190 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE OUTBREAK OF PLEURO-PNEU3IOMA IN THE WEST. 



Ou the 15th day of July, 1884, Dr. Trumbower was requested to visit 

 a cow at Sterling, 111., belouging to Mr. C. A. Keel* r. He fouud one of 

 his thoroughbred Jersey cows, aged about six years, with the followiug 

 symptoms: 



The skin was abnormally dry and dead-looking, the animal standing 

 with the head extended and the ears slightly drooping, coughing fre- 

 quently and protruding the tongue. The character of the cough was 

 dry, harsh, and rather weak, but not very painful. The eyes were 

 bright and prominent, respiration 50, pulse 94, weak but regular, tem- 

 perature 103.8° F. Auscultation on the right side of the chest revealed 

 a subcrepitant sound immediately behind the shoulder, a little below 

 the median line. In the middle and superior regions the respiratory 

 murmur was slightly augmented; percussion elicited a trifling dullness 

 over the lower third of the fourth and fifth ribs. In other parts no ab- 

 normal sound was produced, with the exceptiou of a slightly-increased 

 resonance over the middle and superior regions. On the left side a loud 

 murmur or sonorous rhonchus was heard in the median region behind 

 the shoulder, accompanied by a dry and soft rubbing sound; below this 

 part no respiratory murmur was audible, but in the act of coughing a 

 gurgling or splashing sound was heard as that of a liquid being sud- 

 denly agitated in a cavity. Percussion revealed dullness over the cen- 

 tral and lower posterior portions of the lung. Xo abnormal sensitive- 

 ness was manifested by pressure being applied along the spine or per- 

 cussion over the chest. The history of this case is as follows: 



Mr. Keefer saw this cow, Lass O'Lowrie, on the stock-farm of W« C. 

 Clarke, Geneva, 111., on the Oth day of April. At the same time he also 

 saw there two other cows, Tama Warren and Xutrina of Tunlaw; all 

 three had the appearance of unthriftiness, the hair looking rough and 

 dry, but this was attributed to a severe winter without proper care, 

 aud, in the case of Lass O'Lowrie, to recent calving. On the 0th of 

 June Mr. Keefer bought the latter animal from Mr. Clarke upon the 

 representation that she was perfectly healthy. She was shipped on the 

 8th, and was four hours in transit. When Mr. Keefer took her from the 

 car and drove her to his place she coughed frequently, andher hair looked 

 bad. She was thin in flesh and yielded no milk. She calved some time 

 in March and was again pregnant. From this time on she gradually be- 

 camepoorer and weaker. The milk secretion remained entirely suspended. 

 She stood in the field away from the other cattle, and Usually rested on 

 the right side when in a recumbent position. Rumination was entirely 

 suspended, appetite capricious, cough increasing in frequency, and had 

 paroxysms of almost incessant coughing, lasting in the early morning 

 for an hour or longer; nose alternately moist and dry; occasionally a 

 string of mucus would be noticed to drop from the nostrils; the cough 

 became more painful and the tongue was protruded in the act ; frequent 

 grating of the teeth was heard; no irregularity of the pulse or tympa- 

 nitis was noticed ; no arching of the back or turning out of the elbows ; 

 no moan or grunt accompanied respiration; no rusty colored and no 

 discolored expectoration was coughed up. The case was thought to be 

 one of tuberculosis, and isolation was recommended^ and slaughter and 

 burial as soon as he could decide upon the necessity of the measure. 

 He was requested to give notice and allow a post-mortem examination 

 to be made when she was slaughtered, or in case she should die. On 

 the morning of the 24th she was bled to death. On examination, the 

 anterior lobe of the right lung was found tilled with tubercles covering 



