ACCOUNT OF THK EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE IN 1842. 573 
generality of my cases the animals have thriven more than usual 
when they have been tied up. They have eaten more turnips than 
they did previously; they also appear to eat their cake with a 
greater zest. The same with out-door stock — they lick them- 
selves more ; but in some few it has taken a considerable time 
before they appeared to feed as usual. 
lias the disease appeared a second time in the same animal , 
and with what degree of intensity , and what results ? — In only 
one case have I known the same animals affected twice. 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE 
IN 1842. 
By Mr. W. Cox, V.S., Leek. 
The first appearance of the animals being unwell is a slight 
hoose. They appear dull and moping — they feed very slowly and 
carelessly — rumination is sluggishly performed, and they are 
almost continually in a recumbent position. The coat has an 
unhealthy appearance — the pulse is seldom much increased in 
number, but oftener has a character of oppression. These symp- 
toms continue. Constipation takes place, and then every symp- 
tom is increased in intensity ; the respiration is much accele- 
rated, and the pulse is increased in number and irritability. 
By the sixth or seventh day, when the disease, taking its 
usual course, may be said to have reached its acme, the symp- 
toms are become exceedingly alarming. Every expiration is 
accompanied by a deep groan, shewing that the parenchyma 
of the lungs is become involved. The pulse is now ranging from 
90 to 130, very irritable, and sometimes irregular or intermitting. 
Feeding and rumination are suspended — the milk is all gone, if 
the patient is a milch cow: the nose, ears, horns, and extremities, 
are alternately hot and cold — and a kind of frothy spume works 
out of the nose and mouth. The animals continue in this state 
from four to seven days, until convalescence takes place, or 
death closes the scene ; or, perhaps, they only linger a short time 
after this period, to die a more miserable death from hydrothorax 
or consumption. 
The remote and proximate causes of the different epidemics that 
have of late years been prevalent in our country is an interesting 
but mysterious subject. Atmospheric agency appears to be the 
cause of the disease in question, yet I believe it to be in some 
degree infectious. I remember, last spring, a farmer buying a 
cow that was evidently sickening of this disorder, and she was 
VOL. xv. 4 H 
