On the cattle plague Part 11

[Q] "Appel a des Experiences dans le but d'etablir le Traitement Preservatif de la Fievre Typhoide et des Maladies infectieuses inrecidivables, par l'inoculation de leurs produits morbides." Memoire lu a l'Inst.i.tut, le 8 Octobre, 1855. Insere dans la Gazette Hebdomadaire de Medecine. Paris.

CHAPTER IV.

_Treatment and Cure of the Ox-Typhus._

In now addressing ourselves to the treatment, and, as far as human agency can effect it, to the cure, of this insidious distemper, we cannot conceal from ourselves, that this is the most difficult, the most delicate, and, at the same time, the most important division of our work; for it is to this part, above all, that attention will be directed. This portion of our task, therefore, will prove especially arduous; and nothing can give a better notion of the difficulties we shall have to encounter than the many fruitless attempts which, for several months past, have been made to overcome them by many ardent inquirers, stimulated by the best possible intentions.

This, then, is the moment--if we may be allowed the metaphor--to take the bull by the horns; and we do so without hesitation. If, like so many others, we are baffled and overcome in this unequal struggle--if our strength is not on a level with our desires--we trust we shall be pardoned.

Several paths leading to the same end may be followed in this exposition of the treatment of ox-typhus. After mature reflection, we shall adopt the one, which will allow us to take the disease at its birth, _ab ovo_; to study it in all its phases, in its first and second causes, and then in the successive periods of its development.

In this manner, we shall be able to give an account of each fact of real importance mentioned in the foregoing pages, and to comprise within the treatment whatever is connected either directly or indirectly with the disease.

Thus we will relate in so many separate articles,--

1st. The means and measures to be employed to meet and resist the first local causes which may generate the typhus, then the secondary causes which serve to propagate it.

2nd. The means of preventing the spread of the disease to animals still in good health.

3rd. The means of treating it at its different periods, from the period of incubation to that of its decline.

4th. Finally, we shall insert the laws and sanitary regulations which have been published in England relative to this disease.

As will be seen, by adopting this method, the whole matter will be considered consecutively and in regular order; and the reader will understand that when such a phase of the malady is developed it is because the preceding one, which is the cause of it, has not been effectually contended with.

I.

_Means and Measures to be employed to resist the Causes of the Contagious Typhus of the Bovine Species._

We have shown fully and explicitly in what countries of the globe, and in what particular conditions, the typhus is generated among oxen. We know that this dire disease has its focus on the banks of great rivers or lakes, which are periodically overflowed, and on which is deposited a slime teeming with organic matter; in marshy plains, where the same natural impurities are fostered; and that these first hotbeds of the evil are found in China, in India, in America, in Africa, as well as on the sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea. A spirit of observation which delights in measuring the phenomena of nature with the contracted compa.s.s of its own short views and conceptions, could alone have imagined that the ox-typhus was only to be found originally in the steppes of Hungary and Russia, and that the bovine species of those countries, thanks to a special organization, was alone capable of generating the typhus.

Since we know, then, in what conditions this disease is developed, and especially in what manner it is propagated in Europe, it is not impossible now, when nations are united by the means of quick and easy communication, by commercial treaties, and by the mutual relations of science, to examine what measures might be taken to modify and control these conditions. A commission formed for this purpose, a scientific congress, would be able to make on the spot a study of all the circ.u.mstances which favour the development of typhus, and the result of their reports would enlighten the peoples as to the causes which produce it and from which they are first to suffer. They would be recommended to choose as pastures the healthiest places, to withdraw their cattle at certain seasons from those plots of ground which are baleful to them; new systems of agriculture would be planned and tried, &c. These questions being carefully examined, might lead to important results; nor can we understand how, in the age in which we live, the same indifference and apathy as prevailed in the past should be maintained in presence of the positive and permanent causes of this infectious disease, whose contagion, as we now see by many proofs, may extend at once to so large a portion of Europe. There is now something to be done in this matter; it is the duty of the governments to deal with it effectually, and to take serious measures to destroy the evil radically, if radically it can be destroyed, and, if not, to alleviate its pernicious effects as much as possible.

Moreover, many breeders of cattle have not waited until now to guard against some of the first causes of the typhus: already they give the animals rock salt, ferruginous and a.r.s.enical preparations, but all this is done without method, and according to each man's will and pleasure.

It would, therefore, be necessary to inst.i.tute regulations, and to see them carried out and practised under the superintendence of public functionaries, armed with sufficient power and authority.

These measures having been taken, others no less indispensable ought to follow. They should determine for the herds of cattle intended for exportation, the ways and channels they must travel by to go to any central part or to any railway station; and there the inspectors on duty should mark every animal that pa.s.ses out of the district he is leaving.

Heavy penalties should be inflicted on all who might infringe these rules.

These precautions would contribute in part to arrest the propagation of the complaint; but there is another measure more radical and effectual, which should be taken in order to prevent its extension--we mean inoculation, which has met with complete success in some of the governments of Russia.

Thus we see, there are powerful means of withstanding the production of the disease in its focus, or generative bed, and likewise its extension among the herds of neighbouring countries; and these latter might render them in some sort obligatory, by refusing most rigidly to admit to their markets, as in Italy has sometimes been done, every head of cattle which was not marked as inoculated or which was not furnished with a permit of health.

It is easy to conceive that those countries wherein the ox-typhus has its birth, and for which the breeding of cattle and their exportation are a great source of wealth, would soon feel that they are more interested than any other in stifling the contagion in its focus, and in affording to those countries that receive their herds, every security and guarantee which they have a right to expect. Interest in this case coming to the help of common sense, very satisfactory results would in course of time be obtained.

Moreover, we are conscious that we are here dealing with very complicated questions; for, though in a book they may seem simple and easy, their application is a matter of extreme difficulty. We know too well that these preventive measures for protecting animals will meet with many obstacles, and only be adopted at last with tardy reluctance, since man himself continues in some respect indifferent to the causes which spread about the fearful epidemics to which he falls a victim in consequence of his neglect.

In truth, it is well known that the cholera of the present day--that much more serious _plague_--had its origin on the banks of the Red Sea, amidst the infectious miasmata developed near Mecca, where thousands of pilgrims who had died of fatigue and privation, and hundreds of thousands of sheep butchered and religiously offered up in sacrifice, have, beneath a torrid heat, generated the choleraic miasma, which formerly was supposed to be produced exclusively on the banks of the Ganges. This fact duly ascertained and proved, we might suppose that the governments of the different nations among which the cholera is about to extend its ravages, were indignant and had complained at thus being smitten with a scourge, due to the careless ignorance and sordid avidity of some official of the Turkish Government. But we should be mistaken.

No! every one hoped at first that he, at least, would be spared by the contagion, and the authorities did nothing to resist the evil but adopt the old course of _quarantine_--a remedy more illusory now than ever, since the nations are in constant communication, either in their own persons or by the exchange of their commodities; and consequently, the epidemic is pursuing its invading course from week to week.

That which is being done for the cholera gives us a scale by which we may estimate the efforts which will be made to arrest the generation and the contagion of the cattle typhus.[R]

We are certainly bound to resist the introduction of horned cattle tainted with typhus; but in the conditions amidst which they live, some of them may bear the seeds of the distemper, even whilst they appear in perfect health, and therefore able to endure the fatigue of a long journey.

Now, in order to avoid exciting the incubation of the typhus during their transit either to Finland, Holland, France, or England, it must never be forgotten that these animals are gifted with a nervous sensibility of wonderful acuteness, joined to the weakest vital resistance. Care must be taken to husband their strength, to give them a choice distribution of food easy of a.s.similation; barley-meal, or other grains, must be mixed up with their drink; they must be protected from the changes of weather; they must have room enough and air enough in the locomotive stalls on the railway trains and on board s.h.i.+p.

We pa.s.s over in silence the hygienic measures to be taken in order to keep these vehicles of transit in a proper sanitary state: the sanitary police regulations inserted further on will make them sufficiently known.

All these measures having been taken to meet and withstand distant causes and dangers, let us now direct our attention to those local causes which strike our eyes, and which likewise have their share of influence in propagating the disease. Thus, whenever an inclement season comes to deprive the herbivorous animals of sufficient pasture, or to deteriorate its natural qualities, we are bound to remedy this change, and to increase the cares we devote to them; for these frail and helpless creatures, immediately feel and suffer from the effects of a sustenance less than usually restorative. Under such circ.u.mstances, we must make exceptional sacrifices; when they return from feeding on the gra.s.s, we should give them some additional fodder, or roots of a generous quality. We must imitate the regimen used in the country of the steppes, by adding to their forage a solution of marine salt, or a solution of sulphate of iron. Day by day we must give to the weakest and least fed cattle, a ration consisting of bruised oats, pounded juniper berries, gentian, sulphate of iron, and carbonate of soda.

For, if we neglect to take those measures which are required to prevent among herbivorous animals the development of those ordinary epizootias, which every year are generated on our own soil, they will certainly afford a favourable seat to the typhic miasma transmitted by foreign animals, or exceptionally generated by themselves. These cares and attentions must be greatly increased, when the foreign epizootia, has spread itself, as in the present instance, among our flocks and herds.

Then, indeed, we must be careful not to load these creatures with pampering food for the purpose of fattening them. For it may be profitable, and the breeder may plume himself, on having produced an adipose monstrosity to such a degree as to bury, for instance, a pig's head in the fleshy exuberance of his thorax; but such a derogation from the laws of nature borders closely on disease, and a.s.suredly such an unnatural acc.u.mulation, predisposes the glutted animals to epizootic diseases in general.

The water given them to drink must be attended to with particular solicitude. It should never be drawn up from ponds or stagnant rivers.

The animals kept in the pasture grounds should always find at their disposal, in receptacles intended for their use, a supply of pure fresh water.

After these precautions with respect to their food and sustenance, attention must next be directed to the hygienic conditions required by the animal. Every morning he should be cleaned, washed, brushed, and dried; what is every day done for the horse must now be done for the ox.

These unusual cares will be most salutary to him, and greatly increase his vital resistance.

The animal thus protected in his food and particular necessities, attention must next be directed to the stalls and sheds. Over-crowding must be carefully avoided; the proper cube of air for breathing must be measured out for each head of cattle; every day the latter must be carried out into the open air; the floor of the stall or shed must first be thoroughly cleansed and washed out, after which it must be sprinkled with a solution of chloride of lime. If the stall is not well aired, a little straw should be burned on the ground, to improve the atmosphere, or else branches of resinous trees, or juniper berries may be used. In some cases aromatic fumigations of sage, rosemary, or mint, boiled in water, are employed, the balsamic vapours which arise therefrom being at once tonic and purifying. During the night a tub, containing pitch and tar, should be left in the stall, or a large piece of camphor should be suspended from the ceiling. Vinegar may be spilt on a piece of red-hot iron, or powder of sulphur may be burned into sulphuric gas and diffuse its vapours through the stall or shed. This excellent parasiticide may perhaps be equally endowed with anti-typhic properties.

Finally, when this fatal epizootia is ravaging the country, every farmer and agriculturist must carefully abstain from mixing with his herds any cattle which have been bought either at fairs or markets; he must take care, conformably with the directions issued by the Privy Council, (to which we refer the reader for more ample details,) to avoid all contact both direct and indirect with horned cattle tainted with the typhus, as he might himself become an instrument of the contagion.--Let him never forget that to take as the guide for his actions in these times of calamity his private and personal interest, is the greatest crime a man can commit. Let him strive, therefore, to a.s.sist the authorities in the measures which they have taken for the interest of all.

II.

Now that we have examined the measures which prudence directs us to take to defend ourselves against the causes which produce and propagate typhus, let us think of the means of preventing it, when the contagion threatens to diffuse itself over a whole kingdom, as at present it is doing in England.

When, on the 19th of last June, it was believed that the typhus or Cattle Plague, as they continue to call it, had effected its invasion in England, the Government, informed by professional men of the serious danger to which the interests of the country would be exposed, if the disease should spread, might have considered this distemper not as a question of private interest, but as one of public and national concern.

It might at the outset have given to this epizootia all the significancy of a public calamity, have looked upon it as the invasion of an enemy threatening to destroy its territory, and have employed every possible means to stifle it at its birth.

We well know that the English Government, derived as it is rather from political than from religious and social changes, is at once monarchical, aristocratic, and partially democratic, and for that reason embarra.s.sed in its working by so many wheels. Its authority is scattered and divided, whilst the respect ascribed to the prerogatives of each distinct public power is the safeguard of the State. In the absence of both Houses during the recess, it could take no resolution as to ways and means; for the difficulties on this unhappy occasion, we cannot too often repeat it, are reduced to a question of money. Deprived of the requisite authority, it was unable to do more than exhume the old laws on the matter and ordain new ones. And yet, the impotence of the Government was not perhaps so great as is imagined; for whilst it suffered the typhus almost unmolested to devastate the country, it very justly, and in the name of the public interest, took vigorous and effectual measures to stamp out another epidemic--the rash and insane conspiracy of the Fenians. It stood still and would not authorize domiciliary visits in stables and stalls, nor the seizure of sick animals, but it did not falter a moment at the domiciliary visits and incarceration of insurgent citizens meditating mischief, so that in this instance, the privilege of immunity has been given to the brute creation. Everybody, both in England and out of England, admires their vigour and despatch in stifling the insurrection in its bud. But why not act with equal prompt.i.tude in the case of an epizootia?

Arming itself, in this manner, in the public interest, and with sufficient power, the Government might have appointed an executive commission, with the Lord Mayor as president. Such a commission would have applied itself at once to the consideration and studious examination of the subject in all its bearings, and would have proposed prompt and energetic measures, which the Government, with equal despatch, would have confirmed by giving to them the authority of law, as they have since tardily done. A fund, which, for the wealth of England, would not have been considerable, 250,000_l._--the cost of a few Armstrong guns--might have been placed at the disposal of this Board, to enable its directors to meet and provide for, without delay, every just claim and want arising from the scourge.

An auxiliary commission, exclusively medical, and consisting of medical and veterinary doctors, might have been formed conjointly with the former, and every preventive measure, considered by them as necessary to stamp out the complaint at the outbreak, after it had been proposed by the medical board, and submitted to the executive commission, and by them to the Home Secretary, might have been acted upon by law within twenty-four hours.

Taken unawares, and the mode of treating the sick animals not being known at first, they would have been reduced to the cruel necessity of exterminating at once all tainted cattle, as well as those belonging to tainted herds, but not without compensating the owners of those cattle.[S]

They would have sent two physicians to Russia and Hungary, to observe and study the preventive and curative medication, especially their mode of inoculation, and thanks to the rapid locomotion of these times, twenty days would have been sufficient for this foreign exploration.

The physicians const.i.tuting the medical board should have been authorized to seize any beast tainted with the typhus; a company should have been charged to collect and keep ready for the public service, at the four quarters of London, an ample retinue of horses, closed carriages, and working men, to convey at all hours of the day and night the carcases of the slaughtered animals to the respective spots, where long and deep trenches had been dug to receive them. Each carcase before burial to have been well sprinkled with chloride of lime.

By taking this course, every one's interest would have been respected, as much as can be desired when a great calamity threatens a country; besides, in doing so, the present ministers would but have followed the example of the Government (with regard to compensation), during the epizootia of the eighteenth century. The proprietors who had thus received, not the full and absolute price, but a sum sufficiently remunerative for their sacrificed cattle, would have a.s.sisted the authorities, and thereby would have served the common interest, because their sick cattle, peris.h.i.+ng every hour within their stalls and sheds, were no longer a real source of embarra.s.sment and ruin. They would not have been obliged to drive them to market to get what they could out of them and disenc.u.mber themselves. The most active cause of the contagion would by this means have been prevented.