838 
PLEUROPNEUMONIA. 
benefit would be gained, while great loss would be incurred 
to little purpose in some districts ; stoppage of all fairs and 
markets as an essential step in carrying out a perfect system 
of isolation. No stringency of caution would entirely exclude 
infected animals from large gatherings of cattle at sales and 
fairs; but at present no attempt is made, in the majority of 
instances, to check the practice of exposing cattle from in- 
fected districts for sale in public ; hence it happens that con- 
tagious disease constantly radiates from such centres of 
cattle traffic with a rapidity proportioned to the facilities of 
transit. 
Disinfection . — With the design of neutralising the conta- 
gium , certain chemical agents are commonly employed as 
preventives during the existence of infectious maladies among 
men and animals. Carbolic acid, chlorides of lime or zinc, 
sulphuric acid, or chlorine gas, are advocated as disinfectants; 
and probably each of them possesses sufficiently active powers 
if it is used in a concentrated form. Carbolic acid, or the 
allied agent, cresylic aid, has been tested in pleuropneumonia 
with remarkably beneficial effects. Some years ago some 
experiments were carried out by Mr. Priestman at the sug- 
gestion of the writer, and the results were so satisfactory that 
the employment of carbolic acid as a curative and preventive 
of the disease is still continued. Professor Baldwin of 
Glasnevin has also used carbolic acid in the treatment and 
prevention of pleuropneumonia with great success. 
The method of application is as follows cresylic acid, 
diluted with 40 parts of water, is mixed with sawdust and 
scattered plentifully over the floor of the shed every day. 
Sick animals are removed, and, at the same time, all the 
animals which have been exposed to the infection receive one 
or two doses of the acid — a drachm mixed with a pint and a 
half of water, containing a little soap in solution, once or 
twice a day. In many instances the disease has been arrested 
at once by this treatment, and in all its progress has been re- 
tarded ; but very considerable difficulty has been found in 
most instances in inducing dairymen to take the necessary 
trouble to carry out the directions, — it is so much less irk- 
some to adopt the usual practice and remove the animals one 
by one as they fall ill, send them to the butcher and supply 
their places with fresh stock to be infected in their turn. In 
this manner the disease is kept up in some establishments for 
years, indeed is seldom absent for many consecutive months, 
and comes at length to be looked upon by the proprietor as 
one of the inevitable evils associated with a dairyman’s busi- 
ness. 
