908 
TUBERCULOUS DISEASE, AFFECTING THE 
SECOND CERVICAL VERTEBRA, THE BRAIN, 
AND SPINAL CORD. 
By Neil Barron, V.S., Turriff. 
Scrofulous or tuberculous disease in cattle has been of 
very frequent occurrence during the last ten years in the 
agricultural district where mv lot is cast. On some farms 
O V 
it has caused great and gradual degeneracy of a large pro¬ 
portion of the whole bovine stock, and consequently much 
pecuniary loss. 
It attacks various organs and parts of the animal system, 
most frequently those of the thoracic and abdominal cavities, 
occasionally extending its ravages to the coverings of the 
brain and spinal cord, and even to the bones, altering both 
their structure and position. 
In a stock where from time to time animals of any age, 
class, or condition, fall a prey to this disease, the cause can 
generally be traced to a progenitor having had a scrofulous 
diathesis. I have always dissuaded farmers from using a 
bull for breeding purposes which had enlarged glands about 
the submaxillary space, even although otherwise a superior 
animal. One stockowner in this district, within the last 
three or four years, has lost over a dozen good yearlings and 
two-year-olds by tuberculous deposit in the chest and 
abdomen,' inherited from a tainted sire ; whilst many others 
of the same stock have been reduced in value by gritty 
tumour about the fauces, &c. Another farmer had his 
stock so thoroughly deteriorated by the same cause, that at 
the public sale held at the end of his lease in 1863, his cattle 
were turned out, one after another, making such a hideous 
noise during respiration, from the presence of gritty tu¬ 
mours and swelling in the region of the throat, that buyers 
were extremely cautious in making offers, and it was with 
difficulty that even small prices were realised. 
Apart from those affected in consequence of hereditary 
transmission, the animals I have found usually suffering are, 
young cows that have endured extensive laceration of the 
vagina during parturition, and been improperly treated 
thereafter; old cows that have been extra milkers; cows that 
have given birth to twin calves repeatedly; and most common 
of all, cows that have calved at two years of age, and suckled 
