466 
DYSENTERY IN CATTLE. 
pursued, keeps every organ in a state of dangerous excitement, 
ready to assume the character of unmanageable inflammation, or 
gradually to sink, or sometimes all at once break down, under 
the task imposed upon it. Therefore it is that dysentery has 
attained fearful pre-eminence as one of the deadliest scourges of 
our cattle. We have generated a predisposition in them to take 
on all the fatal characters of this disease. It is generated by 
many an error in their diet, which, but for the previous diathesis 
to which we had given existence, would be comparatively harm- 
less. It is the companion or the consequence of almost every 
malady, and it is the harbinger of their fatal termination. 
If the case were to be carefully inquired into — if the fanner 
would compare the appearance and profitableness of his cattle on 
certain portions of his farm, and at certain times of the year — 
and if the veterinary surgeon were better prepared to inquire into 
and to detect the obscure causes, and the disregarded premoni- 
tory symptoms of the diseases of cattle, they would, perhaps, be 
found to arise from or to be connected with circumstances of a 
kindred nature with those that were developed in the present 
trial. It is well known that there are certain pastures on many 
farms which, without yielding more abundant, or, apparently, 
more nutritive herbage than the rest, are pre-eminently favour- 
able to the health of the cows, and an increased production of 
milk : there are others that appear almost as fairly to the eye, 
but on which the quantity of milk is rapidly and annoyingly 
diminished, and the cow begins to exhibit, in various ways, the 
characters of obscure disease. If the case were to be fairly 
inquired into, the deleterious but unsuspected influence of de- 
composing or putrid vegetable substances might be discovered 
to lie at the root of the evil ; and at a trifling expense the good 
qualities of the one pasture might be perpetuated, and the bane- 
ful effects of the other removed. 
What are the usually recognized causes of dysentery ? Any — 
every cause of local or general debility — abandonment to cold 
and wet at the time of calving — general abandonment to cold and 
neglect — a system of starvation — over- work — a long continuance 
of sultry weather, or rather the sudden setting-in of cold after 
the constitution has been debilitated by previous heat : these are 
occasional causes. But what are the general ones ? What car- 
ries off’ so many of our yearling calves, and, long ere her natural 
time, hurries the dairy cow away ? Why, plainly and palpably, 
the pasturing on low and marshy situations — the neighbourhood 
of woods — the drinking from stagnant ponds, or half-stagnant 
rivers— -the feeding on sanded hay — the being turned on meadows 
from which the flood is beginning to dry — the open and evident 
