256 DISEASES OP CATTLE. 



and by applying the ear to the course of the wind-pipe, a 

 slight, rough and grating sound will be heard. This 

 sound, hoAvever, can be heard from twelve hours after the 

 attack. According to the amount of serum poured out, 

 and whether the cow be in calf, and how far she is gone in 

 calf, so will the quickness and depth of the breathing be. 

 Bronchitis is the forerunner of pleuro-pneumonia, com- 

 monly called the " Massachusetts Cattle Disease." The 

 spotted and solid appearance of the lungs of animals having 

 died of this disease, is due to the lungs being so long' 

 immersed in the serum or fluid, which is poured into the 

 chest. Pathological anatomists are well aware, that if the 

 substance of the lungs had been the original seat of the 

 disease, the animal so aifected would either have died, or 

 have recovered in about forty-eight hours ; whereas, none 

 scarcely die within the first week from the attack, and 

 many live a lingering life of six weeks and two months. 

 This fact cannot be reconciled with the current theory of 

 the lungs being diseased by direct attack. No ! They 

 are solidified either from their functions being impaired by 

 being immersed in and surrounded by fluid poured out 

 from the fibrous serous tissue, or from the effiscts of in- 

 flammation of the linings of the wind-pipe, and, perhaps, 

 the linings of the chest, singly or conjointly with that of 

 the wind-pipe also. This, I am satisfied, is susceptible 

 of no other theory, or exj)lanation whatever; and the 

 sooner farmers and others think so, too, the better it will 

 be for them. 



Treatment. If the disease be discovered within forty- 

 eight hours from the attack, take from four to five dosea 

 of the tincture of aconite root, twenty-five drops to a dose, 

 and give one dose every four hours. If there be uncer- 

 tainty as to whether the, disease haa existed longer oi 



