654 ON THE DISTEMPER AMONG CATTLE. 
guson will be found an energetic blister, which was long a deside- 
ratum in cattle medicine, and for which that gentleman merits the 
thanks of the profession. 
Diet . — When the beast ceases to ruminate its diet must be re- 
stricted to meal and water, gruel, linseed, &c., and this must be 
persevered in until the stomachs resume their functions. In many 
instances this did not occur till the sixth or eighth week, and then 
renovation proceeded quickly. Several decided instances of perfect 
restoration to health were witnessed after a great portion of the 
air-cells of the lungs had been impervious. The bronchial mur- 
mur only could be heard on most of the chest; but by degrees the 
respiratory rale was developed, which salutary action of the ab- 
sorbents appeared to be excited by iodine and the tonics. 
It is almost unnecessary to state that the sick should be sepa- 
rated from the healthy : a comfortable loose box, neither too close 
nor cold, is suitable for the former, and when the season is cold let 
the body be clothed. 
Prevention . — To this end let the cow-house be made as close 
as possible, and, after the cattle have removed, fumigate it with 
burning tar and sulphur. Afterwards, the walls should be white- 
washed, and the floor dusted with quick-lime. Pots with chloride 
of lime, with which a few drops of sulphuric acid have been mingled, 
should be occasionally placed in various parts of the sheds, both with 
the sick and adjacent healthy cattle ; and if the disease should re- 
appear, I would repeatedly subject the convalescents, as well as 
those that had been near them, to moderate sulphurous acid gas 
fumigations, as above directed, or to those of nitric acid gas, pro- 
cured by adding, from time to time, a few drops of sulphuric acid 
to half ounces of powdered nitrate of potass, placed in pots. 
The excrements of the sick should be speedily removed and 
buried, and cleanliness strictly enforced. The form and mode of 
administering cattle medicine claim a few remarks. As a general 
rule, the liquid or perhaps semi-liquid form is the best ; and, 
whether we select linseed or barley-meal, or cold water and flour, 
as a vehicle, its consistency is of much importance. The mixture 
should be just sufficiently attenuated to flow from the horn ; and 
when leisurely given in this state, it will rarely fall down upon the 
larynx, and distress and endanger the beast, as too often happens 
when a thin liquid is given. 
This also applies to the horse. 
There is another circumstance often lost sight of by writers, to 
the great detriment or even destruction of their remedies: 1 allude 
to the physical and chemical properties of the prescription, and the 
directions for mixing it up. Certainly, we now rarely see the ab- 
surd directions, “ to be boiled in 2 quarts of ale until one-half is con- 
