1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
89 
®lje i)ftcx*marg jDqjartnunt. 
Black-Leg in Cattle. 
Sometime since, we received a request for infor¬ 
mation in regard to a disease in cattle called black¬ 
leg. Not being practically acquainted with the dis¬ 
ease, we submitted the request to Dr. Dadd, of 
Boston, who has obligingly furnished us with the 
following remarks. Dr. D.’s system is in some re¬ 
spects new to us, and is probably so to some of our 
readers. We are not prepared to offer an opinion in 
regard to his peculiar views, but leave them to fair 
consideration. Eds. 
Eds. Cultivator —Before I answer the inquiries 
of your correspondent, permit me to give you the 
outlines of our phynological or reformed practice 
and theory of disease. We contemplate the animal 
system as a perfect piooo of mechanism, subject to 
life and death; that while the vital power has free 
and unobstructed action, the animal is in a physio¬ 
logical or healthy state; but when by any means the 
vital power is obstructed, by over feeding, exposure, 
&c., it is in a diseased or pathological state. 
We recognise a conservative or healing power in 
the animal economy, whoso unerring indications we 
endeavor Jo follow. Our system proposes, under all 
circumstances, to restore the diseased organs to a 
healthy state, by co-operating with the vitality re¬ 
maining in the organs, by the exhibition of sanative 
means; and under all circumstances, to assist and 
not oppose nature in her curative process. 
Poisonous drugs, blood-letting, and processes of 
cure that contemplate destruction of parts, or in oth¬ 
er words, act pathologically, cannot boused by us. 
The laws of animal being are physiological; they 
never were or ever will be pathological, hence we 
co-operate with nature and nature’s laws. 
It is clearly evident that disease is an unit—that 
all its different manifestations depend on local or 
constitutional peculiarities. In the animal, there 
are numerous tissues to be obstructed; and if the 
disease were named from the tissu', it would have 
as many names as there are tissues. If it were 
named from the location, it would have as many 
names as there are locations, as horn-ail, black-leg, 
quarter-evil, foot-rot, See. If it were named from 
the symptoms, it would be numberless, and bound¬ 
less. It is of no use to decide what particular nerve, 
blood vessel, or muscle is diseased, seeing that the 
proper and only rational treatment consists in act¬ 
ing on all the nerves, blood vessels and muscles. But 
suppose we do ascertain exactly the location of the 
disease, have we any specific that will act upon it, 
other than through the healthy operation of nature’s 
secreting and excreting process ? We answer, that 
there is no such thing as a specific, in the popular 
sense of the term. Any medicino that is good for 
a practical symptom in disease, is equally good for 
any and every symptom, provided its action is phy¬ 
siological. 
The indications of cure, are to relax spasm, as in 
lock-jaw, stoppages of the bladder, or intestines, 
obstructed surfaces, See. To contract and strength¬ 
en weak and relaxed organs, as in general or local 
debility, diarrhoea, scouring, lampas, See. To sti¬ 
mulate inactive parts, as in the black-leg, quarter- 
evil, foot-rot, &c., where chemical agency has gain¬ 
ed the supremacy over vital action. To equalise 
the circulation, and distribute the blood to the ex¬ 
ternal surface and extremities, as in congestions. 
To furnish the animal with sufficient nutriment to 
.build up the waste that is continually going on, and 
prevent friction. No matter what the nature of the 
disease, the treatment should be conducted on these 
principles. Finally, to relax, to contract, to stimu¬ 
late, and to furnish the system with the proper ma¬ 
terials for nutrition, constitute the whole modus 
operandi of the reformed practice. 
With these preliminary remarks, we will return 
to your subscriber’s communication, in which he 
states that he has lost several calves within a few 
days by black-leg, and knowing of no medical treat¬ 
ment for the disease of any value, has searched the 
back columns of The Cultivator in hopes to find 
something recommended as a specific, [there is none 
in existence] but has found nothing except what is 
contained in the March number for 1847, vol. 4, p. 
98. Regular and good feeding is there recommend 
ed as a preventive. 
Good and judicious feeding, with proper attention 
to the management of calves, is one of nature’s pre¬ 
ventives. Dr. White, a veterinary surgeon of Lon¬ 
don, observes —‘ 1 In horses or cattle, it is probable 
that almost all diseases may be prevented by judicious 
management with regard to feeding, breeding, rear¬ 
ing and exercise.” Again, Dr. Dixon observes— 
“ Nature is ever busy, by the silent operations of 
her own forces, endeavoring to cure disease. Her 
remedies are air, warmth, food, water and sleep; 
their use is directed by instinct, and that man is 
most worthy of the name of physician, who most 
reveres its unerring laws.” 
Black-leg, quarter-evil, joint murrain, black- 
quarter, and dygangrene, are analogous: by the dif¬ 
ferent names is meant their grades. In the early oi 
mild forms, it consists of congestions in the veins or 
veinous radicels, and effusions in the cellular tissuey 
when chemical action overpowers the vital and get? 
the ascendancy, it assumes a putrid type, and gan 
grene is the result, or a destruction of organic integ 
rity. Its proximate cause exists in any thing that 
can for a time, intercept the free action of the vi¬ 
tal machinery. Its direct cause may be found in 
over-feediing, exposure in wet situations. The milk 
of diseased cows, is a frequent cause of disease. 
Men who are engaged in preparing cattle or calves 
for the market, attempt to fatten without any re¬ 
gard to their general health, climate, the quantity 
of food, its quality, or the state of the digestive or¬ 
gans. They are very apt to think that as long as 
the animal has what they term “ good food,” and 
just as much as they can cram into the stomach that 
they must be healthy and will fatten, when in fact, 
too much food oppresses the stomach, impairs and 
overworks the digestive organs, and converts the 
food into a serious cause of disease. Whenever the 
digestive powers are overtaxed, the food accumu¬ 
lates in the stomach and its appendages, and being- 
submitted to the combined action of heat and mois¬ 
ture, gas is evolved which distends the vicera, inter¬ 
feres with the motion of the lungs and diaphragm, 
presses on the liver, and interrupts the circulation 
of the blood through that organ, seriously interfer¬ 
ing with the bile-secreting process. This is not all, 
the gas evolved from the putrid mass in the stomach, 
is absorbed, and enters into the cellular structure, 
hence emphysema, &c. 
Your correspondent observes—“ My calves arc 
well fed and in good order, and those that fell vic¬ 
tims were in the best condition.” The old maxim, 
an ounce of preventive is worth a pound of cure, is 
true; and I have no doubt your correspondent, if 
he makes the trial, will find it more convenient and 
less expensive. The reason why disease manifests 
itself in the extremities, is because they are more 
exposed to damp ground, and because the blood, in 
