262 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
will be no possible means of eradicating it. It will remain a fixture 
forever. 
History. 
This disease has been known in Europe and Asia from the remotest 
civilization, and has been treated since the first gathering together of 
cattle in large herds. Aristotle, evidently writing of this disease three 
hundred years before Christ, describes the symptoms accurately, inas- 
much as he says: “The cattle which live in herds are subject to a 
malady during which the breathing becomes hot and frequent ; the ears 
droop and they cannot eat. They die rapidly, and the lungs are found 
spoiled.” Greek and Roman writers also describe what appears to be 
the same disease, and Valentine particularizes a fatal lung plague which 
evidently corresponds to this malignant and terrible scourge. 
Its Malignant Contagiousness. 
Unfortunately veterinary science has never yet discovered a remedy. 
Its attack is so insidious, and often occupies so long a time in the stage 
of incubation, that a whole herd may be infected almost before it is 
known. As in the case of all German plagues, nothing is known of its 
origin ; but just as soon as it is apparent that a case is being well devel- 
oped, the only safe plan is prompt killing, deep burying of the carcass, 
skin and all, and the free use of quick-lime (a barrel to the carcass) 
before being covered up. 
Definition? 
This disease is defined as follows : 
A specific contagious disease peculiar to cattle, and manifested by a 
long period of incubation (ten days to three months) by a slow insidious 
onset, by a low type of fever, and by the occurrence of inflammation in 
the air-passages, lungs and their coverings, with an extensive exudation 
into the lungs and pleurae. 
That the infection is carried by the animals wherever they go is certain. 
That it is carried in the air to a very considerably extent seems' altogether 
probable. That it is carried by inoculation is well demonstrated ; and 
also by contact of diseased portions of an animal with the membranes of 
a well one, is as certain as that the contagion is carried by attendants on 
sick animals and is proved almost beyond controversy. That the conta- 
gion will byld ig stebjes for months even after being thoroughly cleaned 
and washed witli disinfectant liquids, is proved just as clearly as that it 
