other organs. At various times it has prevailed extensively over
different parts of the world, more especially during the 18th and
19th centuries. Perhaps one of the most widespread outbreaks
recorded was that of 1872, on the American continent. It usually
radiates from the district in which it first appears. The symptoms
have been enumerated as follows: sudden attack, marked by extreme
debility and stupor, with increased body-temperature, quick
weak pulse, rigors and cold extremities. The head is pendent, the
eyelids swollen and half closed, eyes lustreless, and tears often
flowing down the face. There is great disinclination to move; the
body sways on the animal attempting to walk; and the limb-joints
crack. The appetite is lost and the mouth is hot and dry; the
bowels are constipated and the urine scanty and high-coloured;
there is nearly always a deep, painful and harassing cough; on
auscultation of the chest, crepitation or harsh blowing sounds are
audible; and the membrane lining the eyelids and nose assumes
either a bright pink colour or a dull leaden hue. A white, yellowish
or greenish-coloured discharge flows from the nostrils. In a few
days the fever and other symptoms subside, and convalescence
rapidly sets in. In unfavourable cases the fever increases, as well
as the prostration, the breathing becomes laboured, the cough more
painful and deep, and auscultation and percussion indicate that the
lungs are seriously involved, with perhaps the pleura or the heart.
Clots sometimes form in the latter organ, and quickly bring about a
fatal termination. When the lungs do not suffer, the bowels may,
and with this complication there are, in addition to the stupor and
torpor, tension and tenderness of the abdominal walls when pressed
upon, manifestations of colic, great thirst, a coated tongue; yellowness
of the membranes of nose and eyes, high-coloured urine, constipation,
and dry faeces covered with mucus. Sometimes
rheumatic swelling and tenderness takes place in the muscles and joints
of the limbs, which may persist for a long time, often shifting from
leg to leg, and involving the sheaths of tendons. At other times
acute inflammation of the eyes supervenes, or even paralysis.
In this disease good nursing is the chief factor in the treatment. Comfortable, clean and airy stables or loose-boxes should be provided, and the warmth of the body and limbs maintained. Cold and damp, foul air and uncleanliness, are as inimical to health and as antagonistic to recovery as in the case of mankind. In influenza it has been generally found that the less medicine the sick animal receives the more likely it is to recover. Nevertheless, it may be necessary to adopt such medical measures as the following. For constipation administer enemata of warm water or give a dose of linseed oil or salines. For fever give quinine or mild febrifuge diuretics (as liquor of acetate of ammonia or spirit of nitrous ether), and, if there is cough or nervous excitement, anodynes (such as extract of belladonna). When the fever subsides and the prostration is great, it may be necessary to give stimulants (carbonate of ammonia, nitrous ether, aromatic ammonia) and tonics, both vegetable (gentian, quassia, calumba) and mineral (iron, copper, arsenic). Some veterinary surgeons administer large and frequent doses of quinine from the onset of the disease, and, it is asserted, with excellent effect. If the abdominal organs are chiefly involved, demulcents may supplement the above (linseed boiled to a jelly, to which salt may be added, is the most convenient and best), and drugs to allay pain (as opium and chloral hydrate). Olive oil is a safe laxative in such cases. When nervous symptoms are manifested, it may be necessary to apply wet cloths and vinegar to the head and neck; even blisters to the neck have been recommended. Bromide of potassium has been beneficially employed. To combat inflammation of the throat, chest or abdomen, counter-irritants may be resorted to, such as mustard, soap liniment or the ordinary white liniment composed of oil of turpentine, solution of ammonia and olive oil. The food should be soft mashes and gruel of oatmeal, with carrots and green food, and small and frequent quantities of scalded oats in addition when convalescence has been established.
Dourine, maladie du coit, or covering disease of horses, is a contagious malady caused by the Trypanosoma equiperdum, and Dourine, or covering disease. characterized by specific lesions of the male and female genital organs, the lymphatic and central nervous systems. It occurs in Arabia and continental Europe, and has recently been carried from France to the United States of America (Montana, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Iowa and Illinois) and to Canada. In some of its features it resembles human syphilis, and it is propagated in the same manner. From one to ten days after coitus, or in the stallion not infrequently after some weeks, there is irritation, swelling and a livid redness of the external organs of generation (in stallions the penis may shrink), followed by unhealthy ulcers, which appear in successive crops, often at considerable intervals. In mares these are near the clitoris, which is frequently erected, and the animals rub and switch the tail about, betraying uneasiness. In horses the eruption is on the penis and sheath. In the milder forms there is little constitutional disturbance, and the patients may recover in a period varying from two weeks to two months. In the severe forms the local swelling increases by intermittent steps. In the mare the vulva is the seat of a deep violet congestion and extensive ulceration; pustules appear on the perineum, tail and between the thighs; the lips of the vulva are parted, exposing the irregular, nodular, puckered, ulcerated and lardaceous-looking mucous mermbrane. If the mare happen to be pregnant, abortion occurs. In all cases emaciation sets in; lameness of one or more limbs occurs; great debility is manifested, and this runs on to paralysis, when death ensues after a miserable existence of from four or five months to two years. In horses swelling of the sheath may be the only symptom for a long time, even for a year. Then there may follow dark patches of extravasated blood on or swellings of the penis; the testicles may become tumefied; a dropsical engorgement extends forward beneath the abdomen and chest; the lymphatic glands in different parts of the body may be enlarged; pustules and ulcers appear on the skin; there is a discharge from the eyes and nose; emaciation becomes extreme; a weak and vacillating movement of the posterior limbs gradually increases, as in the mare, to paralysis; and after from three months to three years death puts an end to loathsomeness and great suffering. This malady appears to be spread only by the act of coition. The indications for its suppression and extinction are therefore obvious. They are (1) to prevent diseased animals coming into actual contact, especially per coitum, with healthy ones; (2) to destroy the infected; and (3) as an additional precautionary measure, to thoroughly cleanse and disinfect the stables, clothing, utensils and implements used for the sick horse. Various medicines have been tried in the treatment of slowly developing cases of dourine, and the most successful remedy is atoxyl—a preparation of arsenic.
Horse-pox, which is somewhat rare, is almost, if not quite, identical with cow-pox, being indistinguishable when inoculated on men Horse-pox. and cattle. It most frequently attacks the limbs, though it may appear on the face and other parts of the body. There is usually slight fever; then swelling, heat and tenderness are manifest in the part which is to be the seat of eruption, usually the heels; firm nodules form, increasing to one-third or one-half an inch in diameter; the hair becomes erect; and the skin, if light-coloured, changes to an intense red. On the ninth to the twelfth day a limpid fluid oozes from the surface and mats the hairs together in yellowish scabs; when one of these is removed, there is seen a red, raw depression, whereon the scab was fixed. In three or four days the crusts fall off, and the sores heal spontaneously. No medical treatment is needed, cleanliness being requisite to prevent the pocks becoming sloughs. If the inflammation runs high, a weak solution of carbolic acid may be employed.
Diseases of Cattle.
The diseases of the bovine species are not so numerous as those of the horse, and the more acute contagious maladies are dealt with under Rinderpest and other articles already mentioned.
Tuberculosis is a most formidable and widespread disease of cattle, and it is assuming greater proportions every year, in Tuberculosis. consequence of the absence of legislative measures for its suppression. It is a specific disease, contracted through cohabitation, and caused by the Bacillus tuberculosis, discovered by Koch in 1882. Infection takes place by inhalation of the bacilli or their spores, derived from the dried expectorate or other discharges of tuberculous animals; by ingestion of the bacilli carried in food, milk or water, or by inoculation of a wound of the skin or of a mucous or serous membrane. Occasionally the disease is transmitted by an infected female to the foetus in utero. Its infective properties and communicability to other species render it a serious danger to mankind through the consumption of the milk or flesh of tuberculous cows. The organs chiefly involved are the lymphatic glands, lungs, liver, intestine and the serous membranes—the characteristic tubercles or “grapes” varying in size from a millet seed to immense masses weighing several pounds. The large diffused nodular growths are found principally in the chest and abdomen attached to the membranes lining these cavities.
The symptoms somewhat resemble those of contagious pleuro-pneumonia (q.v.) in its chronic form, though tubercles, sometimes in large numbers, are often found after death in the bodies of cattle which exhibited no sign of illness during life and which when killed were in excellent condition. When the lungs are extensively involved there are signs of constitutional disturbance, irregular appetite, fever, difficult breathing, dry cough, diarrhoea, wasting and debility, with enlarged throat glands, and, in milch cows, variation in the quantity of milk. Auscultation of the chest discovers dullness or absence of respiratory sounds over the affected parts of the lungs. If the animal is not killed it becomes more and more emaciated from anaemia, respiratory difficulty, defective nutrition and profuse diarrhoea. Tuberculosis of the mammary glands usually begins as a slowly developing, painless, nodular induration of one quarter of the udder. The milk at first may be normal in quantity and quality, but later it becomes thin or watery and assumes a blue tint. Cattle with tubercular lesions unaltered by retrogressive changes may appear to be in an ordinary state of health, and in such animals the existence of the disease can only be discovered by resorting to the tuberculin test. Tuberculin, as prepared for the purpose of diagnosis, is a sterilized culture of tubercle bacilli, and when employed with proper precautions it causes a marked rise of temperature in affected cattle, but in
