228 
ON HOOVE IN CATTLE. 
are coloured to life, or the elegant manner in which it is got up), 
I find that, in the memoir of the celebrated and scientific Camper 
(vide vol. iii, on Deer), he had noticed this disease in cattle, and 
brought it fairly before the public as to its cause. I cannot do 
better than transcribe his own words. 
“ During some years, the calves which went to pasture were 
attacked with cough, &c., which gradually got worse, and termi¬ 
nated in destroying the animal with intense suffering. The disease 
was uniformly fatal. A thousand head were cut off in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Groningen in a short time by this disease, without the 
cause being discovered, or any efficient remedy suggested. 
To inquire if any thing could be attempted for its removal, I 
went (says Camper) to visit one of my acquaintances, who, of fifty 
calves, lost in the month of August, more than thirty, in a meadow 
where they fed along with many cows, heifers, horses, sheep, &c., 
not one of which, however, was affected. On the 2d of Septem¬ 
ber I examined one of the carcasses, and found the digestive organs 
were all sound. On opening the chest with great care, I found 
it was quite free from inflammation. I then removed the tongue 
and windpipe; and scarcely had I opened the gullet, when I dis¬ 
covered millions of worms. They were from an inch and a half to 
two inches long, white and slender. I traced them down the wind¬ 
pipe, and found myriads of them in the proper substance of the 
lungs*. In another individual, I found a great cluster of many 
millions of these worms, which obstructed the windpipe, and had 
choked the animal. In all that died from the disease, the cellular 
membrane of the lungs was filled with the worms, while the air- 
cells were free.t Examined through the microscope, the worms 
were found pointed at head and tail, and about one-sixth of an inch 
in width; they were also discovered to be viviparous. I have 
made extensive, though fruitless, researches to find any account 
of this disease in authors, or any description of the worms in the 
works of naturalists. Klien, Linnseus, Pallas, and Miiller, and all 
those who write particularly on worms, have confounded them with 
the vena medinensis. The appellation gorduis has been given to 
a filiform worm; but, on comparing it with this'pulmonary one, it 
is evidently distinct. It is singular that Gesner has given to a 
worm somewhat similar the name of wasser-kalb, at the same time 
observing that he does not know its origin. He, however, like¬ 
wise knew that the calves sometimes swallowed them with the 
water which they drank, and at the great peril of their lives. 
Gesner, therefore, knew that there were worms which induced a 
disease in calves which was frequently mortal.” The celebrated 
* He means the cells of the lungs. 
f And again, he says, “ the air-cells were free.”—En. 
