should be at once tied with a cord that has been taken from a 



