622 
AN ACCOUNT OF A GANGRENOUS DISEASE AMONG 
CATTLE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
By H. S. Randall, Esq. 
Cortland Village, Cortland Co., State of New 
York, United States, Sept. 10th, 1842. 
Dear Sir, — A disease peculiar in its character, and exceedingly 
fatal in its effects, has, to a greater or less extent, made its ap- 
pearance annually among the cattle of the United States for the 
last few years. The time of its attack is winter. The first symp- 
tom usually perceived is a slight swelling, accompanied with a 
small degree of stiffness about the lower joints and pasterns of 
the hind legs. The inflammation is not acute, and suppuration 
rarely takes place in any stage of the disease. So slight indeed 
is the local inflammation, and so little derangement does it pro- 
duce on the system generally, that it not unfrequently remains 
unnoticed until a more fatal stage of the malady intervenes. 
The cow eats with unabated appetite ; the muzzle remains moist; 
the eye retains its brightness and natural expression; and, 
strange to tell, in most of the cases that have fallen under my 
observation, these symptoms continue to the last. The disease, 
therefore, would seem to be almost entirely local in its character. 
The first stage which I have mentioned is, however, far from 
being uniform in its diagnosis: it is soon followed by apparently 
dry gangrene , commencing about the coronet of the hoof, or 
within the hoof, and extending upwards to the lower extremities 
of the metatarsal bones. I never have seen it extend for more 
than two or three inches above the upper pastern joint. 
The flesh on the affected part becomes black or dark-coloured, 
dry, hard, and resembling leather. It loses its sensibility, and, on 
cutting it, a little black blood alone escapes. 
In our rigorous climate it is common to find the gangrened 
portion of the limb frozen to the consistency of bone, though, 
from the suspension of the circulation, it requires no great degree 
of cold to effect it. The impression, indeed, prevails among many 
of our farmers that the whole disease is produced by a freezing 
of the parts. By many, this is the first symptom discovered, 
so insidious is the approach of the malady. But if produced by 
freezing, why is the coagulation so uniformly limited to such 
certain and prescribed bounds? The gangrene ascends the leg 
uniformly on each side. If caused by freezing, the line of sepa- 
ration between the frozen and unfrozen parts would not be so 
clearly defined, or so uniformly exhibit a regular transverse sec- 
