CONSUMPTION IN COWS. 
845 
we remodel the disorganized structure of the lungs ? Our con¬ 
sideration, then, will be chiefly directed to the detection of the 
disease in its earliest state ; the allaying of the irritation which 
causes or accompanies the growth of the tubercles—the mingled 
cause and effect—and thus arresting their progress, and by de¬ 
grees causing them to become foreign, and in some measure 
harmless bodies, and which the absorbents will in due time remove. 
This must be the scope and bound of oiu' practice—always re¬ 
membering that the owner should be forewarned of the general 
hopelessness of the case, and that the continuance of our effbrts' 
should be regulated by the wish of the proprietor and the value 
of the patient. 
Co7isiimptio)i in Coivs. 
I now turn to a subject sufficiently unsatisfactory, but con¬ 
nected with which there are some redeeming considerations, 
arising from the easier and earlier detection of the disease ; the 
removal of some of its exciting causes; and, what is most im¬ 
portant of all, the necessity not existing that the animal should 
be restored to the possession of every pristine energy in order to 
render her useful and valuable. 
Symptoms.— The first symptom is that of which the farmer and 
the herdsman are so regardless, cough. One would think, that 
dearly-bought experience would convince these people that there 
are few things more to be dreaded than hoose in cattle. I have 
treated of this in a former lecture. The cough is at first sonorous 
and clear, and while it continues thus no great harm is done. 
While the cough is loud and clear, the lung is sound enough. 
But the inflammation, chronic or acute, that produces this 
cough, is that harmless ? It is silently, if not rapidly, disorga¬ 
nizing the lungs, and the change of the cough will tell the extent 
of the disorganization. That farmer is wisest who attacks the 
cough while it is loud and clear; and he next deserves the cha¬ 
racter of a prudent man, who recognizes the first symptom of 
disorganization : and that is as plain to him who is accustomed 
to cattle, as is the variety of cough in the horse indicating the 
state of the lungs in that animal. The cough of incipient phthisis 
is inward, jeehle, painful, hoarsCy rattling, gurgling ; and that 
probably for a considerable period before there begins to be any 
discharge from the nose or mouth. 
Gentlemen, I would urge you to study this peculiar cough of 
incipient consumption in cattle. There is something almost as 
peculiar about it as there is in the howl of the rabid dog. There 
is little or nothing of spasm. It is a painful and not violent 
pressing out of the air through passages halj obstructed. Some 
