222 NORTH OF SCOTLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
among us men of long experience, who may fitly be called veterans 
in the war with this cattle scourge. Well, when these have all 
given their large donations, and the younger members contributed 
their little mites, we shall perhaps be possessed of a fund of know¬ 
ledge regarding the disease that will go far to aid in effecting its 
ultimate extirpation. 
In the few remarks I mean further to offer on the complaint, I 
intend to glance very shortly at its history, character, symptoms, 
pathology, post-mortem appearances, and treatment. 
As to its history, I may remark, although it only appeared in Great 
Britain about the year 1841 or 1842, the disease was known on the 
continent for centuries previous to that date. Most authors who 
pretend to know, say that it is a native of the steppes of Russia, 
and that it has been transmitted to the western countries by 
diseased animals moving in that direction. Professor Gamgee says 
that it can be traced to England in 1842 by affected animals 
brought from Holland ; and that, before two years had elapsed, it 
had found its way by the same means to Inverness, and several other 
places in Scotland. 
As regards the character of the disease, I have no hesitation in 
saying that it is one of a very contagious nature. And so far as my 
experience goes, it seems in this country to be propagated chiefly by 
contagion. It attacks cattle of all ages, but is most fatal among 
cows, more especially among those lately calved. Indeed, I do not 
remember ever having seen a cow labouring under the com¬ 
plaint at that time recover. Affected cows that are in calf usually 
slip them during convalescence. All animals exposed to con¬ 
tagion are not affected by the disease, and six weeks often 
pass before the disease manifests itself. I have known it break 
out on a farm a second time several months after it had apparently 
subsided. It is more fatal in close ill-ventilated byres than 
in roomy airy ones. Once affected animals are free from the disease 
ever after. 
Pleuro-pneumonia is often very insidious in its attack, and so the 
early symptoms of it are sometimes not well marked. In general 
the animal becomes careless of food, leaves some, has a staring coat, 
slightly costive bowels, somewhat quickened breathing, perhaps the 
characteristic cough, occasional shivering fits, and, if a cow, less 
milk. In a few days most of these symptoms get confirmed, and the 
animal is decidedly ill, all food is refused, the breathing is laboured, 
the breath has a bad smell, the head is extended, the nostrils flap, 
the elbows are turned out, the hind legs are placed awkwardly, and 
they generally knuckle forward at the pasterns. 
On closer examination the loins are found to be weak, and the in¬ 
tercostal spaces tender ; a distinct rubbing noise is detected when 
the ear is applied to the chest, besides unnatural sounds in different 
parts of the trachea and lungs. In the early stages of the disease, 
this consists only of a dry wheezing sort of noise in the former, 
which gets deeper as the ear is moved nearer the chest. In the 
latter, at some parts, the natural murmur is simply louder, at others 
