INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



365 



disease which affects bovine animals, and from which other species are 

 exempt. It is characterized, when the disease results from exposure 

 in the usual manner, by an inflammation of the lungs and pleurae, 

 which is generally -extensive, and which has a tendency to invade por- 

 tions of these organs not primarily affected and to cause death of the 

 diseased portion of the lung. This disease is frequently called the. 

 lung plague, which corresponds with its German name of Lungen- 

 seuche. In French it is spoken of as the peripneumonie contagieuse. 



The history of the contagious pleuro-pneumonia 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 postmortem 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-pneu- 

 monia 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 pleuro-pneumonia 

 existed in Suabia and several Cantons of Switzerland. Even clearer 

 accounts are in existence of its prevalence in Switzerland in 1732, 1743, 

 and 1765. In 1769 a disease of cattle was investigated in Franche- 

 Comte by Bourgelat which was called murie, but which undoubtedly 

 was identical with the pleuro-pneumonia 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 Europe by the 

 cattle driven for the subsistence of the armies, which marched and 

 countermarched in all directions. It was generally prevalent in Italy 

 in 1800. It appears to have been unknown, however, in the Depart- 

 ment of the Nord, France, until 1826, but during the years 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 Bel- 

 gium and Holland. 



This contagion is said to have been carried to Ireland from Holland 

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

 was brought to the United States at several different times. Prob- 

 ably the first introduction of the contagion was with a diseased cow 

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

 ing 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 



