November r, 1889.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
337 
_ * 
T 0 the Editor. 
CATTLE MURRAIN. 
School of Agriculture, Colombo. 20th Sept. 1889. 
g IE) I send you the following observations made 
by me with regard to the disease affecting cattle 
at present, with the hope that they may direct 
attent'on to the need for greater precautions against 
disease, on tho part of oattle-owners. I have within 
the last few weeks seen two or three cases of the so- 
called "murrain." To begin with I found that the 
affection was not " murrain," at least in the general 
acceptation of that term in veterinary pathology, 
— the term murrain being synonymous with " foot- 
and-mouth disease," from which it seems to be 
particularly distinguished in Ceylon, as I read of 
such expressions as " hoof-and-mouth disease and 
murrain " and distinct prescriptions for the two 
People in Ceylon, however, may insist on their 
own nomenclature of bovine affections. To avoid 
confusion I would suggest that the disease in 
question be styled " Oeylon murrain." What 
then are the characters of the disease? The 
ordinary milkman or cartman will tell you 
that the first symptom of disease in his 
animal was a drooping of the ears and hanging 
down of the head ; next it ceased to feed and 
ruminate, while respiration gradually became more 
difficult ; that it inclined to swell about the barrel ; 
and finally sank down never to rise again. In 
company with the acting Sanitary Officer I 
visited two cattle-sheds and saw animals that 
were victims to the so-called " murrain. " The 
mouth and feet were perfectly dean in every case. 
In the last oase, which resulted in the death of 
the animal on Tuesday morning, we per- 
formed a postmortem a few hours after. The 
examination revealed that the different organs 
of the body were almost perfectly healthy. 
The lungs were congested to a slight degree, 
but otherwise there was nothing to attract at- 
tention except the oondition of the rumen. This 
was distended to an inordinate extent, and on 
puncture emitted peculiarly noxious odours. More- 
over, it contained an unusual amount of food in 
a highly decomposed state. I should mention also 
that the animals I examined were also suffering 
from catarrh, as shown in the discharge from 
the nose and eyes, with a tendency to fever, the 
extremities and ears being generally cold in contrast 
with the hot condition of the other parts. 
Now with these data before me, and knowing 
nothing of the nature of previous attacks, but 
merely comparing the character of the affection 
with surrounding conditions, I am forced to 
the conclusion that the attack called "murrain" 
in Ceylon is induced by certain atmospheric con- 
ditions. The nature of the weather during the 
past few weeks combined with the unconcern with 
which the necessity for protection from its in- 
clemenoy is looked upon, causing both cold and 
fever ; the wet and musty food supplied, resulting in 
tympanitis and impaction of the rumen; and lastly the 
post-mortem evidence : all these I say go to streng- 
then the opinion expressed as to the cause of the at- 
tack. The Sanitary Officer, moreover, asserts that 
just in those cattle-pens where the animals were 
exposed to the weather, where dampness and 
moistness were the prevailing qualities of the 
pen and food, did he observe attacks of 
"Ceylon murrain" breaking out. Some aver 
that the affeotion is contagious, but the predis- 
posing cause of the attaok is so oommon, 
namely want of oaro both in housing and 
feeding under spatial oiroumstancea, that there 
is little opportunity of judging whether arj attack 
after the arrival of certain animals in a district 
was due to the presence of such animals — in 
fact whether it is a case of " propter hoc" bo- 
cause it was "post hoc." 
Under the circustancea it is natural to suggest 
better care of the animals especially under pecu- 
liar conditions of weather and of the atmosphere ; 
dry housing; and particularly sound food, that is food 
that is not damp or musty, owing probably to bAns 
cut wet and stored badly. Unsucculent food should 
be supplied as far .as possibla as, I believe, has been 
suggested already, but certainly an instantaneous 
change of diet is necessary, cooked food supply- 
ing a convenient and wholesome change. Drugs for 
the relief of the animal have already been 
suggested and found effioacious in the hill- 
country. My observations of the character of the 
so called "murrain" strongly reminded me of an 
epizootic attaok known as "pink-eye influenza" 
which broke out among the horses in Edinburgh 
two years ago. Principal Williams used to des- 
cribe it as an " atmospheric disease " usually 
coming on after a season of wet weather when 
the ground is saturated with moisture : though 
there was a gcaeral opinion that the attack was 
contagious, he held to the contrary, and laughed 
at the municipal authorities for boarding over the 
city water-troughs for horses. He was afterwards 
able to show cases of affected and healthy animals 
standing side by side in his infirmary, and say 
of tho latter, " They have escaped because they 
stand in a well-protected and dry stable." I 
have already over-stepped the limits I intended 
confining myself to. Certain suggestions as to the 
necessity of inspection and other points bearing 
on this subject, I must reserve, probably to be 
dealt with in the coming issue of the Magazine of 
the School of Agriculture. — Yours <fcc, 
C. DRIEBERG, b.a., f.h.a.s. 
MARKING CEYLON TEA PACKAGES. 
Colombo, Sept. 20th. 
Deae Sir, — Messrs. h A. Rucker & Benoraft in 
their weekly Tea Circular of August 29th refer to a 
letter of mine appearing in the Overland Ceylon 
Observer of July 22nd, on the subject of making 
Ceylon tea packages. Messrs. I. A. R. & Bencraft's 
recommendation that packages should bear an in- 
voice or break number instead of a separate No. 
for each package is a good one and an improve- 
ment on my own. 
An invoice of say 100 packages would therefore be 
marked thus : — 
25 packages B. P. all No. 1 
45 ,, Pekoe „ 2 
30 „ P. Sou. „ 3 
the next invoice beginning B.P. No. 4, and so on, 
i As regards marking packages with the net weight 
t is of oourse of no use from a London point 
of view, but for teas offered in local sale, it is 
very necessary, from a buyer's point, as it enables 
him to readily check, in the rough way, _ estate 
net weights by taking the gross. Occasionally 
important mistakes are rectified in this way. As 
buyers very rarely turn out tea in Colombo, (in 
practice it is impossible), acoepting estate weights as 
correct, it is only right that planters should give 
ouyers every facility to enable them to asoertain if 
estate weights are about correct. We all know that 
scales are apt to get out of order in this olimate. 
In addition to the foregoing, the net weights being 
marked on the packages enables the Custom-i to as- 
certain if the Harbour dues, paid after shipment, 
are correctly paid or not, the dues varying according 
to the weight of the package. 
