5*20 PRIZE ESSAY: — PLEURO-PNEUMONIA AMONG CATTLE. 
a sufficient length of time to warn us of the approach of the suc- 
ceeding active stage of the disease, yet from their comparatively 
mild and doubtful character they elude suspicion; consequently, 
if observed, they are either neglected, or considered of too little 
importance to require medical treatment. 
This, which I have been in the habit of designating the husk- 
ing stage, is the most important in a practical point of view ; at 
least, so far as regards the possibility of saving the life of the ani- 
mal by treatment. 
It is usual, after having described the symptoms of a disease 
through its different stages, to point out those which indicate a 
favourable result ; but I have omitted doing so, because I felt that 
the danger an animal runs when affected with this disease would 
be better understood after the morbid conditions which characterise 
its different stages had been shewn; and I have only to refer to 
those morbid conditions which we have described, and of which I 
have given illustrations, to shew that the danger that the animal 
runs increases as the disease advances. 
The course that I pursue when consulted about this disease is 
directed by two considerations : the one, that of saving the animal ; 
the other, that of considering the interests of the proprietor. If I 
am called in during the first, or beginning of the second stage, I 
have recourse to a treatment which we shall shortly describe. But 
if the disease be so far advanced as to render the result of treat- 
ment very doubtful, I generally recommend the animal to be 
slaughtered, so as to expose the proprietor to the least possible 
loss. I do not wish it to be inferred from this practice that the 
disease in its second stage is necessarily incurable, for T have had 
some cases of recovery from it ; but those instances are so few as 
scarcely to warrant one in running the risk of increasing deteriora- 
tion in the value of the animal for the chances of recovery. 
As regards treatment in the last stage, I consider the animal in 
so hopeless a condition that it is scarcely worth while having re- 
course to it, and I generally recommend it to be killed, in order to 
put an end to its sufferings. 
That this report, therefore, may be of as much practical use as 
possible, we shall dwell at most length on the treatment of the first 
stage, not however omitting that of the second. 
Treatment. 
If, on examination, we find that the animal has a cough, but no 
particular loss of appetite, no dryness of muzzle, and no heaving at 
the flank, the best plan is to apply counter-irritants, such as seton- 
ing, or pegging in the dewlap : of the two, we prefer the latter, it 
