NEW VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
863 
Lyman, dated the last week in July, in which he asserted that he had 
examined infected American cattle arriving in Liverpool since he came ; 
that he finds many infected with what is known here and in England as 
pleuro-pneumonia (although, he adds, Professor Williams, of Edinburgh, 
does not consider it pleuro-pneumonia); that the disease was in most 
cases fresh ; that the lungs were but slightly affected; and that three 
fourths of the cases were Western cattle exported from Boston. You 
will notice that this letter of Mr. Lyman is said to have been sent in the 
last week in July. Now I never saw any of the lungs reported on by 
Mr. Lyman until the 20th of August, a few days before Mr. Lyman 
sailed for America. How it can be stated that 1 considered the disease 
was not pleuro, when I never saw it, is beyond my comprehension. It 
is, however, right that the public should know the merits of the case. 
Seeing, then, that my name has again been brought up in this 
matter, I take the opportunity of repeating that the American disease 
which I had the opportunity of studying in 1879, was not pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, but bronchitis, and that it was of a non-contagious nature, 
brought on by the vicissitudes of travel. 
I do not for a moment deny that pleuro exists in the United States ; 
nor would I wish to see the restrictions upon the importation of States 
cattle into this country removed, so long as the Government of that 
country do not enforce a sufficient security against the spread of disease, 
or so long as there is no legal line of demarcation which would prevent the 
movement of animals from the Eastern to the Western States. 
Mr. Lyman, I am told, examined the lungs of over 10,000 American 
cattle slaughtered at Birkenhead, and found that in most cases of those 
diseased the lungs were but slightly affected. Now, if the disease were 
pleuro, every man who has had experience of it will agree with me that, 
amongst so many animals, some at least would be found with their lungs 
in an advanced state of disease, although the cattle of themselves 
appeared in perfect health; for it is a well-known fact that many 
animals regain the best of health after having suffered from pleuro, 
become fat, and when slaughtered, perhaps months afterwards, present 
lesions of an unmistakeable nature. I have seen scores of such, and I 
have no doubt that every practical man who has opportunities will 
agree with me. 
One writer, who had the opportunity of seeing the same lungs as 
myself at Liverpool, but differs with me in opinion, states, fC Granted 
that the necroscopical appearances were not exactly identical with those 
we are accustomed to see in dairy cows, or, in fact, in any class of cattle 
where the disease runs a rapid course, the departures from the ordinary 
characteristics were not so great as to leave even the slightest doubt in 
the mind of the author as to the true nature of the disease, and these 
departures were no more than are produced by local circumstances—as 
breed, sex, and age of animals, mode of feeding, condition, strength of 
constitution, intensity of the disease, rapidity of its progress, and the 
primary localization of its origin, i.e. whether in the bronchial mem¬ 
brane, the pulmonary structure, or the pleura. 5 ’ 
Now, pleuro-pneumonia is a specific disease, and presents specific 
lesions, as specific and distinct as the smallpox pustule. It is very true 
that an ordinary lung inflammation in cattle leads to a condition very 
similar to that seen in pleuro, and it is an easy matter to confound one 
with the other; but when we have thousands of lungs examined, and 
none of the diseased ones present signs of the disease except in its fresh 
state, I think we are at liberty to conclude that the matter at least 
requires a thorough reinvestigation. 
