THE LATE EPIDEMIC DISEASES AMONG HORSES, &c. 271 
tenderness of the feet at the same time. None of the animals 
were affected a second time. 
The steward of his lordship, Mr. Alderson, used to administer 
salts, sulphur, ginger, treacle, and, occasionally, nitre, and this 
was repeated on the fourth or fifth day. If the disease did not 
yield, more opening medicine was given. At the same time the 
hoof was examined and pared if necessary, and the mouth was 
well rubbed with a cloth dipped in vitriol-water. If the cows 
were in calf, common salt was often given, it being considered, 
in that country, to be a safer purgative than the others. Not one 
animal was lost. The secretion of milk was in all cases more or 
less suspended, and was generally intermixed with purulent mat- 
ter. The milk might, in the generality of cases, be drunk by 
the calf without any disease or inconvenience ensuing. When 
the animal began to recover, her condition was found to be de- 
creased according to the severity or mildness of the attack, but 
the milch cows always suffered the most. 
Mr. Alderson relates that, shortly after the disease in the cattle, 
three or four horses were affected. There were enlargements about 
the throat, which it was necessary to open, and which sometimes 
extended to the legs and feet. 
Mr. Rutson, of Kirby-Wicke, in the North Riding, gives 
an interesting account of the epidemic. His land was flat, mo- 
derately wooded and dry, but intersected both by rivers and 
marshes. His cattle had no direct communication with any 
others, but were near a public road. The disease first appeared 
in a heifer out of doors. She was immediately put into a loose 
box, treated with moderate doses of sulphur and salts, and re- 
covered quickly. One of his tenants, with cattle of all ages, 
had a two-year-old bull the most severely affected of the whole. 
None of his cattle were affected a second time. The prevailing 
opinion in his neighbourhood, and to which he seemed to incline, 
was, that no medicine should be given, except where the bowels 
were confined, and then gentle purgatives were administered with 
advantage. Of the deleterious influence of too much medicine, 
a marked instance occurred in a large drove of fat cattle passing 
through this district to the south. A portion of them were placed 
under medical treatment, and became so reduced as to be driven 
north again, and sold as lean stock at Yarm fair. The remain- 
der, to whom little or no medicine was given, soon recovered, 
and were sold as fat cattle. 
As to the cause of this complaint Mr. Rutson speaks with 
proper diffidence. In many cases it occurred suddenly and 
without any assignable cause. Some of his cattle, after having 
