332 
THE DANGERS OE SLAUGHTERING. 
Our own pages, along with those of numerous contem¬ 
poraries, have for some time told the public what no doubt 
they are by this time, in more senses than one, “ sick of 
hearing ” —viz., that disease has been rife amongst cattle, 
and that the flesh of diseased cattle has been rife amongst 
the butchers. The exact nature of the disease prevalent 
amongst stock has been differently regarded; but a sort of 
typhoid pneumonia has been held to be the chief cattle 
plague in this country, while “ splenic apoplexy” has pre¬ 
vailed upon the Continent. According to some recent in¬ 
teresting and laborious inquiries by Dr. Edwards Crisp, it 
would appear that splenic apoplexy occurs more frequently 
in this country than has hitherto been supposed, particularly 
amongst the stock of marshy and malarious districts. 
Amongst the more important of the results arrived at by 
the above-mentioned indefatigable naturalist, is the proof 
he adduces of the deleterious influences produced upon man 
and the lower animals by the spleen and other viscera of the 
beasts affected. Dr. Budd, of Clifton, as our readers well 
know, has for some time maintained the inoculability of a 
virus from diseased cattle to human beings. Dr. Crisp has 
worked out the problem, and shows that it cannot be too 
generally known among agriculturists that persons who flay 
animals dying of splenic apoplexy should be careful to avoid 
scratches, cuts, and punctures, and on all occasions to wash 
their hands well immediately after they have finished. If a 
cut be received, Dr. Crisp recommends the immediate applica¬ 
tion of salt or spirits of turpentine to the part injured. Mr* 
Hamilton, one of the Commissioners for New South Wales 
at the late Exhibition, informed Dr. Crisp that when the 
disease in question was prevalent in that country the men 
were so disabled from punctures and the imbibition of the 
poison when flaying the sheep, that they refused to slaughter 
any more unless they received an amount of pay adequate to 
the risk. One man nearly lost his arm. M. Garreau, of 
Chateauneuf, punctured his hand when dissecting a sheep 
that had splenic apoplexy, and a malignant pustule appeared 
after four days, and lasted a long time. Dr. Cherreau men¬ 
tions the case of a shepherd who, in bleeding a sheep that 
was affected with this disease, received some drops of blood 
in the eye, which he neglected to wash, and death took place 
in three days. Four men who flayed some stall-fed oxen so 
