THE SOUTHpN PLANTER 



119 



greenish color, resembling a strong solution of 

 copperas. As I said before, I have not known 

 a single recovery, where the urine was bloody. 

 Multitudes get well, either with or without 

 medicine, when it is only dark greenish, and 

 some few hardly appear to be sick at all, 

 If it could be established that bloody urine 

 accompanies the bloody murrain of Europe — 

 which I suppose to be doubtless, from the very 

 name of the disease — and with similar fatality, 

 it would not only go far towards proving iden- 

 tity* with what we call distemper, but it would 

 give force to a belief which I have long held, 

 that infectious and contagious diseases, whether 

 of men or brutes, are the same in all latitudes ; 

 while atmospheric diseases vary with climate 

 and locality. This law of infectious diseases 

 compels smallpox to be the same in Quebec 

 that it is in New Orleans. Its cause being a 

 specific virus, unconnected with the atmosphere, 

 it is little affected by atmospheric influences. 

 I will not, in deference to common, or even 

 professional opinion, call that an atmospheric 

 disease over which the atmosphere exerts little 

 or no influence. An attentive and searching 

 investigation into the laws of infection and 

 contagion, is so exceedingly important, that I 

 trust I shall be pardoned, if I afford what 

 may appear to be undue prolixity to this por- 

 tion of the subject. The annals of surgery 

 warrant us in feeling undoubting confidence 

 that the virus of hydrophobia will not affect 

 the nerves of the part bitten, previously to the 

 eighth day after the bite ; so that ample time 

 is afforded both to ascertain whether the dog 

 biting was certainly mad, and to procure the 

 best surgical skill for the thorough extirpation 



* Being requested to write the above article by 

 a member of the executive committee of the Vir- 

 ginia State Agricultural Society, I felt that I had 

 nothing to urge, except a scheme for preventing or 

 even exterminating the disease in question, by 

 cutting off all possibility of extending it in the 

 only way in which I think it communicable. I did 

 not therefore pay much attention to its diagnosis, 

 as — being the only destructive pestilence among 

 cattle in all this region — its symptoms are gene- 

 rally well known. Since writing the article, I have 

 been able to procure " Youatt on Cattle," and find 

 the symptoms of " murrain" as detailed by that 

 fine writer, almost identical with those in the dis- 

 ease which we call " distemper." It is true, there 

 are discrepancies for which I cannot account. In 

 our " distemper" there is, so far as I know, no 

 hemorrhage, except from the bladder; and whilst 

 I have not heard of tumors and abscesses, I have 

 uniformly found the skins, in all the worst cases, 

 destroyed by gangrenous action. There is, more- 

 over, another difference. Youatt represents mur- 

 rain as committing its greatest ravages in winter 

 and spring : our distemper has not been known to 

 occur between the first of January and the last of 

 June. 



of the wound. In many diseases, whether in- 

 fectious or contagious, it is often desirable to 

 know exactly the time transpiring between ex- 

 posure and attack. For example, should a 

 man have a cow which had strayed into in- 

 fected commons, or other place of exposure, 

 he would be glad to know how long he should 

 keep her in quarantine, or in seclusion from 

 his other stock. Nature has her laws for the 

 regulation of all earthly things, and marked 

 with wonderful uniformity of action. She re- 

 veals not her secrets to the careless, the pre- 

 sumptuous, or self-concceited observer ; but to 

 the modest and patient investigator discloses 

 them generously. I wish that I could specify 

 precisely the time intervening between the ex- 

 posure and attack in this disease. I did as- 

 certain it to my satisfaction some twenty odd 

 years ago ; but not then feeling the importance 

 of treasuring up every such particular, I suf- 

 fered it to slip my memory. Perhaps some 

 other writer may be able, with accuracy, to 

 furnish this information. I admit that coun- 

 tervailing causes may suspend the action of a 

 virus in the animal system, in some rare cases ; 

 but where no such causes interfere, I believe 

 there is perfect regularity in this matter. 



When I had daily opportunities, during the 

 hot months of summer, of making observa- 

 tions on the phenomena accompanying distem- 

 per among cattle, I noticed the following facts, 

 There were several farms, which I had to pass- 

 almost daily, on which distemper raged sadly, 

 and the diseased and dead cattle would be 

 lying in the corners of a dividing fence, while 

 the sound cattle of a neighbor would be on 

 the other side of the fence, bellowing the ob- 

 sequies of the dead, with their noses almost 

 touching their carcasses. I observed, more- 

 over, that dogs carried the bones, with flesh on 

 them too, from the diseased to the healthy side 

 of the fence. From these facts, as no disease 

 accrued to the sound cattle, the inference was 

 fair, that distemper is not contracted by pro- 

 pinquity to the diseased, the dying, or the 

 dead. Further, these two descriptions of 

 cattle remained, thus near to each other, in 

 the standing pastures of their respective 

 owners, for a number of years, with perfect 

 impunity to the sound portion. I frequently 

 sent my oxen into the most exposed situations, 

 without injury, after seeing that they were se- 

 curely muzzled ; others did the same. The fore- 

 going inference was thus strengthened. Facts 

 of the following kind were also very common. 

 Gentlemen bought lands on which distempered 

 cattle had long been living and dying; en- 

 closed t!i em in winter, the only time that a to- 

 bacco maker has to do such work — stocking 



