THE EPIZOOTIC DISEASES IN HORSES, CATTLE, &C. 343 
the health of those who fed on it. There are other cases, and those 
as numerous, in which no bad consequence has followed. Are 
there any appearances in the animal while living, and his carcass 
after death, by which we may be assured that the disease, at 
first inflammatory, had not assumed a malignant type ? Is there 
any line of distinction by which this may be certainly deter- 
mined ? Can it, without hazard of mistake, be always affirmed 
whether the patient died under a disease gangreneuse or charbon- 
neuse ? 
“ With regard to the skins of animals that have died of this 
disease, the question is more easily answered. The chlorinated 
lime is a valuable and most powerful disinfectant, and a diluted 
solution of it will destroy every species of infection. 
“ The preservative Treatment with regard to Epizootics. — The 
essential, and, perhaps, the only preservative to be fully depended 
upon, is the separation of the sound animals from the diseased, 
and the careful disinfection of every place in which disease has 
appeared. Here the chlorinated lime will be most useful. The 
disease having broken out in a certain district, the passage of 
cattle through that district should be strictly prohibited, and all 
communication should be cut off between the infected district and 
those in which no disease has yet appeared. 
“ At the first appearance of an epizootic at a distance, attention 
should be paid to the health and good feeding of the cattle. A 
beast that is in good health and condition has the best chance of 
escaping the plague. If the infection breaks out in the midst 
of a densely populated country, two means of arresting its pro- 
gress have been recommended. The first is the destruction of 
every beast that exhibits the least symptom of infection : but this 
would be ruinous to the proprietors, while it would rarely or never 
accomplish the desired purpose. The cattle would probably have 
been too densely located to afford the hope that many of them 
would, sooner or later, escape the infection. Even in a country 
thinly inhabited it is doubtful whether this fearful massacre would 
be so effective as some have imagined. Would it alter the state of 
the atmosphere — the quality of the soil — the nature and the state 
of the food, or the emanations which some have supposed to be a 
cause of this disease? Would it be prudent to give up all the 
chances favourable to the patient ? Have we not many proofs 
that the malady, even left to the unassisted power of nature after 
its first explosion — always the most dreadful — loses its intensity, 
and becomes gradually extinguished, in course of time, if the 
expression may be used? Is there not a constitutional power 
which, in spite even of medicines foolishly administered, triumphs 
in a great number of cases, especially after the first explosion? 
