American Veterinary Review, 
MARCH, 1878 . 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
I ' 
PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 
INOCULATION. 
By D. E. Salmon, D. V. M. 
NATURE OF THE DISEASE. 
Pleuro-pneumonia is essentially a contagious fever, the local mani¬ 
festations of which are the inflammation of the lung tissue (pneu¬ 
monia), and the membrane covering these organs called the pleura ; it 
consequently receives its name from the organs in which the more 
apparent alterations are found, a name which is unfortunate in some 
respects, at least if we do not prefix the term contagious to it, as it 
attracts the attention of the public from the real nature of the disease 
—the contagious fever—to the local manifestations or symptoms of it, 
i. e. s the inflammation of the lungs and pleura. The disease is con¬ 
fined to the bovine species, and is not communicable to any other, 
though, as with most contagious fevers, other animals or men may carry 
the contagious germs from one herd to another. When we consider 
that by far the larger portion of the animals exposed to the contagion 
contract the disease ; that the germs may be carried a considerable 
distance in the air ; that the latent period or incubation of the disease 
extends from six weeks to several months ; that animals may be spread¬ 
ing the disease for several months before any symptoms whatever 
reveal its presence ; that those affected are useless for a long time ; 
that a large part of them ultimately die ; that many of those which 
recover are of little value afterwards ; that those animals which have 
apparently made a complete recovery may still transmit the disease to 
