204 Veterinary Medicine. 



Chilling of the surface by exposure to cold drenching rains, is 

 a frequent cause, by reason of the intimate sympathy existing 

 between the skin and the mucous membrane. For the same rea- 

 son certain conditions of the skin will predispose, thus a long, 

 thick coat which keeps the animal constantly drenched with 

 sweat and the skin relaxed and sensitive. Williams draws at- 

 tention to the frequency and severity of bronchitis in both horses 

 and cattle conveyed by sea during stormy weather, and especially 

 when the hatches had to be fastened down. Such an experience 

 combines in one the evils of an overheated stall, a sudden transi- 

 tion often to extreme cold, a lowering of the vitality of the whole 

 system by the circulation of non- aerated blood, systematic poison- 

 ing by the retention of the waste organic products that would 

 otherwise have been eliminated, and the special weakening of the 

 lung tissue by congestion of the whole pulmonic circulation. 



But the development of bronchitis and broncho-pneumonia is 

 the least fatal result. The statistics of our European cattle 

 traffic are rich in the examples of absolute suffocation of cargoes 

 in transit to Europe. The following from Report of U. S. Treas- 

 ury Cattle Commission is illustrative : 



' ' Dr. Thayer reports the case of a steamer from Boston to Liv- 

 erpool, with 400 cattle on board, which encountered a storm and 

 came through it with only one animal surviving. Mr. Toffey, of 

 Jersey City, lost 30 head out of a cargo of 300 by suffocation in 

 1880. This happened, he informs us, on a calm sea on a south- 

 ern route with a temperature about 90° F., and the wind astern 

 and light so as just to keep pace with the ship. The air on board 

 the ship became perfectly stagnant, and there was no means of es- 

 tablishing an artificial current. A still more disastrous experience 

 befell the stealmer Thanemore, Captain Sibthorp, of the William 

 Johnson & Co. line. This vessel left Baltimore with 565 cattle 

 on board, of which 228 perished by suffocation before she reached 

 Cape Henry." 



Among animals that survive such treatment the susceptibility 

 to lung disease including even the contagious forms like tubercu- 

 losis is enormously enhanced. 



EFFECTS OF MODERATELY VITIATED AIR. 



"When air only moderately vitiated is breathed continuosly 

 for a greater length of time the results are still very injurious, 



