On the cattle plague Part 17

This comparison will show you at once that the cattle plague, or rather the cattle typhus, can only be cured when the disease has run its full course, as you have observed in a person tainted with small-pox; so that your task must be to help the sick animal to endure his complaint until the end, or until he is cured; and you must not attempt to check it by violent means, for if you did you would hasten the death which you desire to prevent. You will likewise understand that if the disease--as is certainly the case--does not attack the same animal twice, it would be very beneficial to inoculate the animal whilst he is sound and healthy, whenever this scourge threatens--as in the present time--to attack all cattle. Perhaps you may be told that inoculation, which prevents small-pox in man, cannot be applicable to cattle; that animals inoculated with the virus of the typhus have all died of the consequences of the operation, and so on. To all these objections you will answer, with that downright good sense which belongs to your cla.s.s, _that Nature cannot have two weights and two measures_; and that if the inoculation of the typhus kills animals, whilst the inoculation of the small-pox saves men, both maladies being governed by the same laws, it is the inexperience of physicians, and not the operation itself, which must be made to account for it.

In a word, to sow virus is to reap it; but there are many ways of sowing it, and one man will reap a rich harvest, whilst another shall gather nothing but tares. Let those unbelievers say what they like, and take my word for it, that we shall one day cure typhus as frequently as we do small-pox, by inoculating it, and when it appears in spite of that course, by treating it medicinally.

This contagious disease is very frequent in certain countries, princ.i.p.ally in Russia and Hungary, on the banks of the great rivers which empty themselves into the Black Sea. In those remote countries, when the seasons are either too rainy or too hot--and you know what a summer that of 1865 has been--the pastures generate the pestilential poisons of the typhus, the cattle absorb these destructive principles, and die of them.

But as the herds of cattle in those countries are bred for sale, and are sent for that purpose to other countries, to France, Italy, England, &c., the animals which have had the germ of the disease transport it with them wherever they go. Thus, it is certain that some oxen conveyed from Russia and Hungary, where the typhus frequently rages, brought the disease with them into Great Britain in the month of last June; and as the complaint is communicated from one animal to another, and afterwards at great distances, it spread with great rapidity over England and Scotland. So great are its powers of contagion, that some of the cattle sent back from England have transmitted the disease to Holland, in the first place, and afterwards to Belgium; and it was feared at one time that all Europe would be invaded by it.

The first belief was--and everything tends to make good the opinion--that the typhus originally came from abroad; but many respectable authorities, seeing the foul and nauseous state of the stalls and cowsheds both in London and elsewhere, the overcrowding of the animals, and the general neglect to which they are exposed, have a.s.serted that the disease had its origin in London. This, we repeat, is not likely to have been the case, but it is not absolutely impossible; at all events, there can be no question that the grievous conditions in which some of your brethren keep their cattle have contributed to spread the distemper, independently of other causes.

Moreover, it is necessary to tell you, that sheep and horned cattle are of all living animals those which are most sensitive to the influence of contagious diseases. Every year you see instances of this fact in your own fields and meadows. Your sheep, you all know, easily contract the small-pox, worm diseases both on the skin and in the interior of the body; your oxen have aphthous diseases, disorders of the blood and the lungs, scabs and carbuncles--diseases which are all more or less contagious, and which are generally brought on by want of care, and, above all, by improper feeding: by which you see how much of the sufferings of the cattle, and of the heavy losses to you which follow them, depends upon yourselves and may be avoided. Besides, these poor creatures, which some of you treat so harshly, are extremely susceptible, and the blows they receive may easily affect their whole ma.s.s of blood. You must, therefore, for your own sakes, treat them more kindly and gently.

Therefore, the typhus which was imported from Russia into England, finding your cattle in such wretched conditions of cleanliness and health, was propagated amongst them with fearful rapidity. When once the disease had developed itself within your sheds and stalls, it would have been the wisest plan immediately to kill the sick cattle, or to treat them medicinally, carefully abstaining from driving to market any of your beasts which had been exposed to the contagion. But unfortunately you did not act in this manner; many amongst you could not put up patiently with your losses, and only consulting your private interest, to the detriment of the general good, you sold your sick cows and oxen, and sowing the contagion about the country and through the markets, the scourge was soon scattered in every direction, so that instead of stifling the disease at its birth everything was done to propagate and diffuse it.

Now, if we add, that the germs of this typhus penetrate everywhere, that it is sufficient to convey sick cattle along the public roads, and by this means to pa.s.s near farms and meadows containing healthy cattle, to transmit the contagion, that these noxious germs impregnate your own clothes, the fleece of sheep, and every article, implement, and vehicle used in agriculture, you cannot but see how often, though unwillingly, you must have disseminated the evil far and wide.

The germs, the miasmata of the disease, insinuate themselves not only upon animals and men, but they shed their virus upon the gra.s.s of the fields, the walls of the stalls and stables, and every agricultural utensil. Every tainted animal scatters the pestilential and contagious germs, not only by the air he expires, but by his droppings, and after death by his mortal remains--his hide, his horns, his entrails, his flesh--all of which disseminate the deadly germs into the atmosphere, which afterwards diffuses them in every direction.

The germs of this virulent distemper have no doubt smitten some cattle which appeared in the best health and conditions, those of the rich as well as those of the poor; but, just in the same manner as the cholera chiefly fixes itself upon the sickly, the ill-fed, the unclean, upon those who live in crowded dwellings and badly ventilated rooms; so, too, does the typhus choose its victims among the stalls and stables of those graziers who keep their cows tied up for years to the rack, giving them neither air nor exercise, and feeding them, not on that diet which their health requires, but on those things which add to their milk and increase their flesh. It follows, of course, that the greater number of these cows, more or less disordered by this long course of baleful treatment, and many of which die of consumption, after their deteriorated milk has infused into men the seeds of diseases, must afford an easy prey to the typhus, _to receive which they seem almost expressly to have been trained_.

It is highly important then, farmers and graziers, that you should be able to recognise this ox-typhus; in the first place, that you may take the necessary measures to prevent its contagion; and secondly, that you may apply the treatment which shall have been recommended to you.

You must at all times, but above all when the contagious disease is raging, keep a watchful eye on your cattle. If you notice in their gait, in their looks, about their ears, any unusual signs; if they seem to you less eager, less active, less vigilant, if they leave any part of their rations when in the stables, or if, when in the fields, they no longer browse with that continual alacrity which sometimes it is difficult to divert them from, be upon your guard, and dread the outbreak of the complaint. If to these changes of minor importance is added an appet.i.te really less acute, if the rumination is less regular, if the animal looks sad and dispirited, if he exhibits an unwonted look of gloom, if his leaden eye continues fixed, astonished, be sure a morbid change is inwardly at work, and that this cruel distemper is spreading through his frame.

By-and-bye the animal loses his appet.i.te more and more; rumination is shorter and less frequent; he holds his head down, his ears sink and fall; he grinds his teeth. Then as to the cows: their milk, which was already diminished, suddenly dries up altogether, and that lowness of spirits which had been visible for some days before, pa.s.ses into stupor.

If at this time you touch their horns, their extremities, their hide in any part, you find that all these different parts are sometimes warm, sometimes cold. From this day forward you will witness, one by one, a succession of disorders in the animal's health: partial s.h.i.+verings at the attachment of the fore and hind limbs, loud panting breathing, with slight cough, the urine scanty and thick, the droppings hard and constipated, and finally, general excessive warmth. If you press the back the pressure will be painful, and all the signs of intense fever will be manifest.

Already these indications have divulged the nature of the malady you have to deal with; but others more significant succeed them which remove every doubt. The breathing becomes more hurried and oppressed, more puffy; from the eyes, nostrils, and mouth there issues a discharge which, thin and irritant at first, soon becomes thick and purulent, and of a fetid smell. Diarrhoea takes the place of constipation; the s.e.xual organs of the cow are red and inflamed, and furrowed with livid streaks. The cattle grow leaner and leaner, some of them dying at this period. If they still hold out, the diarrhoea becomes more frequent, more fetid, and sometimes b.l.o.o.d.y; gases are developed under the skin, along the spine, where they form wide flat tumours, which crackle when pressed upon with the fingers. Finally, the mucus which runs from the head becomes still thicker and more fetid; a glutinous foam stops up the mouth; the eyes, filled with humour, sink in the orbit; the bodily warmth decreases, the animal sways his head from right to left, becomes insensible, cold; his head lolls on one side, and he dies, panting, from exhaustion and asphyxia, the tenth or twelfth day after the disease has been confirmed.

The carca.s.s exhibits a repulsive appearance; the hide is dry, excoriated, and cracked; it sticks to the bones, which show the form of a skeleton, and the putrid decomposition, which had already set in before death, seizes rapidly on all the tissues.

The course of the disease is not always the same. Sometimes the animal is agitated at first, and all the functions of life are so disturbed that death comes on in the two or three first days. At other times, the lungs are more affected than the other internal organs; the cough is more intense, the breath hurried and obstructed, the excess of mucus preventing the air from pa.s.sing into the chest.

When once you have seen this disease it is impossible to mistake it for any other, unless it be the chest complaint called peripneumonia, which is likewise contagious. But in this disease, as the Report of the Royal Agricultural Society states, the attack is generally insidious; the eyes preserve their vivacity, and the appet.i.te is not lost until towards the close. A short, dry cough shows itself from the outbreak, and persists.

The breathing is frequent and painful; the sides of the chest when struck with the fingers give out the hard, solid sound of a full barrel, this percussion being painful. The eyes, nose, and mouth do not discharge those purulent secretions seen in typhus; the diarrhoea only comes on at the end, being less frequent and fetid. In the milch cows the milk decreases, but is not quite suppressed. The heat of the horns and lower extremities is retained. The peripneumonia, in a word, runs its course more regularly, and carries off the animal about the fourth week. Thus it will be seen that the two distempers widely differ in their symptoms.

Every beast which dies of the contagious typhus, bears on its digestive organs the traces of the malady, more or less strongly marked. The third and fourth stomachs and the intestines exhibit red or livid patches, and at other times ulcerations.

The cattle plague is by far the most formidable malady which can affect animals. When left to itself, or treated without discernment, it carries off ninety cattle out of a hundred. In prior visitations, especially that of 1750, when six millions of horned beasts were swept off in Europe, England lost from three to four hundred thousand; and we may suppose that the number of cattle which have perished since last June exceeds sixty thousand.

_The treatment_ is very difficult, owing to the contagious character of the disease, and it has given rise to much discussion. In some countries, the governments, considering the distemper incurable, only seek to stamp it out wherever it may appear. They slaughter all the sick cattle, and even those which had come near them, allowing a compensation of half the value of the beast. This measure has not always proved successful, the disease having in spite of it sometimes extended over the whole of the country thus defended from its diffusion.

England protected by the sea, and which has been spared for a century, was taken somewhat unawares, so that some uncertainty has been witnessed in the measures employed to arrest its course. In some districts, the parties interested have had the good sense to form a.s.surance funds; and it is much to be regretted that the same plan has not been adopted for the metropolis.

But we cannot help what has been done; let us, therefore, be reconciled with the past, and see what is best to be done in future for the interests of all. What is the present state of the matter? A certain number of districts, both in England and Scotland, are still exempt from the typhus; in others the disease is generally extending its ravages.

Those districts which hitherto have been spared, should inst.i.tute a.s.surance funds, and take every precaution to secure themselves against this scourge. In France, in Belgium, even in Great Britain, some places managed, in 1750, to successfully protect themselves by prohibiting the importation of any foreign cattle or animal. These preventive measures may now be taken with some chance of success in certain parts. Ireland, which, thanks to the published Orders in Council, seems to have escaped up to this time from the contagion, shows us the effectual results of these sanitary measures.

As for the districts already infected, it is of the highest importance to send no more tainted beasts to the different fairs and markets, otherwise the distemper will spread indefinitely: the unsold cattle, the sheep, the pigs, which are placed only a few yards apart, must necessarily convey the contagion everywhere. It would even be necessary at this time not to collect oxen and other animals together in the same markets; we urgently invite the attention of all public authorities to this most important question.

At all events, the farmers and graziers who, after all the cautions they have received, all the orders which have been published, and all the dangers which have been clearly exposed to them, should still persist in driving their cattle out of their abodes, would deserve censure, and ought to be heavily fined. The best they can do, since the contagion has not been prevented, is to submit their cattle to the treatment which we are now going to explain to them in detail.

It has been abundantly proved by the many convictions at the various police courts, that the flesh of cattle seriously diseased has been sold to the consumers, to the great injury of the public health; and if the cholera, which is steadily and surely advancing towards us, should mix its fatal germs with those of the ox-typhus, we must all expect deplorable consequences, in case the flesh of tainted oxen should continue to be sold by the butchers, as during the last three months it has been.

Every farmer or grazier who shall have fully ascertained that the ox typhus has insinuated itself into his farm or his stables, must instantly have recourse to the necessary measures and safeguards by means of which he may limit its pernicious influence, and prevent the spread of the contagion to his other cattle still sound and healthy. Let him immediately divide his stock of animals into three cla.s.ses or lots--the first cla.s.s must consist of healthy cattle, having had no direct contact with the infected beasts; the second cla.s.s must contain those cattle which, though not yet sick, may become so, because they have been in contact with those tainted; the third cla.s.s will be composed of cattle smitten with the typhus.

The sound and healthy cattle forming the first cla.s.s must be removed from the farm, and driven to the field separately, by some other road, in different pastures, and only after the dispersion of the morning mists. Those which are accustomed to continue at the rack must be taken out twice a day, for the twofold object of taking wholesome exercise, and allowing their stalls and sheds to be cleaned.

Their feeding must be attended to and watched with very particular care; the rations of those which were being fattened up must be decreased, and they ought to be sold to the butcher for consumption as soon as possible. Let the following provisions be added to their daily sustenance:

Pounded oats 4 pounds.

Pounded juniper berries 1 pound.

Powdered gentian 1 ounce.

Sulphate of iron 2 drachms.

Carbonate of soda 2 "

The herdsman who tends the cattle whilst feeding in the fields must have them cleaned every day: he will carefully wash and scrub them; he will not allow them to drink out of the ponds, or at any stagnant and muddy watercourse.

Those belonging to the second cla.s.s must receive the same strengthening and tonic ration in the morning; and, twice every day, one of the following anti-contagious preparations: either a solution of _chlorate of potash_ or of _permanganate of potash_; two drachms of either of these salts dissolved in eight ounces of warm water, mixed afterwards with a gallon of an infusion of sage or hyssop, just at the time when the drink is given to them.

Or you may employ, for the same purpose, a solution of a.r.s.eniate of soda--two grains dissolved in four ounces of water, and mixed with their drink in the same way. You need hardly be told that these doses must be reduced one half, when you have to treat a calf or a heifer, and that the same diminution will hold good, in their cases, for all other medicaments. _The use of these anti-contagious drinks is of the highest importance; I recommend you earnestly to study their effects, and to continue them even after the distemper shall have broken out._

These drinks having no disagreeable taste, the cattle take to them in general; should the contrary be the case, give them in a bottle as all men who are cattle owners know how to do.

If the health of any of these animals among which the outbreak of the typhus is apprehended should seem below the standard, you must apply a purgative to those whose bowels do not operate well, and even have recourse to bleeding in exceptional cases.

During the absence of those cattle which are undergoing the preventive treatment, let the hygienic conditions of their stalls and sheds be looked to; for no circ.u.mstance must be overlooked or neglected if we hope to withstand the propagation of so formidable a malady. Be careful to take out the litter every day, to wash the floor and cleanse it of the droppings, to ventilate the place thoroughly, to fumigate it with burnt sulphur or aromatic plants, such as juniper berries, sage, rosemary, salted with nitrate of potash and a.r.s.enic acid; in order to promote the combustion and give effect to its disinfectious properties.

At night, camphor or tar, or naphthaline, or creosote, or even iodine, may be left in the stable to diffuse their vapours; all these measures are very effectual in modifying the air.

Let us now see what must be done with respect to the sick animals themselves.

The typhus, as we have said, when once it is developed in an ox or cow, usually pursues its fatal course until the last period of its cure; generally death alone can arrest its march. Besides, the disorders which this disease produces in the various functions of the body are not the same at the different stages of its duration. Thus, for instance, the fever produces great excitement in the beginning, but later it produces exhaustion. Without being a physician, a man can understand that the treatment to be applied to these different states ought not to be the same. We must, moreover, observe that the typhus is of all known distempers the most difficult to treat. It requires in the doctor a degree of skill, of practical experience, vigilance, decision, and sureness of hand which no man can be expected to possess at the first outbreak of the epizootia.

On the other hand, the const.i.tution of the ox, so easily shaken, undergoes in two weeks all the commotion which a man labouring under typhoid fever would be subject to in a month. The phenomena succeed each other with terrific swiftness, leaving scarcely time for us to act, or for the medicines to operate. Do not, therefore, marvel at the great mortality among your cattle, and at my repeated recommendations of the preventive treatment by means of inoculation.

At the outbreak, you must reduce the violence of the fever, prevent the derangements in connexion with the nervous centres, a.s.suage the thirst, empty the stomachs and intestines, which will be the princ.i.p.al seat of the complaint, and sometimes let blood.

But how are you to obtain these results? By abolis.h.i.+ng the solid feeding, which is easily done, since the animal has lost his appet.i.te.

Give him to drink, three or four times a day, half a pailful of a decoction of good hay, adding thereto a sprinkling of salt; or a decoction of wall-wort, with a drachm of nitrate of potash; or water whitened with bran and flour, or whey, with a little vinegar. If the animal has a tendency to cold, if he coughs, if his breathing is oppressed, give him warm drinks, consisting of an infusion of mallow leaves and borage, or else a light decoction of barley and oats, and cover the animal's body warmly over.

Now, with respect to purgatives: give the animal, night and morning, according to the effect produced, 6 or 8 ounces of Epsom salts (sulphate of magnesia), or an equal dose of Glauber's salt (sulphate of soda), dissolved in two pints of honey-coloured water; or 12 ounces of linseed oil in some warm drink; or a decoction of senna leaves and prunes, with an ounce of sulphate of soda added thereto.

We might point out a larger number of purgatives, but we shall desist from so doing. Those which we have just prescribed, not being irritant to the intestines, are the best which can be employed.

If the animal is very restive, if he pa.s.ses through alternate fits of dejection, stupor, and great excitement, you must have recourse to bleeding, particularly local bleeding, by opening the small veins of the head. If the excitement does not abate you must add, night and morning, to one of his drinks, 2 grains of extract of belladonna, or a half ounce of powdered belladonna leaves. If the fever, at first, is irregular, and tends to become malignant, you must then have recourse to sulphate of quinine, 20 grains in the morning, and the same quant.i.ty during the day.

When the disease is princ.i.p.ally seated in the lungs, add to one of the pectoral drinks 4 ounces of oxymel of squills, and 2 grains of opium, giving also an emetic--5 grains of tartar-emetic to 4 pints of water--to be taken in four times, at intervals of two hours.

Whilst this medication is applied to the internal organs, let the animal have unusual care taken of him; let his head be washed several times a day with vinegar and water.