PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN CATTLE. 
407 
and the test-tube assisting, that the mystery which now veils 
the causes of cholera and other cognate pestilences, may, to 
a certain extent, be cleared away? The presence of some 
material and communicable poison, as the agent of this 
disease, may or may not be thus established. If it be, it 
will no longer be impossible, as now, to discuss w r ith advan- 
tage its nature, its properties, its seat, and its mode of 
extension. Particularly, we might learn whether it acts on 
the organism without entering the blood, — or passes into 
that fluid and is there destroyed, — or passes through it into 
one or more of the secretions, and in this way is simply 
transmissible, — or whether it multiplies or reproduces itself, 
on the surfaces, in the blood, or in the secretions eliminated 
from that fluid, and is thus a truly contagious poison. 
In conclusion, we especially tender our thanks to Dr. 
Meyer for his vigorous and interesting essay, without the 
appearance of which our own imperfect and interrupted 
experiments, unless somewhat extended hereafter, would 
probably never have been published. — Brit . and For. Med.- 
Chirurg. Review , for April , 1853. 
PAPERS RESPECTING PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN CATTLE. 
By Dr. Willems, of Hasselt. 
Memorial on the Epizootic Pleuro-Pneumonia of Cattle; by 
M. Louis Willems. , Doctor of Medicine at Hasselt. 
To the Minister of the Interior, 
Sir, — For a number of years, the public weal, both in our 
own country and in nearly all the states of Europe, has been 
grievously affected by one of those devastating scourges which 
are called Epizootics (cattle epidemics), ahd which spread 
alarm wherever they descend, to shake the fmnest support of 
governments and of nations. The ox represents the destinies 
of agriculture ; here is its emblem ; he plays a grand part in 
the annals of civilization ; he serves for the material support 
of the people ; and governments and private persons should 
unite all their efforts and their information to improve and 
preserve the bovine race, and to avert from it all causes of 
destruction. 
Since 1828 there has existed in Belgium an epizootic 
disease, which came to us from the south of Europe, where 
it had existed for a very long time. Different names have 
