100 PLEUROPNEUMONIA AMONG CATTLE IN AUSTRALIA. 
slaughtered, and which have never during life given the 
slightest perceptible symptom of being affected. I would 
suggest, therefore, that the abattoirs of the colony be vi- 
sited ; that the chests and lungs of the slaughtered animals 
be examined by competent persons, and we shall soon know 
whether or not pleuro-pneumonia exists among our herds. 
The insidious nature of the disease, its painless character, 
the difficulty of detecting it in the living animal until all 
hope of successful treatment has vanished, will, 1 believe, 
render such pathological observations of the greatest use. 
If the traces of it are not found amongst the slaughtered 
fat cattle, then the herds are free; if its signs are found 
extensively amongst them, though not yet discovered in the 
living herd, then stockmasters must pay that unremitting 
and constant attention to them without which it is utterly 
impossible to discover it in its curable stages. 
c * This brings me to the symptoms during life. They are, 
I regret to sav, often very obscure, and only to be discovered 
in many cases by the closest and most rigid scrutiny. That 
this disease exists for days, weeks, or even perhaps months, 
before manifesting its fatal symptoms, I have not the least 
doubt. The reason why this is the case, and why it is not 
observed, is the entirely painless nature of the disease. The 
animal gives no apparent sign of sickness until the lungs 
are so far affected as to make the breathing difficult. 
To catch this symptom on its first appearance, then, should 
be our first object, and by closely looking out for that 
amongst suspected stock we shall find some or all of the 
following: — slight fever occasionally, perhaps, not con¬ 
tinuous; muzzle hot and dry; excrement darker than usual, 
and having a coating of slime; hide-bound, staring coat, 
variable pulse, and breathing more or less laboured. 1 have 
observed this last symptom in stalled cattle more readily by 
visiting them late at night, which I account for by the 
vitiated atmosphere (from numbers being confined together) 
acting upon a lung already diseased and irritable. In 
grazing cattle most of these signs will be difficult to dis¬ 
cover; but if they are to be detected at all in time for 
successful treatment, it will onlv be bv most careful and 
unremitting observation; and this point cannot be too 
earnestly impressed upon the attention of all stockmasters. 
Cf In conclusion, I would just observe that should pleuro¬ 
pneumonia break out here, I should expect it to be worst 
amongst the thorough-bred imported cattle—both more pre¬ 
valent and more fatal; whilst I should predict that amongst 
the ordinary stock of this colony it will neither be very fatal 
