ON THE EPIZOOTIC DISEASES OF CATTLE, &c. 215 
That the disease is contagious there is not the least doubt ; for no 
sooner has an infected beast been driven near or associated with 
others, than he has speedily shewed symptoms of bodily ailment. 
I have also known it appear among stock that had had for 
months no visible direct communication with the infected, nor 
even with other cattle, and among others that had never been 
nearer strange stock than having been pastured in a road-side field, 
where the infected might probably pass. As soon as the disease 
made its appearance upon a farm, it spread like wildfire over 
most or all of the adjoining ones; and yet, at the same time, 
there was no apparently direct communication with the infected, 
which, as soon as the disease was observed, were also generally 
removed to a place where the others could not possibly have 
any access. From this, probably, may be deduced a not very 
unreasonable inference; viz., that in these present cases, as in 
many human ills, there seems to be an atmospheric agent wafting 
abroad the effluvia or seeds of disease and death. 
I have seen a whole fold of pigs take the disease before it was 
in the least manifested among other stock. The symptoms in the 
pigs were very much the same as with beasts or horned cattle. 
The disease among pigs has not been so fatal here as more north- 
ward, where several farmers have lost their whole stock. 
Sheep appear to me to have suffered much more considerably 
than cattle ; but this I attribute to their generally exposed state. 
I have heard of a person residing near York who lost eleven 
young calves about one day after calving ; — of another, who lost 
four ; and a third who lost six in the same way. All the cows 
had had the disease previous to calving, but had recovered before 
the dropping of the calf. These cases not being under my notice, 
I am unable to state the treatment. The fatality of the calves 
appears to me to have been caused by the foetus having imbibed 
the seeds of the disease in that state when almost every ailment 
of the dam is generally productive of ill consequences to their 
weak and imperfectly formed young. 
My treatment of such cows has been quite simple ; — viz., the 
combination of tonics with aperients, which I have always found 
to have the desired effect. I am no advocate of the strong drastic 
purges that are sometimes imprudently given ; for I feel persuaded 
that more harm than good is the result of their use, as they (i. e. 
the sick stock) are generally found labouring under great debility. 
Under such circumstances, violent purging medicine would have 
a much more severe effect than in ordinary cases of sickness. 
I did not lose even one of my patients from the commence- 
ment of the disorder ; neither did I hear of any, except in those 
cases where the strong drastic purge had been given, and the 
