690 
REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
cattle except those of the steppes. We do not regard, there- 
fore, the fact of the breaking out of the pest among steppe 
cattle at the end of a journey as a satisfactory proof that the 
exertion they have undergone is the cause. 
When we observe a malady to be capable of being com- 
municated from animal to animal by innumerable means of 
conveying the materies morbi ; and when we take into account 
the varying susceptibility of animals to the immediate action 
of this matter, and also the further circumstance of its re- 
maining dormant in the system for a fortnight, or possibly a 
longer time, we see many reasons for withholding our as- 
sent, without greater experience in the disease, to the opinion 
that the pest has a spontaneous origin in the ox of the 
steppes. 
General Symptoms of the Pest . — When the animal sickens, 
the affection will be recognised by almost continuous spas- 
modic twitchings of the voluntary muscles of the body, more 
particularly those of the neck and shoulders, and of the hind 
quarters. These twitchings are accompanied by tremors, 
which are more or less generally diffused, and which inter- 
rupt the regularity of the spasms, and give to the animal an 
appearance of suffering from exposure to cold. The coat 
stares, and the patient stands with its back arched and its 
legs gathered together under the body, but it does not seem 
to suffer much acute pain. In the course of a few hours 
rumination is suspended, and the appetite fails, but water 
will generally be partaken of almost up to the end. 
The temperature of the body is variable, a slightly in- 
creased warmth of the skin existing at the beginning of the 
illness, which soon, however, gives way to chilliness of the 
surface, and this again to a death-like coldness of the ears, 
legs, and horns, as the malady advances to a fatal termi- 
nation. The pulse is scarcely disturbed at first, unless the 
attack is a severe one ; when it quickly rises to 70 or more 
beats in a minute, but wants tone in its action. In all ordinary 
cases it becomes gradually more frequent in number, but less 
in force, and in the latter stages can only be felt at the heart. 
The respiration is but very little altered at the commence- 
ment ; it rarely becomes difficult, and was never painful in 
any of the cases we witnessed. It sometimes rises to 30 in the 
minute on the second day. The contractions of the abdominal 
muscles are often interrupted in their rhythmical action by 
the spasmodic twitchings, which give a singular motion to 
the animaPs flanks, and has led some observers to speak 
of a great difficulty of breathing as being invariably present. 
A discharge comes on early from the nostrils, which has many 
