ON THE EPIZOOTIC OF 1840. 
615 
& c. It is not the province, however, of the physiologist to spe- 
culate on the essential nature of mechanical or vital forces. His 
legitimate object, in the present state of the science, would seem 
to be that of analysing the simplest operations in the human body ; 
to aim, first, at discovering the innumerable important processes 
that are carried on through the influences of physical agents, 
before he presumes to explain the higher and more mysterious 
principle of life. Neither should he hastily call the vital power 
to his aid, to explain a phenomenon such as heat, that is known 
to be common to every kind of matter, and which can be produced 
by a variety of physical forces totally independent of life. ,, 
ON THE EPIZOOTIC OF 1840. 
By Mr. J. Younghusband, Greystoke. 
Not having seen any communication concerning the epizootic 
of 1840 from my part of the country, I take the liberty, although 
late, of sending the following account. 
On November 20, 1840, I was sent for to Mr. S. Sewel, of 
Scale, to give my advice respecting what he termed an obscure 
disease in a two-year old heifer, but which he was very much 
inclined to believe was the murrain. I had not hitherto witnessed 
an instance of the disorder, but immediately, on seeing this beast, 
I was at once able, from the accounts I had read in The Vete- 
rinarian, to pronounce it to be a case of the prevailing epizootic. 
Mr. S. had purchased a cow a few weeks before that had crossed 
a road over which some infected beasts had travelled ; but whe- 
ther this was the cause of the disease I am not able to say, as 
this beast was one of the last that was attacked, and no other in- 
stance appeared for miles round. 
The symptoms were those usually described, though not 
possessing that degree of intensity which some of the other stock 
afterwards exhibited. 
The beast not shewing much uneasiness, I refrained doing any 
thing until I had paid another visit. On the next day I visited 
her again, when I found the malady established in its true form, 
for there was the catching-up motion of the legs, so peculiarly 
characteristic of the disease, attended with a champing of the 
mouth, &c. In detailing the treatment of this beast, it will be 
understood to answer in general for the whole stock, except that 
the disease became frequently altered in form. 
