the prevailing diseases among cattle. 403 
any tiling producing fever. He considers that it is not periodical, 
but a plague arising from the atmosphere impregnated by swampy 
land. With this opinion I am quite at issue. We shall have no 
occasion to ascend into the atmosphere, or run along swampy land, 
to find the cause of this disease. It is found in our cowhouses and 
stables, uncleansed week after week and month after month ; the 
unremoved dung and urine of which create noxious gases, destruc- 
tive first of health and then of life. How can places that are 
enough to suffocate a human being when he enters them, prove to 
be any thing but slaughter-houses for the poor cattle 1 And if we 
consider that the cattle in London have less air, worse water, and are 
more crowded together, and have food more stimulating in order 
that they may be sooner ready for slaughter, we have, I think, a 
satisfactory reason why this disease is more prevalent and fatal in 
London than in the country. I shall conclude this paper by men- 
tioning the proper method of treatment in the disease. When this 
disease first made its appearance, it baffled the skill of the ablest 
practitioner. In eight or ten hours after the attack death ensued ; 
and men might have been seen taking bodies out regularly in the 
evening, by two or three at a time, to the slaughter yards. It is said 
that a knowledge of the disease is half the cure. I, therefore, take 
the liberty of saying, that, in the post-mortem examinations 
of several which I have witnessed, there has been not only general 
inflammation of the lungs, but the right lung was much more affected 
than the left, and approaching to gangrene. I have found, too, 
a great deal of fluid in the chest, and also an unusual quantity in 
the pericardium. The heart was enlarged, flabby, and soft; the 
liver in a state of hepatization, and lighter than usual in its colour, 
the vessels having a tendency to ossification. In cutting into the 
lungs I found them much congested ; and a serous fluid, of an earth- 
colour, filling the cells of the bronchial tubes. In my remarks on 
the treatment of this disease I shall be very brief. It is absolutely 
necessary for the health of cattle that they have room and air. 
Their stables must be regularly cleansed. There must not be too 
many herded together. When they are sick they must be sepa- 
rated from the rest, and from each other. A chemical knowledge 
of the deleterious nature of the gases proceeding from diseased 
lungs demonstrates the necessity of immediate separation. With 
this precaution, and under a skilful practitioner, I have known 
cattle recover from slight attacks of this disorder in four days ; 
but if the disorder has got hold of the constitution, I think the case 
is generally hopeless. I was consulted some time since, and, after 
much trouble, the animal appeared to be greatly improved ; but 
six months afterwards she was found dead in the field, and her lungs 
were one mass of corruption. In all cases, therefore, of confirmed 
