MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
COLONIAL ENDEMICS AMONGST 
GRAZING STOCK. 
With attention I have read a copy of despatches 
received by the Governor-General from the prin¬ 
cipal Secretary of State for the Colonies, relative to 
an epidemic said to he prevalent among sheep and 
cattle in New South Wales. What representations 
may have been made to the Home Minister hv his 
Excellency, Sir William Denison, are wholly un¬ 
known to me, but they would appear as inducing 
the British authorities to treat the Australian 
endemic, or endemics, as epidemic murrain, alike 
affecting sheep and cattle. To all these deductions 
I am inclined to demur, and do distinctly state my 
humble conviction that no Australian diseases 
heretofore known hear any relation to the mily- 
hrand or carbuncle murrain of German authors on 
veterinary subjects. 
Before me lies a report obtained by the High¬ 
land and Agricultural Board of Scotland, descrip¬ 
tive of the German and Russian murrain. As far 
as I am able to judge no closer analogy lies 
between the German and Australian maladies than 
may be expected between malignant epidemic 
catarrh and violent intestinal inflammations. It is 
also my candid opinion that whatever, disease or 
diseases have previously been observed in this 
colony, in any way referable to an epidemic type, 
nre thoroughly colonial, wholly arising from local 
causes, and intimately connected with changes of 
vegetation and climate arising from transitions 
which have been gradually working almost un¬ 
noticed, hut now begin to he felt and now telling. 
The malady of pleura-pneumonia introduced from 
Holstein into Britain hears no resemblance to any 
Australian disease amongst its beasts of the field ; 
no, nor yet the variola ovina, imported from 
France, which at one time became so virulent and 
destructive in a few counties of England as to call 
for special measures regarding its progress by 
order of the Queen in Council, and which will 
require all the vigilance of our colonial adminis¬ 
tration, and more than their usual precautions, to 
prevent its introduction from Gaul or Britain. 
Our colonists are such ardent importers that they 
are no way particular in procuriiig/fW, blood, as the 
phrase runs, from every region of continental 
Europe ; and it is only right to give warning at 
what risks they run with their fresh blood (i), 
bringing to the colony fresh diseases. Do any of 
our graziers understand the surgical process of 
transfusion 1 
The word epidemic means the prevalence of any 
infectious disease, generally over large extents of 
countries or colonies. If tin's definition is correct 
then have wo no epidemic disease, corporeal, 
affecting man or quadruped, whatever epidemics 
may pervade the minds of the bipeds. 
As for the Cumberland epidemic its effects as 
yet have been chiefly confined to that county. 
Doubtless, men have read reports of its appear¬ 
ance on the Hunter, Liverpool Plains, the Lach¬ 
lan, and other places; but on what sound autho¬ 
rity i That animals may have rather unexpectedly 
and suddenly died is very probable, and most men 
are either afraid, or feel themselves incompetent, 
to institute post mortem examinations. So, like the 
Australian shepherd, who, when any of their sheep 
die from causes imperceptible and diseases un¬ 
known, immediately conclude and report them to 
be “poisoned.” Just so, the owner of such dead 
239 
carcasses, being unable to ascertain, jumps at the 
received idea of epidemic, and so forwards an ac¬ 
count to the editor of his favourite newspaper. Ho, 
equally enlightened in this case as the reporter, 
hands the document to the printers, ’and thus, 
through the press, the supposed fact is impressed 
on the public sensoria, whereby the opinion be¬ 
comes epidemic at all events on no better proof. 
It forms no part of my present plan to explain 
the different symptoms of endemic diseases among 
sheep and cattle, as I have found from expe¬ 
rience that few take any interest in these dry nar¬ 
rations; but without inspection, the prediction is 
hazarded, that among numbers of sheep which die 
on parts of Liverpool Plains, Cassilis, Lachlan, 
&c., persons competent to determine will diseover 
that the pleura and spongy substance of one or 
other lung will he found adhering to the ribs with 
firmness. This condition is very common on manv 
English downs, especially during arid seasons, 
and depends altogether on IocaLf-. Acs. The re¬ 
medial means adopted arc - .aly rational—well 
worthy of imitation by Australian stockowners— 
an order so fertile of wise men in the cast. Under¬ 
stand not that a major part of sheep which die in 
these pastoral divisions are actually cut off in this 
way, for in many the kidneys and urinary organs 
would appear to he strongly diseased. 
Indeed these local maladies assume a great 
variety of forms, as might he anticipated from the 
great extent aud diversity of colonial districts; 
bat they are all dependent on local causes, which 
require to he studied, both by botanist and physi¬ 
ologist, if men wish to arrive at right and rational 
conclusions. Thus far the differences in sheep. 
The dissimilarity of enteritis and the carbuncle 
murrain is thus represented: — In the latter, 
authors announce formations of tumours, car¬ 
buncles, and ulcers, certain signs of murrain ; the 
French, fievre permcienx carbonculaire. True, 
deposits of bloody matter are found in the sub¬ 
cutaneous cellular textures in both diseases; hut 
these cannot he taken as diagnostics of any parti¬ 
cular disease, they are the consequences of intense 
inflammatory action which at the outset attends on 
each. 
In the Cumberland disease no such {umours or 
carbuncles have ever been noticed, and the absence 
of these fully prove the disparity of the diseases, for 
the appearance of such carbuncles is an undoubted 
sign of murrain, alias malignant epidemic catarrh, 
alias the plague. Without asserting that I have 
made more autopsical inspection of animals than 
any other bush man in the colony, yet, thus far I 
may be permitted to say, that no such carbuncular 
indications have been observed by me in any body 
dead from disease similar to the Cumberland ende- 
mic, and no other persons of adequate skill have 
seen or will find them. Sheep and cattle will die 
from natural causes and in different ways, for all 
the animals lost by disease in Cumberland county 
die not of the Cumberland endemic. Like man' 
grazing stock are liable to a legion of other mortal 
maladies. 
Inthepestis Bovum of German writers, full evi¬ 
dence of fixed murrain is not. clear until the 7th or 
Sth day ; then the hind limbs become paralysed 
the gums and muzzle break out in red spots, which 
soon resolve into white blisters, cough frequent 
the eyes and nose discharge first watery and next 
slimy matter highly infectious ; on the 10th day 
all these symptoms become aggravated, pustules 
