Ilibraryofcongress.I # # f [SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] f ^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. \ FIRST AND SECOND EEPORTS SPECIAL COMMITTEE APPOINTED BT THE EXECIITIYE BOARD ■^N. T. STATE AGRICULTUEAL SOCIETY, STATISTICS, PATHOLOGY AND TREATMENT OF THE EPIZOOTIC DISEASE KNOWN AS THE IIII^DEIII>EST V^'^^ ALBANY: WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1867. New York State Agricultural Society,) Annual Meeting, February 15th, 1866. \ Mr. JuDD, as Chairman of the Special Committee appointed on the subject of the Kinderpest, presented the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted : Besolved, That the Executive Committee of the New York State Agricultural Society are requested to give special attention to the progress ot the Rinderpest in foreign countries, and to the danger of its introduction here. That they be empowered to use such measures as they may deem expedient for obtaining and publishing information in regard to the ravages and char- acter of the disease, preventives and remedies to be used, etc., and that if, in their judgment, it at any time appears necessary or desirable, they are authorized to employ one or more competent persons to make investigations and procure reliable information either at home or abroad. Executive Board, Felruary 15^^^ 1866. Mr. Conger moved the following resolution, prefacing its presentation with the expression of his desire that the President of the Society might be named as Chairman : Besolved, That the subject of the Rinderpest be referred to a committee of five to prepare from foreign papers and other sources a general outline of the statistics and pathological character of the disease, with such suggestions as to remedial or preventive methods, as may be deemed advis- able for the farmers of the State to pursue in the treatment of the disease, in the event of its appearance in this country during the ensuing year. The resolution was adopted, and the President, Mr. Gould, Hon. A. B. Conger, Dr. JuLiEN T. Williams, L. H. Tucker and M. C. Weld were appointed the Committee. FIRST REPORT. New Yoek State Agricultural Society, ) Executive Board, March 2Qth, 1866, f The committee of the Society appointed to investigate the statis- tics and. pathology of the Rinderpest, and to suggest preventive and remedial methods for the protection of the State from its ravages, beg leave, by way of preliminary report, and in brief outline, to submit to the consideration of the Executive Board, those facts and conclusions which, in the judgment of the committee, justify the establishment by law of an efficient system of sanitary measures to prevent the intro- duction and dissemination of this terrific malady. Your committee have had access to many foi-eign journals, agricul- tural and medical, which in every issue are filled with statements of the destructive career of this plague, and mostly, with humiliating admissions of general failure to arrest its spread or establish any efficient system of cure. Your committee have also been favored through the Secretary of the Society, with copies of the first and second reports of the commissioners, appointed by Royal Commis- sion to investigate the origin and nature of the cattle j)lague ; and the reports prepared on the pathological appearances and symptoms of the disease by Dr. Smart, of Edinburgh, which were with great kindness and dispatch forwarded to the Secretary by Prof John Wilson, F. R. S. E., Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh. It appears that as far back as October 21st, 1865, a period of rather more than four months after the introduction of this disease into Islington, 14,083 animals had been attacked; 6,711 had died; 5,119 slaughtered ; only 707 had recovered, and 1,546 remained under treatment. Since that time the statistics of enumerated cases had disclosed the appalling figures of 9,120 attacked in one week, ending 4 RINDEEPEST. January 6th, 1866, and at a later period over 13,000 in one week ; in all, officially reported up to January 27th last, 120,740, It is believed, however, that at least two hundred thousand animals infected with this plague had been destroyed. Although at the last accounts, the rate of mortality had decreased, still the highest proportion of recov- eries was only twelve in each one hundred cases. In Belgium, where a vigorous system of quarantine had been insti- tuted, and immediate slaughter of animals suspected to be suffering with the premonitory symptoms secured ; only three hundred and six cases occurred, seventeen of which died, the rest being summarily disposed of by public authority. One case lately occurred at Ant- werp, being traced to a smuggled cow. The market was at once closed, and all egress of cattle prohibited until further orders. The plague was thus successfully checked and Belgium has been free from its ravages ever since. The disease entered France by one animal bought at Malines, and was arrested by the sacrifice of forty-three head of cattle. In Novem- ber last, at the Jardin d' Acclimation, it made its appearance in the case of two gazelles, brought from India, which had been for three days in London. It spread rapidly among other animals at the gar- den, but was suppressed by the destruction of thirty-five ruminants of different species. In Prussia, which has a long line of frontier, and is therefore greatly exposed from surrounding territory, where the disease has made exten- sive havoc, it has been kept at bay by the most determined action and instantaneous use of the knife. Aberdeenshire, in Scotland, a county containing' 150,000 head of cattle, adopting at the start a policy different from that pursued in England, has been quite exempt. It maintained a strict quarantine, and authorized summary destruction of all animals infected, under a system of compensation to the owners. Out of a fund of £3,000, raised by private subscription, £1,400 remained unexpended. Other parts of Scotland, which have neglected the precautions adopted in Aberdeen, have been frightfully devastated. Ireland, under a like system, principally of quarantine, established also with reference to persons employed about diseased cattle, has been untouched with these calamities. The disease appears, from these statistics, and by a general admis- sion of all writers on the subject, to be not only of a fatal, but of a highly infectious and contagious character. It is not only propagated in animals of the bovine race from one to another, but also to all classes of ruminants. The contagion is also conveyed in the clothes FIRST EEPOKT. O and by the persons of those employed in taking care of, or even of inspecting the diseased subjects. No remedial agencies have as yet been discovered which would justify for one moment the abandon- ment or neglect of preventive measures. Public policy and private interest alike demand that the pest should, if possible, be stamped out. Your committee believe that the introduction of this disease into the State of New York, which contains over two millions of horned beasts and three millions of sheep, with no sanitary regulations estab- lished by law for its suppression, would result, if the ratio of mortality should be equal to that in England, in a loss to the people of this State of at least five millions of dollars. Your committee, therefore, recommend that the Society should present a memorial to the Legislature, invoking in behalf of the great interests of the farmers of this State, summary and efficient action by which the disease may be prevented from coming within the borders of the State, and for its extirpation in any locality where it may, by possibility, be introduced ; and to this end have prepared a draft of a bill* to be presented to the Legislature for its approval. AN ACT to prevent the introduction and spread of the disease known as the Rinderpest, and for the protection of the flocks and herds of sheep and cattle in this State, from destruction by this and other infectious diseases. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : Section 1. It shall be the duty of the health officer of the port of New York, in addition to the duties now imposed on him by existing law, to examine and inquire whether any animals are brought in any vessels arriving at said port in violation of any regulation of law passed by the Congress of the United States prohibiting the importation of such animals. § 2. Whenever any animal is brought as a ship's cow, with no intention of landing the same or of violating any such law or regulation of Congress as afore- said, the same shall be carefully examined and kept in quarantine for the space of at least twenty-one days, and if any symptoms of the infection or incubation of the disease commonly known as the rinderpest, or of any other infectious or contagious disease, shall present themselves, it shall be the duty of the said health officer ♦The bill prepared by the committee was, at the requestor the Society, introduced' into the Secate on the 31st day of March, by the Hon. Ezra Cornell, ex-President of the Society, and with slight amendments, became a law, being passed on the 20th of April, three-fifths being present ; a copy of the law, as passed, being given in the- text. 6 BINDEEPEST, immediately to cause the said animal or animals to be slaughtered, and their remains boxed with a sufficient quantity of quick lime, sulphate of iron or other disinfectant, and with sufficient weights placed in said box to prevent the same from floating, and to be cast into the waters of the said port. It shall also be his duty to cleanse and disinfect by suitable agencies, the berth or section of the ship in which said animal or animals were lying or slaughtered, and also to cause the clothing and persons of all taking care of the same or engaged in such slaughter and burial, to be cleansed and disinfected. § 3. William Kelly, of Dutchess county, Marsena R. Patrick, of Ontario county, and Lewis F. Allen, of Erie county, are hereby appointed as commissioners under this act, and with powers and duties as hereinafter enumerated. § 4, In the event of any such disease as the rinderpest or any infectious disease of cattle or sheep breaking out or being suspected to exist in any locality in this State, it shall be the duty of all persons owning or having any interest whatever in the said cattle, immediately to notify the said commissioners or any one of them of the existence of such disease ; whereupon the said commissioners shall establish a sanitary cordon around such locality. And thereupon it shall be the duty of the said commissioners to appoint an assistant commissioner for such dis. trict, with all powers conferred by this act on the said commissioners or their agents or appointees, which said assistant commissioner shall immediately proceed to the place or places where such disease is reported to exist, and cause the said animal or animals to be separated from all connection or proximity with or to all other animals of the ruminant order, and take such other precautionary measures as shall be deemed necessary ; and if, in his opinion, the said disease shall be incurable or threaten to spread, to cause the animals aforesaid immediately to be slaughtered, their remains to be deeply buried, and all places in which the said animals have been confined or kept, to be cleansed and disinfected by any of the agencies above mentioned ; and also to cause the same to be carefully locked or barred so as to prevent all access to the same by any animals of a like kind for a period of at least one month. Any animal thus slaughtered shall be appraised under the supervision of said commissioners, and one-half of the value of said animal shall be paid by the State to the owner thereof. § 5. It shall be the duty of the said assistant commissioner, immediately on his being notified of his appointment, or at any time thereafter, of the breaking out of the said disease in any place contiguous to the same and within the county in which he resides, to give public notice of the same, in at least one newspaper printed or published in the said county, and to cause notices to be posted up in at least five conspicuous places in said neighborbood ; and it shall be his duty to enjoin, in said notice and otherwise, all persons concerned in the care or supervision of neat cattle or sheep, not to come within one hundred feet of the said locality without the special permission of the said assistant commissioner. § 6. It shall be the duty of the commissioners appointed under this act, whenever they are advised that any such disease has made its appearance within the limits of the State, to publish in the State paper and in at least one paper published in FIEST EEPOET. 7 any county where sucli disease exists, a statement of tlie methods approved by the New York State Agricultural Society for the treatment of cattle affected therewith, for the isolation of the same, for the disinfection of the premises or buildings in which said cattle are found affected as aforesaid, and for the preven- tion of the spread of the same through any agencies of whatever kind. § 7. The commissioners aforesaid and all such assistants as they may appoint, whenever in their j udgment or discretion it shall appear in any case that the dis ease is not likely to yeld to any remedial treatment, or whenever it shall seem that the cost or worth of any such remedial treatment shall be greater than the value of any animal or animals so affected, or whenever in any case such disease shall assume such form of malignity as shall threaten its spread by processes either con- tagious or infectious, or otherwise, are hereby empowered to cause the said animals to be slaughtered forthwith and buried, as above provided, and to do all such things as are mentioned in the fourth section of this act. § 8. The said commissioners or their assistants are hereby empowered to enter upon and take possession of all premises or parts thereof where cattle so affected as aforesaid are found, and to cause the said cattle to be confined in suitable inclos- ures or buildings for any time requisite in the judgment of the said commission- ers or their assistants, and prior to the slaughter and burial of the said animals and the full and complete disinfecting and cleansing of such premises ; and all persons, whether owners of, or interested in such cattle or otherwise, who shall resist, impede or hinder the said commissioners or their assistants in the execu, tion of their duties under this act, shall be deemed guilty, and on conviction of the same, of a misdemeanor, and shall be punishable with fine not exceeding one thou- sand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding the term of six months, or of both, in the discretion of the court before which they shall be adjudged guilty as aforesaid. § 9. The commissioners shall have power to establish all such quarantine or other regulations as they may deem necessary to prevent the spread of the disease or its transit in railroad cars, by vessels or by driving along the public highways ; and it shall be proper for the Governor of the State, by public proclamation as aforesaid, to enjoin all persons concerned or engaged in the traffic or transit of cattle or sheep, not to enter upon any places or take therefrom any such animal or to pass through any such locality, and within such distances from the same as in the said proclamation may be prescribed. § 10. The sum of one thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated to pay to the said commissioners for their services while actually engaged in the duties enjoined upon them in this act, at the rate of five dollars per day to each, and such further sums as may amount to their actual expenditures in traveling to and from the places they may be called upon to inspect or visit, and in the printing or publishing of all regulations or notices mentioned in this act. And the further sum of fifteen thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated, to pay for animals slaughtered by the provisions of this act, and the Comptroller is hereby directed to pay for the same on the warrant of the said commissioners. 8 EINDEEPEST. § 11. The assistant commissioners are to receive for each, and every day while actually engaged in duties provided by this act, the sum of three dollars per day, and all actual expenses and disbursements paid or incurred in the discharge of their duties as aforesaid, which said sums shall be a charge upon the county for which he is appointed, and shall, when duly audited by the board of supervisors of the said county, be paid by the county treasurer. § 13. The slaughtering of animals for beef after having been exposed to the con- tagion, or supposed to have been so exposed, may be permitted by the commis- sioners or prohibited by them, as they may judge proper. § 13. This act shall take effect immediately, and shall continue in force for one year. SECOND REPORT. New Yokk State Agricultural Rooms, ) Albany, Jxme \bth, 1866. ) The Committee of the Executive Board, in presenting their report on the remaining portion of the subject of the Rinderpest as referred to them, desire to acknowledge access to various other publications and treatises, on this and kindred diseases, than those mentioned in their preliminary report. Of these they would especially notice the essay of Layard, on the distemper of 1745-57 ; the report of Jessekt (now Counsellor of State and Director and Professor of the Veterin- ary College of Charkow) to the Russian Government, on the results of inoculation as a method of cure and extirpation of the disease ; the inquiry into the Pathology and Treatment of the Cattle Plague, by Alfred C. Pope, Esq., and the Sequel to the Report made to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Others are referred to in the body of the report. They ought not, to overlook the elaborate treatise of John Gamgbe, Principal of the Albert Veterinary College, London, &c., although the greater portion of this report was prepared for the press before access to his work. It exhibits large research and is of the highest value, when detailing his own independent observations or the investigations of others of equal science and repute. In addition to the topics dis- cussed by other writers, this volume contains the debates of ,the International Veterinary Congresses (held at Hamburg in 1863, and at Vienna in 1865), on quarantine, diseases of cattle requiring police regulation, &c. Appended are papers by Drs. Beale and Cobbold on the entozoa found in the muscles after death, &c. It will be seen that we have drawn upon this volume by copious notes; that in our discussion of the pathology frequent reference has been made to Gamgee's observations and those of his co-adjutors ; and that under the head of treatment, one of his remarkable experiments has been employed, as we trust, after a method which may result in robbing this plague of some of its terrors. Of the works referred to in the first report, that of Dr. Smart, of Edinburgh, with its splendid pathological illustrations, has been most 2 10 RINDERPEST. invaluable to your committee in the delineation of symptoms and morbid anatomy. These illustrations, with many of those of Jessek and Gamgee, have been copied and re-arranged, and will, doubtless, in their reprint, confirm to the eye of the reader the marked struc- tural lesions of this disease. Careful examinations have also been made of the description of the pathological lesions in cholera by Perigoff, and of those of diseases generally by Lebeet and others, in order, if possible, to attain some basis on which to rest the comparative pathology of the Pest. A masterly article by Egan, of Pesth, a practical agriculturist (jBConom) of Hungary, who has had a large experience in the man- ageinent of cattle and the treatment of this and other diseases which are rife in that region, is appended to the second report of the Royal Commissioners. It is to be regretted, that only that part of the article, as prepared by him, touching the Rinderpest, was forwarded by Lord Bloomfield for the use of the English Commission, as it is believed that Egan's discussion of the various forms of Anthrax, and of the Epizootic known in Hungary as the blood plague, would have thrown additional light on some portion of the labors of your committee. With the materials before them, your committee have encountered a vast mass of variant statements and conflicting opinions as to observed phenomena, whether referring to symptoms, diagnostic signs, preventive or remedial agencies. Your committee have desired that their labors might lessen this confusion, and have aimed, in their classification of the various symptoms, to present the disease in its leading characteristics. Pursuing such a course, and seeking aid from the most recent investigations made by modern science on the action of blood-poisons and fungoid germs, your committee hope that their labors* may be of essential service to the Society, and through it to the State Commissioners, to whom, in the event of an outbreak of the Pest in this State, such vast interests have been intrusted. In behalf of the committee, A. B. CONGER. *Much care has 156611 given in the revision of the processes of Mr. Tolle, the artist, to whose skill the lithographing in colors of the illustrations, has been committed. The time occupied in the attempt to make them faithful copies of the originals, the happy freedom which this country has enjoyed from any outbreak of this fearful pest, the desire of allaying apprehensions too easily excited, and the necessity of reprinting a large portion of the text to conform with the size (8 vo.) of the plates stricken off at a large expense, will account, in some measure, for the delay in issuing to members of the society, copies of this Second Report. EIISTDERPEST, ITS HISTORY, PATHOLOGY AND TEEATMENT. Diseases of animals are either epizootic or enzootic. This classification corresponds to that of the maladies which affect the human race, epidemic and endemic. The former of each class have been defined as dependent upon ov originating in some particular condition (constitu- tioaeris) of the atmosphere, and as attacking a num'ber of indi- viduals at the same time. Thus they differ from the latter of each class, which are described as of purely local origin, at least in the first instance, and as comparatively limited or isolated in their development. Diseases, however, that are at first endemic or enzootic, may break out at a time when their diffusion is favored by currents of the atmosphere ; when its condition by lowering the tone increases the susceptibility of the patient ; or when chemical or other changes affect its normal constitution, and so develop fresh food for the local malaria. Then, these dis- eases become epidemic or epizootic. Most of such diseases exhibit this further peculiarity of de- veloping in their course a malignant virus or miasm (per- chance infinitesimal germs, with all the subtle rancor and prolific power of a fungous growth), which spread through or float on the atmosphere, intensifying the original power of the ^^materies morhi,^^ whether originally local or not, and thus these maladies are infectious. But frequently it happens that the poison may be propagated by touch or direct applica- 12 EINDEEPEST. tion to absorbent surfaces, by inoculation or the like, and thus the disease may be not only infectious, but contagious also.* We do not present this distinction as disposed to cope with any of the vexed questions in the schools, but simply (as the sequel will show the Einderpest to be capable of prop- agation by both methods) to guard, in the case of this disease at least, against the erroneous impression that it must be communicable, if at all, in one way or the other, and cannot be by both. Before, however, demonstrating that the great variety of observed facts do not sustain any such delusive view, it is desirable to trace the pest from its earliest appear- ance to its present formidable development in Great Britain. I. HISTORY. The Rinderpest had its origin on the Asiatic part of the steppes of Eussia, more, it is said, than one thousand years ago, and in the times of Charles the Great. These steppes (from the Eussian word "step," signifying a desert or dry plain) are natural feeding grounds, not unlike the lands of . Guienne in France, the heaths of l^orthern Germany, and in many respects like the prairies of the Great West. In these steppes are now roving from eight to ten millions of cattle, more than half being reserved for market as fat cattle. Though the greater part of these immense ranges is more or less arid, that portion of the Asiatic steppe between the rivers Yolga and Don is marshy and generally accounted to be the local source of the infection. Be this as it may, no part of the steppes, or it is said of Southern Eussia (and the same may be affirmed of the Hungarian steppes, stretching * The absence of any verb in tbe English language corresponding to the term contagion accounts for the use of the verb "infect," as indicative of the action of contagion as well as infection; hence these terms are frequently used as synonymous. Physiologists recognize the distinction aimed at in the test, though some using infection or contagion convertibly, attempt to make the necessary classification as immediate or mediate, contactual or remote. This may serve for such diseases, on the one hand, as syphilis, framboesia, lepra, itch and the like, or for diseases transmissible from the lower animals, as hydrophobia, and on the other hand, for influ- enza, malarious or other fevers, &c. But it does not serve as well as the distinction in the text for diseases whose poisonous principle is equally efficient, whether by immediate application to the skin, &c., or by absorption through the atmosphere ; as, for example, small-pox, hospital gangrene, plague, &c., or of glanders, as an instance of transmissible disease. ■ HISTORY. 13 from Yienna eastward of Pestli) is wholly free at any time from this noxious distemper, although there are long periods when it is measurably kept in abeyance. We may venture to doubt the reliability of the assertions made in regard to the antiquity of this pest in the steppes, because Professor Simonds admits, in his testimony before the Eoyal Commission (1st Eep., p. 7), that no symptoms of the disease, as it is said to have shown itself in the mediaeval period, are sufficiently described to identify it with the malady as now existent. When the records of its identity were first made, or where they are to be found, we are at a loss to divine. We have met with no elucidation of these topics, nor of the kindred inquiry, whether the present dis- ease is, by a law of modification operating from age to age, presenting, during its present cycle, a new phase or a totally distinct manifestation. And yet it is clear, that those who hold the theory of identity, if baffled in its maintenance by symptoms and morbid phenomena which show variance and disparity not only in degree but in kind, should be prepared to defend the theory of transition from one species of viru- lent brooding disease to another. But of this anon, when we come to the pathological investigation of the Pest. As to its origin or its native home we are in less doubt. Professor Eenault, president of the veterinary school of Alfort, in his memoir to the French minister of agriculture, has, after a thorough investigation, established the fact that this steppe-murrain never broke out spontaneously {i. e. as an enzootic) in any country or locality but that of the Eussian steppes, and, as we have before intimated, in the Asiatic part thereof. He also asserts that its transmission to other parts of the civilized world has been directly by cattle contaminated with the poison when they left their native pastures ; poison, as we may suppose, if not already brought in contact with the blood-corpuscles, at least lying ensconced in hair or on hoof, furtively awaiting the fatal lick or smell that ensures its ab- sorption by the system. It is very easy to imagine how a virus of this sort might, on this theory, work out all the 14 EINDEEPEST. terrible ravages that have actually resulted, when we under- stand that these cattle are moved from their pastures in immense droves, sometimes numbering one hundred thou- sand, and how, as they migrate towards the southern and western borders of Russia, developing and leaving behind them poisonous excretions, they thus distribute the plague throughout Poland, Galicia and Hungary. Thence the x>as- sage to Western Europe is comparatively easy, unless the cordon has been -tightly drawn or the pole-axe vigorously swung. Thanks to such methods established by decrees at Berlin during the present century, the disease has never (says Prof. Gerlach, 1st Eep., p. 25), when it has broken out in Poland, and sometimes appeared in Posen, Silesia and East Prussia, advanced since 1815 as far west as Brandenburgh. In 1841 it penetrated into Egypt by cattle bought by the Pacha from Annatolia and Karamania, resulting in the deso- lating loss to that country of 350,000 cattle. During the Crimean war, and by the infection brought by Russian cattle into the Crimea, it was there fully developed; the French losing at Samsoun 8,000 out of 17,500 beasts, and the Eng- lish 4,000 out of 10,000, a loss ranging from 40 to 45 per cent.^ The mortality in some parts of Europe has risen to 94 per cent., and in some local ties not a single animal was saved.* As the present apprehension of the outbreak of this plague in this country has arisen from its recent spread in England and Scotland, we will now present an outline of its rise and proi^agation in those kingdoms. It is generally known in this country that the farmers of Great Britain do not raise food enough for its population. But it may surprise many to learn that the annual value of produce imported, to supply this deficiency, is estimated on very accurate data, at upwards of forty millions of pounds sterling. It is believed that the prominent items in this * The number attacked in the Austrian dominions was 296,000, of which 152,000 died. In 1863 it again invaded Galicia (in which Country Prof. Simonds first saw the disease in 1857), Hungary and its dependencies, fourteen per cent of all the cattle in those countries taking the infection, and the average mortality as given in Schmidt's Jahrbuch for 1865 was as follows : Hungary, 65 per cent ; East Galicia, 77 per cent; Croatia and Slavonia, 81.6 per cent ; Military Frontier 83 per cent ; Moravia, 88 per cent ; Lower Austria, 92 per cent ; West Galicia, 94 per cent ; Burowina and Styria (in which but a comparatively small number were attacked), 100 per cent. (Ist Eep., p. 11.) HISTORY. 15 extraordinary expenditure consist of cattle, meat, butter, poultry, &c. Most of the beef class of imports come through Holland and Belgium. Prior to 1865 but one Importation direct from Eussia is known to have been made into any port of Great Britain, and this into that of London on 4th July, 1860. But indirectly large numbers of Hungarian and Gali- cian cattle have been brought to English markets ; more of late years, as the completion of two great lines of railroads, which traverse Central and Southern Germany, and connect Hamburg and Rotterdam with Vienna and Lemburg, furnish quick transit for these supplies. (See 1st Eeport, p. 7.) The immunity which England has enjoyed, prior to 1865, in such importations, is traceable to the rigorous police measures established in Western Europe, and to the fact that the incubative stage of the Rinderpest rarely extends beyond a week. But it seems that two importers of cattle, Messrs. Honck and Baker were induced by the representations of a Mr. Burchell, who subsequently acted as their agent, and, in expectation of a profit of one hundred per cent, to make a contract with the Esthonian Agricultural Societj^ for a. large number of sheep and cattle ; the latter to weigh at least one thousand pounds each, and to be delivered at Revel after the ice had broken up in the Baltic. As some of the beeves offered did not come up to the contract weight, forty-six were sent down from the neighborhood of St. Petersburg, from which the agent was to choose. These being on their arrival much bruised, having been transported in four-horse wagons, and deemed by him not fit for the London market, three experts or judges were appointed by the local magistrates to say how many were in a suitable condition to take ; and thirteen were so adjudged. These, with the Esthonian cattle which passed muster, made in all three hundred and twenty- two ; but as one died in the yard before shipment, only three hundred and twenty-one sailed from Revel, on the 22d day of May, 1865, in the " Tonning." This steam vessel landed at Copenhagen to await orders whether, in view of the then state of the markets, the owners desired her to proceed to 16 EINDEEPEST. London, Hull, or any other ports, and in obedience to instruc- tions slie put in for Hull ; at which place she discharged, on the 28th day of May, three hundred and twenty cattle seemingly sound, and one which had sickened on the passage.* One hundred and forty-six of this number were sold for immediate slaughter at three different market towns, from none of which has any disease been traced ; twenty were picked out by Mr. Baker to go to Gosport for like use and with a like result. The remaining one hundred and fifty-five arrived at London on 29th or 30th day of May, were placed in Mr. Honck's lairs, and sold in the Metropolitan market on the 1st of June. On inquiries addressed by the Eoyal Commission to the purchasers of these animals, they were all sound beef when slaughtered, as far as appearances could lead such judges to determine the fact. We turn for a moment to another lot of cattle which have been supposed to have had considerable agency in dissem- inating the contagion throughout England. Twenty- three head of fat cattle were sent from Schiedam, in Holland, by a Mr. Defries, to his son a salesman in the Metropolitan market, which were sent into the market on 22d, 26th and 29th days of June, twelve of them thrice, the remaining eleven only twice.* The markets of June being unusually dull, more animals than was customary were left unsold at the close of markets, and sent back to the yards where they lodged, which generally have sheddings attached, and are called lairs. This lot of twenty-three were placed in the lairs of a Mrs. Nichols at Islington, which adjoin the cattle yards used by many drovers bringing stock to the Metropo- litan markets. As the prices offered for this lot of Dutch cattle were not satisfactory, they were, on the 2d day of July, reexported to Holland. On the 27th day of June, a cow belonging to Mrs. Mchols (who had at this date a herd of ninety-three, which, with * Prof. Gamgee (in 1st Hep., 102), says that this one was kept by Mr. Burchell on brandy and water during the passage to Hull, recovered from the attack, and was sold for £11. As confirm- atory of the opinion that these animals brought down from St. Petersburg had the seeds of the Rinderpest in them, he has ascertained that a butcher at Eevel was obliged to kill thirteen of those that remained. HISTOET. 17 sixteen or seventeen more purchased subsequently, were all destroyed by Einderpest), sickened and died, as was supposed by the owner from poison. Two cows which on the 19th of June* were purchased in the Metropolitan market by a Mr. Baldwin, of Hackney, died of the same disease, one on the 29th of June, and within twenty-four hours after she was observed to be ailing ; and the other on the 5th day of July. These three cases were attended by Mr. Priestman, a vete- rinary surgeon, who with a son of Mrs. Mchols brought the stomach and intestines of a cow of the latter to Prof. Simonds at the college, on the 4th of July, for examination. The Professor was also requested to inspect the herd and the premises, which he did with great care ; had another animal killed, and took its stomach and appendages and some water from a well recently opened, to the college for examination. On the 9th day of July he was fully satisfied that these ani- mals and others reported at that date had died of the same disease which he had observed in Galicia in 1857. Twenty-one of the Defries cattle died shortly after their arrival at Schiedam, it having been observed before their departure that they were out of health. Moreover the plague was communicated to the stock of a Mr. Vandervelden, grazing in a pasture adjoiningt that in which the Defries cattle had been placed ; and the owner of the stock contam- inated in this wise had, in utter ignorance thereof, sold upwards of twenty, which were exported to Norfolk. To return to Mr. Baldwin's stock. In twelve days after his first loss his herd of twenty animals was reduced to ten, his saving up to that time of fifty per cent being attributable to the immediate slaughter of each animal on showing the first symptoms of the pest. In a brief review of these statements (as it is impossibly in this sketch, to give all the particulars which go to confirm * Prof. Gamgee states that the running from the eyes and nose, and the drooping and other primary symptoms, were observed in the marliet as early as the 14th of June, and gives the history of two Dutch cows bought there on the 19lh, which went to Lambeth Walk, and com- municated the disease in that neighborhood, one of them sickening shortly after the purchase (1st Rep., p. 103.) + Prof. Gerlach states that this pasture was full one thousand paces from that in which the Defries cattle were placed. 3 18 EINDERPEST. the conclusion) the only animals wliicli could have conveyed Eiuderpest directly to English stock were brought into the Metropolitan market; from which those that developed the contagion earliest were sent to three places, two in Eng- land and one in Holland, where it was definitely recog- nized. And although an interval of nineteen days has to be accounted for, there seems to be little difficulty in accepting the theory of Prof. Simonds (1st Eeport, 1-20), that the pesti- lence was in its state of incubation in one or more of the thirteen animals sent down from St. Petersburg to fill out the contract of the Esthonian Society ; that it was developed in the lot brought to the Metropolitan market ; thence spread to Mrs. Nichols' lairs at Islington, and to Mr. Baldwin's farm at Hackney, on or before the 20th of June, and through the Hutch cattle into Norfolk early in July. Even if the impression, as communicated by the English Oonsul-General at Hamburg (1st Eep., x>. 7), and based upon the opinion, of Mr. Schrader, a veterinary in the special employ of the Hamburg government, be correct, that the Einderpest was develoxjed by Hungarian cattle sent from Vienna to Utrecht early in May ; this would require proof of the transmission of some of these cattle, or of others infected by them, to the Metropolitan market in order to account for the earliest observed outbreaks of the plague which we have given. H true, this theory would only show a double source of infec- tion concentrating at a common j)oint and thence to be dif- fused. Suffice it to say, that in a very short space of time from its outbreak in Islington, the Einderpest appeared in ' Suffolk and Shropshire. Before the end of Julj^ it had invaded Scotland,* and by the 14th of October it had ex- tended into twenty-nine counties in England, two in Wales and sixteen in Scotland, and resulted in six months in a loss of two hundred thousand animals, and within nine months of three hundred thousand at the lowest calculation ; an enormous * Prof. Dick says that the infection in Edinburgh came from a herd of Dutch cattle brought down from London, two of which were bought by a cow-feeder named Ogg, and lodged in hia byres; and that these developed the disease on the Sth of August, all the animals Ogg had dying except the twofoi'eign cattle, which recovered. (1st Eep., p. 120.) IIISTOET. 19 havoc, resulting mainly from a neglect to establisli, as has been shown in the preliminary report, efficient sanitary cordons. It is conceded that it is by no means an easy task to trace with exactitude the subtle course of a pestilence which thus dashed with rapid and fatal strides through the herds of Great Britain as it had previously held on in its mad career on the Continent. ISTor less difficult does it seem to arrange and classify the various statements given as to the mediate instrumentalities of its spread. Too much concurrent testi- mony exists, however, of the poison being carried, on the persons and clothes of attendants, diffused by excretions from the mucous surface, the skin and the bowels of diseased subjects ; sometimes caught upon the wings of birds or cling- ing to their claws, so that falling plumes or alighting tracks might contaminate green pastures or farmsteads kept scrupu- lously clean — to cast a prudent doubt upon what would seem to partake only of the marvelous and fanciful. Proof may be deficient to show that in many cases the pest has been com- municated, as some have affirmed, through the antennae of flies crowding together on the glairy mucus exuding from eyes, nostrils or vagina ; or conveyed on the hair or feet of horses, cattle or dogs beyond the limits of developed conta- gion ; or by like secondary agencies, and to a locality suf- ficiently remote, for its spread by gradual or ordinary diffnsion. Yet it is asserted on evidence seemingly beyond impeach- ment, to wit, on the statement of the Governor of Silesia to Prof. Simonds (1st Eep., p. 3), that the outbreak in that province occurred in consequence of a carpenter's ijassing surreptitiously the frontier cordon from Galicia, in order to visit his father, and incautiously mending a manger in the cow sheds ; thus communicating the seeds of the disease, which in a few days broke out in what had been prior to that time a perfecty healthy district.* * Gamgeb was assured that a common cause of wicle-spread outbreaks, was the practice .of calling priests and people together, to pray in the cattle sheds, that the plague might be sta3''ed, and the assembled people moving thence from farm do farm. He also quotes the authority of VicQ d' Azte, as to the infection of the 18th century, to show that where clothes of attendants on diseased cattle were placed on healthy ones, three animals out of six would be seized with the disease. (Cattle Plague, p. 37.) 20 BINDERPEST. Also, it is gravely stated in a communication on the nature of this disease, transmitted to Lord Bloomfield, and by him to the Home Government, that with a straw from an infected stable, half a dozen healthy stables could be infected. All such statements may be grouped together as sufiScient, if not incontestable, testimony of the ready communicability of this poison by contact, and other instrumentalities of con- tagion proper. But when we learn that it is also conveyed by currents of the atmosphere, as in instances where, for a distance of three miles, it was carried by a strong prevailing wind (the air being charged with much moisture) from byres where the disease existed, to perfectly healthy herds ; or where, from the same causes, it has overleaped all quarantine regulations, we have sufficient evidence of its dissemination by currents of the atmosphere, and thus being propagated in accordance with the laws of infection proper.* We have adduced at this time these items of evidence as to the easy and rapid diffusion of the Einderpest, in order to supply as best we may any seeming defect in the testi- mony laid before the English commission to make out the historical proof of the dissemination throughout Great Britain of the germs of this murrain from the Esthonian importation. We may thus seem to trench too rapidly upon a discussion properly pathological, and to anticipate the handling of our second main division to which we will at once proceed. * Prof. Brown gives in his testimony (1st Rep., p. 21) an account of the outbreak at Whitwell as from some beasts bought in the Metropolitan market, on the 1st of July, and its transference to Thimble Thorpe, a distance of three miles, as well as other places at leaet equally distant, where there "could not be traced any direct contagion, and no direct contact with diseased animals." He thinks it quite possible that the contagion could be carried by flies. He was also cognizant of the attack on the stock of Miss B. Coutts and Lord Granville, in pastures quite private. In the first case thei'e were diseased animals three-quarters of a mile off, and the outbreak occur- red a short time after a thunder storm, when the wind blew from the infected places. Yet sheep in an adjoining pasture had been several times in the market. In the latter case, where only seven out of one hundred and thirty remained, Mr. Panter, the -bailiff, holding to the theory that the diseases of 1865 and 1745 were the same, and with some show of consistency, because he believed that the pest broke out spontaneously in the London cow shed, during the hot weather of June ; states that the nearest place where the plague existed prior to its discovery in the stables, under his care, was 400 yards off. He states also that pleuro-pneumonia was chronic on the farm, *' Lord Granville never having been a month without it in the last four years." PATHOLOGY. 21 II. PATHOLOGY. This branch of our subject we propose to consider under the ordinary classification of Descriptive (A) and General (B), designing further to subdivide the former by treating first of the symptoms (A 1,) or descriptive appearance of the disease as it is manifested in the infected animal before recovery or death, and next of the morMd anatomy (A 2), or description of the lesions revealed by post mortem dissections. In a few cases, taken from Jessen's Eeport {Bericlit . Imp- fimgen der Rinderpest) on the results of the inoculative methods, we have for convenience given the symptoms and post mortem revelations conjointly. Further historical ref- erence to other murrains, and the consideration of their destructive characteristics as compared with the Pest, will be reserved for the general discussion. As we derive our knowledge of the symptoms and morbid anatomy of this distemper from authorities recognized as such in England and on the continent, of whom we may enumerate Smart, Wood, Simonds, A. & J. Gamgee, Simon, Pope, Gerlach, Egan and Jessen ; where there are con- flicting or independent statements, we will subjoin to such the name of each authority. (A 1.) SYMPTOMS. These will be arranged after the following classification of the several stages or periods of the disease : 1st. Incuia- tion; 2d, External symptoms; 3d. The Congestive Period; and 4th. That of Besolution. 1st Incubation. From the time of the first introduction of the poison into the system, until the development of the external symptoms, a period elapses of several days, which is known as the incu- bative stage of the disease. The time assigned by different authorities varies considerably, though there is but little doubt that we may fix this period in the majority of cases as one of six days. This is the time assigned by Smart and Wood. Egan states it from four to eight days. (2d Eep., p. 79.) 22 EINDEEPEST. The period of incubation varies according to the mode of the intro- duction of the poison ; where the disease is inoculated, I believe it is four or five days ; but where it is caught in the usual manner, from eight to ten days. (J. Simon.) In the inoculation cases which I have had, it has usually averaged from six to eight days, and not beyond that. It cannot be longer than ten days, if ever so long. (J. Gamgee.) It is seldom less than seven days, and it may be extended to foui*- teen or fifteen days, or perhajjs to a longer period than that. (Simonds, 1st Rep., p. 16.) The period of incubation is generally from five to seven days, though in rare cases it may be more. (Gerlach, from personal observ- ation, 1st Rep., p. 20.) The evidence as to the internal development of this dis- ease in its primary stage, is drawn principally from j)ost- mortem observations of animals slaughtered soon after exposure to the contagion, and attests the fearful rapidity with which it is absorbed. And first it is stated that within thirty-six or forty-eight hours after inoculation, the blood is so thoroughly contaminated that a single drop is sufficient to develop the disease in all its malignity when employed as an inoculative medium, though Gerlach states that blood is rarely, if ever used, as the secretions of the eyes, nose and mouth are, in the remedial agency of inoculation. (1st Eep., p. 20.) Invariably, in the early stage, even before the vulva and mouth have become affected, the lining membrane of the fourth stomach, and of the whole intestinal canal from that stomach downwards, shows appearance of disease. This is indicated by what is at first a mere blush of redness on the surface of the lining membrane, quite appreciable, however, when compared with the j^ale, fawn-colored appearance found in the healthy state. (Wood.) The other stomachs soon sympathize with the condition of the fourth ; the rumen or paunch, and second stomach or reti- culum, are loaded with undigested food, and the third or many-plies is impacted with a mass which assumes the form of a large, round ball, and becomes, as the disease advances, a hard, dry mass. symptoms. 23 2d. External Symptoms. As the incubative period declines, the primary symptoms visible to the eye occur in the following order : a. Loss of apiyetite^ exhibited, first in aversion to all sorts of green food, and on the following day in indifference to food of any kind. At first the animal leaves a poi'tion of its food, and then refuses it altogether. h. Rumination. The animal now ceases to chew its cud., and then there is manifest c. Constipation in its gradual development. The dung is of a dark color, sometimes covered with slime on its surface. [Many show signs of bellyache, by frequently looking round towards the tail and bending up the back.] (Egan.) d. Diminution of the flow of milk (much greater than in pleuro- pneumonia. Priestman.) External appearances are, first, 1. Depression in looks, standing in the same posture, with drooping head and reclining ears. These, with the horns and other extremities, show a loss of natural heat. 2. The first striking signs are manifest in a change of manner. Most commonly the beast is remarkably heavy and dull, hano-s its head, lowers its ears, stays behind the herd, and when in the stable keeps -away from the crib. (Egan.) Sometimes there is a shaking of the head to and fro. If you lift it up, it goes dovm again like a dead weight. (Ernes.) 3. Sometimes an animal will be excited., uneasy, shaking its head, stamping with its feet, lowing frequently, butting with its horns, and running away from the herd. If tied up in the stable, it tears away from its chain and rope, and continually endeavors to go elsewhere. (Egan.) 4. Trembling motions now occur of the head and neck; the hairs bristle up, especially on the back and towards the shoul- ders ; the insertions of the horns and ears are sometimes cold, sometimes warm ; the palate is dry ; the eyes shining, oi7s breaking forth with Mains upon man and beast." Adverting to the great plague which, after destroying, in the days of Eomulus, the fruits of the earth and cattle, swept off many of the JRomans and Laii- rentes ; quoting Livy, who identifies the disease as equally affecting men and brutes ; a recurrence of which took place A. U. 0. 355 ; Layard passes to the authority of Columella, Gesner and Aldrovandus, who described the disease as a subcutaneous disease ; makes it a plague of the same kind which destroyed " everj?^ head of cattle in Charlemagne's army, . also throughout all his dominions ;" and rallying upon the account given by Rammazini of the distemper in Germany and Italy in 1514 and 1599, winds u^) with this general expression of his historical survey : " The same countries which breed the plague and small-pox seem to have propagated this contagion. The autumnal heats in Asia or Africa, the putrid effluvia from the Nile, or from corrupted, stagnating waters, are sufficient to contaminate the blood and jnices of the cattle." (Page 13.) This presents, it is true, a theory of the identity of cattle murrains through all historic periods. As a generalization broader in its grasp than the one we are combating, we shall leave it to rest upon the evidence it briugs from the records upon which it relies ; or the imaginative skill with which the eloquent Doctor has grounded this universal pestilence on its effliuvial origin. The pathology of that which he saw, is more to our present purpose. After describing the usual GENEEAL PATHOLOGY. 47 symptoms of sudden debility which manifest themselves in most cattle affected with blood-poison or ferment of any kind, he notices : " A constant diarrhoea of fetid green faeces, a stinking breath, nau- seous steams from the skin, blood very florid, hot and frothy urine, or stale, high colored ; roofs of the mouths and barbs ulcerated, tumors or hoils felt under the panniculv.s carnosus or fleshy membrane of the skin (note reference to Rammazini and Lancisi), eruptions all along their limbs and about their bags (note reference to Aldrovandus, I, 110, De malide Subtercutanea), visible irritation during some time in ano, much groaning, symptoms aggravated in the evening, animals mostly lying down." " The symptoms continue increasing till the seventh day from the invasion, on which generally, though sometimes protracted till the ninth, the crisis takes place." Now, we will admit that some of these symptoms might present a difficulty in distinguishing between themselves and those occurring in Einderpest; but the Doctor, in his chapter on piognosis, clears up every doubt or mystery. " If, therefore, the following symptoms be observed on the seventh day from the seizure, namely, either eruptions all over the skin or boils as big as pigeon's eggs on different parts of the body, but espe- cially from the head to the tail, all along each side of the spine or back-bone and tail, so ripe as to discharge putrid and stinking matter ; large abscesses formed in the horns or in some parts of the body, &c.; &c., the nose be sore and scabbed, &c., &c., the beast is out of danger. But, on the contrary, if on the seventh day from the invasion the eruptions, boils or abscesses are decreased in bulk, or totally disap- peared without having broke or discharged outwardly, &c., &c., the running from the nose and eyes lessened ; the eyes dim and sunk into the head, a perfect stupidity, the beast inevitably will soon die." .... " Within some hours of its death, there frequently arises on the back, upon the sinking of the small swellings, a large tumor, or bag filled, as it were, with air, pressing upon which the contents will move to and fro from the head to the tail. This is not only mentioned by Rammazini, but also by authors who deemed the disease to be only an inflammatory fever ; it is called an empliysona, &c." The term " em^jhysema" was evidently intended by Lay- ard (if not as synonymous with that, immediately preceding, •' inflammatory fever"), to serve as an expressive designation of the " large tumor, . filled with air," which supervened 48 RIKDEEPEST. in a fatal resolution of the malady he observed. Gamgee, however, who is a zealous advocate of the theory from which we dissent, quoting at length the passage from Layard, which precedes his prognosis, and omitting the latter ; in a note-comment on the " tumors or loils felt under the panni- culus carnosus," «&c., declares these to be " evidently the emphysematous swellings " described by him as apt to form within the first three days after the external symptoms are manifest, and about the stage of the disease when severe diarrhoea sets in and thirst supervenes. It is clear, however, that the term " boils" was used in the unsophisticated sense of that term.* But what says Dr. Layard of the morbid appearances which were presented on dissection. We will note most of those characteristic of the malady of 1745. » "The membrane of the nose (note Rammazini, p, 458), the glands (note Lancisi, III, 11), the whole extent of the frontal simcs, the pith of the horns highly inflamed, ulcerated and full of small abscesses ; the same appearance in the mouth and about the glands of the throat. The lungs inflamed with livid sphacelated spots and here and there loaded with hydatids. The heart large, flabby and dark colored, containing in its ventricles clots of black blood, of a very loose texture without serum, the fat about it of a bright yellow. The liver large, its blood and biliary vessels fully extended with dark fluid blood and very deep colored bile; the substance of the liver so rotten as to separate on the least touch ; the gall bladder stretched to a great size and full of greenish bile; the oesophagus ulcerated in some. Several marks of inflammation and gangrene appeared on all the stomachs — all the intestines empty, and beset with reel and blacJc spots. The kidneys and bladder large, without urine ; the kidneys of a loose texture, easily torn. The flesh in some was livid, in others of a lively red, but soon turned green. The fat that remained was of a bright yellow all over the body. In such cows as were with calf the uterus was gangrened in several places, and the waters which sur- rounded the foetus or calf stunk intolerably. In short every carcass gave sufficient evidence of a general putrefaction," &c. It should be noted that the italics are those applied by the learned Doctor mostly to his Latin terms. We have refrained * Cattle Plague, pp. 48, 52. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 49 from underscoring the symptoms and morbid anatomy of this species of anthracoid plague which, unless we are greatly in error, places it " toto coelo" in the constellation of epizootics from the Einderpest.* If, however, it should seem that Layard's account is not as explicit in establishing the diversity between the distemper of 1745 and the Pest, as that of Bates, with reference to the murrain of 1714 : it will not be a difficult task* to supplement the evidence by a concise review of three i)apers on this sub- ject, read before the Eoyal Society,! by Cromwell Mortimer, M. D. ; premising, however, that his first might, in some respects, have misled Layard, as it seems to have led astray some of his readers in later times. The description which is given in his earliest account of animals, observed to be ill — That on " the very first day they have a huskiness, breathe short and wheeze, hut have no great cough Some lay down their heads and run much at the nose The second or third day most of them fall into a purging ; groan much and seem to be in great jjain. The stools seem to be bilious ; have cakes of jelly come away with them, and some were streaked with blood. They soon died after these stools came on. Those that ai"e kept out in the cold air seldom lived beyond the third day ; those that are kejjt in warm houses and clothed ; live five, six and seven days. Many of the cows have a wild stare with their eyes ; the whites of the eye and the skin of the eyelids looked yellowish; their tongues looked white; they had no extraordinary heat in their mouths, or at the roots of their horns (a place where they usually feel to judge of the heat of cattle), or in the axilla or arm-pit. The mucus runniug from their nose is very thick and ropy ; their milk is thick and yellow." might have deceived those who did not carefully study the post mortem given; notice the fact, that the description of symptoms while suffering under the malady, and of the appear- * We note that Gamgee, in objectiug to the title given to the Pest by Dr. Budd, "The Siberian Cattle Plague," says: "It is apt to lead to confusion with the Siberian Boil Plague, an enzootic rather than an epizootic disease, a form of anthrax which never spreads beyond the Russian dominions, and which is unknown in healthy districts, even in Siberia itself. The Siberian Boil Plague attacks cattle, but principally men and horses ; and although there are at times wide-spread outbreaks, these occur under the influence of excessive heat during the hottest months of the year," &c. (Cattle Plague, p. 23.) t See Transactions for 1745, No. 'Til, p. 533 and 549 ; No. 478, p. 4 ; Vol. IX of Abridgment, p. p. 171, 177, 184. 7 60 EINDEEPEST. ances found in dissection, was taken at second-hand by Mor- timer, from one who had flayed and opened the two cows par- ticularly described in this paper (although the unprofessional demonstrator stated that "these were the general appearances in most he had flayed ; only that in some he found water in the cells of the horns "), or stop to meditate upon Mortimer's pathological summary ; That this distemjDer hegan by an inflmnmation of the lungs, attended with a catarrh or flux of humours from the nose ; that in the progress of it there came on an inflammation of the guts, and a purging, caused by an acrimony and overflowing of the gall, which ended in stools tinged with blood — exciting great pain in the bowels — and brought on death. The more careful reader of his second paper would have reasonably inclined to place due emphasis upon Mortimer's descriptions of those 'post mortems conducted under his own experienced eye. He was present when three cows were examined ; tlxe lungs in all were inflamed and blistered, &c. But not content with these dissections, he i)rocured the ser- vices of an ingenious apothecary to help him in ex- amining everything very carefully. But let us give the Doctor's luminous account of what was displayed, and as fully at length as it is given in the abridged edition of the Transactions of the Society : " When the skin was taken off", she appeared very fat ; the muscles looked of a darker color than usual. On opening the abdomen, the caul appeared very fat ; the j)aunch was greatly distended ; on making a puncture much air gushed out ; it had in it a great deal of food ; the inside looked well and did not peel ; the 2d and 3d stomach, or the omasum, as also the 4th stomach, or abomasum, were almost empty, but looked well / the liver was firm, well colored and sound, except a few scirrhous knobs about the size of nutmegs ; the gall bladder was exceedingly large, and full of very fluid gall ; the guts were inflamed in many places ; the colo7i and coecum livid; he had the curiosity to have them measured ; from the anus to the insertion of the csecum there were 12 yards (the caecum was an ell long), and from the csecum to the pyloi'us there were 52 yards. The midriff was much swelled and inflamed ; the lungs were sicelled, inflamed, adhered in some places to the pleura, and almost wholly covered with GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 51 bladders of Avater ; there was no appearance of any inflammation in the pleura, or in either the internal or external intercostal muscles : the loindpipe was inflamed greatly throughout its whole course, espe- cially its inside, but the gullet, which lay so near it, was not in the least inflamed ; the heart was of its natural size ; the pericardium full of very fluid blood, probably from the bursting of some branch of the coronary artery, caused by the extraordinary accumulation of blood in the right ventricle, for the vena cava and right ventricle of the heart were turgid and full of black coagulated blood, though this cow had been dead but 12 or 14 hours ; the hcngs were likewise turgid with blood, but little or none was found in the left ventricle or aorta ; the obstruction seemed to have been so great in the lungs that very little blood could pass through them from the right to the left ven- tricle of the heart, and therefore evidently evinces the existence of a confirmed p)&'>^ip>'^^umony. All the membranes lining the nostrils, and the spongy bones there, were quite turgid with blood and in the highest state of inflammation." He had not seen in any cows he had examined any cutaneous sores or exulcerations, nothing like the boils, carbuncles, &c., described by authors as the constant concomitants of the plague in men ; nor does there seem to be any attempt of nature to fling ofl" the distemper by any internal imposthumation or discharge, unless by the running at the nose and by the bilious stools or bilious urine." After noticing a few cases of recovery through occasional bleeding, warm maslies of malt and bran, and warm drenches of herbs, such as rosemary, wormwood and ground-ivy, with honey or treacle ; and regretting that his instructions as to treatment, &c., had been so poorly followed by the cow- keepers ; he proceeds with his method of treatment, after reiterating his previously assured opinion. : " The state of the disease seems so evidently to be a peri- pneiimony or inflammation of the lungs, windpipe and nostrils, at- tended with a redundance of gall " He next gives the symptoms of a favorable resolution of the distemper, on which so much reliance has been placed ; because of the parallel citation made by Layard in a note to page 54 of his Treatise, from Eammazini (p. 462); "that not one of the cattle recovered but such as had pustules broke out upon the skin :" also quoted by Dr. Murchison 52 MNDEEPEST. to establish Ms theory of the identity of the Pest with human variola. " They are observed to have scabby eruptions come out in their groins and axillte tliat itch mnch ; for a cow will stand still, hold out her leg, and show great signs of pleasure when a man scratches these pustules or scabs for her." After seeking in vain to satisfy his mind as to the distem- per being propagated through certain kinds of food, green or dry ; being in doubt whether its cause was in the air, or at- tributable to the changes of the seasons, as to moisture and cold, he affirms his clear conviction on one point : " This was certain, the viscera concerned in resjnratioti are the parts chief!]/ affected." In his third account he gives " an instance of the most sur- prisingly quick progress of this distemper not come to the state of purging," the case of a cow, in which the in- flammation in general was greater than in any he had before seen ; which had, under the specific treatment then mostly relied upon, not only as a curative but prophylactic, been bled about three weeks before she was taken, and once as soon as taken. The autopsy was as follows : "The caul was s^reatly inflamed, the paunch inflamed, and the inner coat peeled off, especially that of the (abomasum) faidle ; the guts were all inflamed ; the liver was much inflamed in some parts, in others was turned livid ; the gall bladder was very large, and the gall very liquid ; the hcngs adhered in many places to the pleura, were greatly inflamed and turgid toith blood, and were in many places quite black; he did not find any of the watery bladders on the surface of these as he did on all the others he had seen opened." If the examination we have given to Bates' autopsies, Layard's Treatise, and Mortimer's papers, may seem to have been unduly extended, we must seek our apology in the conclusive evidence thus furnished, negativing the dictum of the Eoyal Commission, that the Eiuderpest had appeared in England prior to its introduction in 1865. Making due allowance for any attributable imperfection in the accounts given by those who may not have jjossessed the same accuracy of descriptive power attained by modern GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 53 pathologists, it is beyond reasonable conjecture, that those who saw only epithelial denudation of the fauces, should have described ulcerations and abscesses involving even the glands of the throat, sometimes the cesophagus, extending to the lungs, and inducing in the liver a general rottenness; and all this while the same tendency to the development of purulent abscesses being exhibited in all the external tissues. There seems, in the descriptions of Layard, of the dis- temper of 1745,* hardly a symptom or post-mortem appear- ance to be viewed as in common with those of the Pest, except those which necessarily attend all inflammatory action. Even the fat in all parts of the system remained of a Iriglit yellow, and the flesh soon turned green. Should the plea be interposed that, in the cases described by Dr. Mortimer, the pneumonic symptoms overshadowed the current epizootic, the reply is fairly to be made, that Mortimer, who was as learned an expert as the medical profession of his day could produce, does not, if his statements are fairly canvassed or credited, admit or support the possibility of the existence of any other i)rimary affection than that embraced in and bounded by the pneumonic congestion. And if this had a marked tendency towards a typhous form, it is not so difficult to account for the exacerbated manifestations on the intesti- nal canal in some cases he has described, as the result of the depletory and purgative treatment pursued. If, however, the most subtle analysis of the opinions of Mortimer and Layard should reveal discrepancies, these we think will be mainly on minor particulars; and cannot dis- guise the dilemma in which their successors in veterinary pathology are placed, who have by hasty deductions formed * The distempers of 1711 and 1745, as malignant and contagious epizootics, may find their type in tVie enzootic disease commonly called quarter-ill or murrain, in which, from bad food, impure water, or other causes, the hepatic or cystic ducts, either separately or conjointly, and in com- bination with the ductus communis choledochus, are obstructed ; producing an enlargement of the gall bladder, and, in connection with a congested affection of the liver, forcing an absorption (by the method of osmose; of vitiated biliary secretions into the blood ; thus inducing the primary symptoms as well as final results of such too copious an infusion of purulent matter. We do not allude to concomitant symptoms, such as the destruction of muscular substance in the glutcei, &c., and the formation of large cells of vitiated blood corpuscles in their places ; neither do we design inpresentingin the enzootic form a countertype to the epizootic, to assign a commoner any original cause for their separate developments. All such theoretic views must be referred to future Bcientific investigation. 54 EINDEEPEST. on garbled statements of tlie views of these writers, sought to sustain the theory of the recurrence of the English mur- rains of the last century, and their reappearance in this. But we are disposed to move to a further standpoint, and to add that if English writers could confuse or mistake obser- vations on malignant distempers occurring in their own country, within the period of a century and a half; it is a fair inference that continental and classic writers may have labored under similar misapprehensions in regard to the iden- tity of the various pests which have devastated flocks and herds in different ages. On mere grounds of probability, we might impeach the calculation that during the last century alone, twenty-eight million head of cattle in Germany ; and in the whole of Europe, including Russia, but excluding Siberia and Tartary, two hundred millions had fallen victims to the Rinderpest, (as these statements are presented in a report to Her Majes- ty's government, by Mr. Blackwell, British vice-consul at Lubec) ; when we consider that Europe has been afflicted with epizootic hydrothorax, dysentery and catarrhal fever, in addition to the other distempers we have before enumer- ated, and one prevalent in Hungary, called blood plague (2 Rep., 29) ; and that her cattle, as well as human population, in many localities, have suffered great mortality in bad sea- sons for maturing and harvesting crops ; from damaged, sprouted or ergotized* grain. Now while we are in hand, let us push this investigation to remoter regions and times, and enquire what reasons exist for imagining that the distempers which scourged the continent for a hundred years, commencing at the latter part of the seventeenth century, were in any important particulars, phy- siologically akin to the Pest. Rammazini, so often quoted in aflQrmation of this view, has left in his dissertation on the distemper which broke out in the Venitian territory, especially in the neighborhood of Padua, but a meagre substratum on which to found any such * By this phrase " ergotized," we mean to denote the parasitical gro\A'th of all the fungi which infest cereals, &c. GEKEEAIi PATHOLOGY. 55 hypothesis. ISTay, those who labor to pervert his views to any such end, mnst deny to him the right or ability to pre- sent or maintain the conclusions he favored. His tractate, far from being as voluminous as that of Lancisi, is clear, though terse in its pathological summary, and bears the marks of a scholarly and independent thinker. Eefusing to be guided by the astrological lore, in which he had been in- structed in his youth ; discarding all reference of that cycle of malignant disease of which he wrote to any ill-starred con- junction of Saturn and Mars ; he avowed himself as the advo- cate of a rational system in medicine, and evidently seeks to conform his style of reasoning to that of the inductive school. True, he was misled by that which he gives as the most defi- nite pathognomonic mark ; so often cited of late to prove the theory of the variolous character or of continuous outbreaks of the Pest, and its recrudescense at the present time : " pus- tula quinta vel sexta die per totum corpus erumpentes, ac tubercula variolarum speciem referentia." He viewed the dis- temper as mainly eruptive and pustular, and styled it " The Cow-pox Plague." And it is to be urged on grounds of just reasoning, that he was borne out by what he observed in viewing it as an inflammatory and phlegmonous disease, if not in the parallel he sought to draw with variola ; and that with his clear perceptions and sturdy diagnosis he could not have confounded it with any distemper such as the Pest. His general description is " that it was a malignant, pestilential fever, accompanied by rigors, followed by a burn- ing heat, quick pulse, difficulty of hreatldng, &'c." *But what light is thrown upon the pestilence by his examinations of the carcasses of those who fell victims to it ? " It was particularly observed that in the omasus or paunch, there was found a hard, compact body, finnly adhering to the coats of the ventricle, of a large bulk, and an intolerable smell ; in other parts, as in the hrain, lungs, cfec, were several hydatides, and lai'ge bladders, filled only with wind, which being opened gave a deadly stench ; there were also idcers at the root of the tongue and bladders filled * Kammazini Ed., 1716 ; Geneva, p. 787. 56^ EINDEEPEST. with a serum on its sides. This hard and compact body, like challc, in the omasus, is the first product of the contagious miasms."* This description corresponds tolerably well, both in the sketch of living symptoms and the autopsy of the dead, with two other accounts : one by Michelotti, of the same mur- rain described by Eammazini, and one by Winder, of the plague which preceded it. In the year 1682, on the border of Italy, there arose a dis- temper among cattle, which spread into Switzerland, Wir- temburg and other provinces of the Empire, extending at the observed rate of nearly two German miles in twenty-four hours until it reached Poland. Its march was without inter- mission ; no neighboring parish escaped. It was a com- plete desolation. It seemed to propagate itself in tlie form of a blue mist, which fell upon those pastures where the cattle grazed, insomuch that whole herds returned home sick, being very dull ; forbearing their food, and most of them would die in twenty-four hours. Upon dissection there were discovered large and corrupted spleen, sphacelous and corroded tongues, and some had angina maligna. The 2^^1'sons who carelessly managed their cattle, without a due regard to their own health, were themselves infected, and died like their beasts. The method of cure was this: "The tongue was carefully examined, , and if they found any aphthcB or blisters, whether white, yelloio, or blade, they were obliged to rub, scratch and tear the tongue with a silver instrument until it bled ; they then wiped away the blood and corruption with new unwashed linen. This done, a lotion for the tongue was XTsed, made of salt and good vinegar." The antidote and remedial prescription were the same. " Take of soot, gunpowder, brimstone, salt,f equal parts ( a large spoonful for a dose), and as much water as is necessary to wash it down." Michelotti, was eye witness of the greater part of what he described, having been in the Venitian territories about * Philosoph. Trans. No. 338, p. 46; Vo!. VI of Abridgment, p. T9. t Doubtless, Mr. Needham, taking ttie popular side of tlie theory of identity of murrains in modern times, and ascertaining from c^tinental veterinaries, ttiat salt was the sovereign remedy, was induced in his elegant essay, read at Brussels in 1776, to recommend this agent as the specific remedy for the murrain of 1745, a view which Lataed proceeds to refute in his letter to Joseph Banks. Philosoph. Trans, uhi sup., and Cattle Plague, p. 305. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 57 October, 1711, and received the rest on the spot from persons of integrity and credit. His account bears the stamp of his extensive skill and repute as a doctor of medicine. We shall give it quite at length : " Almost all the sick cattle refused every kind of food and drink ; they hung their heads, had shiverings in their skin and limhs, they breathed with difficulty^ and their expiration in particular was attended with a sort of rattling noise ; they were so feehle that they could scarcely go or stand upon their legs. Some few of them eat a little and drank very much, others had fluxes of excrements variously colored, of an oflTensive smell, and frequently tinged with hlood ; many of them had their heads and their hellies swelled in such a manner, that in clapping them with the hand on the paunches, or along the vertebrae of the loins, they sounded like a diy bladder when full blown. In some the urine was very turbid, in others of a bright flame color. In comparing the pulses of the sound cattle with those of the diseased, he found the latter to be quicker and weaker. There was hut little heat perceivable by the touch in any of them ; their tongues were soft and moist, but their breath was exceedingly ofiensive. Besides these particulars, he was informed by those who attended the sick cattle, and by other persons worthy of credit, that in some of the beasts they had observed crude tumours in several parts of the body, as also watery pustules, and disoi-derly motions of the head, with dry, black and fissured tongues ; that in others there were tumours which came to maturation, with putrid matter issuing from the mouth and nostrils, worms in the faeces and in the eyes, bloody sweats and shedding of hair." The pathological description follows : " In comparing the flesh of the cattle dead of the distemjjer with that of others killed for the market, he found the muscles in the for- mer, lying immediately under the skin, to be something livid. Having opened the three cavities of the body, he applied himself with the utmost diligence to examine the brain, with its membranes ; the trachea, oesophagus, lixngs ; heart, with its auricles, the vena cava, aorta, and diaphragm ; the liver, spleen, and other parts of the lower belly ; in all which there was no discernible difference, either as to figure, size, contents, situation or connection with the neighboring parts, from what was observed in sound cattle, killed by the butcher, except the particulars hereinafter mentioned. The blood found in the ventricles of the heai't, in the pulmonary vessels, in the aorta and cava, 58 EINDEEPEST. thougli still warm, was considerably blacJcish, and almost coagidated. In opening the upper and middle cavity, the scent was offensive, but tolerable enough ; whereas that proceeding from the lower belly was quite intolerable. In some few carcasses the viscera differed from their natural state, with regard to their size, their consistence, their contents, color and smell. In several X\\q paunch was found very much contracted and dried, and contained a hard substance. In others the lungs were swelled and livid, the liver tumefied, and the brain watery and initrid. Having oi'dered several of the cattle to be blooded, he found the blood not to issue out of the vessels in a continuous stream, but with a broken and interrupted flux, one part of it not immediately succeeding another He found it entirely coagulated without any separation of the serum, and attached to the sides of the vessels with a reticular pellicle in the surface exposed to the air. Of the eigh- teen who were bled, all died within a few days, except one which underwent the operation on its first being taken ill."* The symptoms and post-mortem appearances, as given by Michelotti, tally so well with those described by Lancisi, that here forbearing to reserve space for them, though somewhat tempted ; we will give them in an appendix to our classical and curious readers in their original text ; with some quota- tions also from Eammazini, not merely to show the exact relation which certain sentences generally quoted bear to the whole description, but to leave the critical in such matters to measure the unfairness, the reckless readiness, or the o'er- weening zeal with which such citations have been used. Had it not been necessary to summon the principal wit- nesses (men of erudition and renown in their age) with their entire declarative testimony, without perversion or gloss from hasty criticism ; that this investigation might be a thorough and impartial review of the distempers they observed : we might have been contented with a summary of the English distempers given by an admirer of Layard, who has preserved its ancient but quite forgotten synonym, Hyanstricking, a corruption doubtless of an Anglo-Saxon term, compounded of Hyau (cattle disease) and stric (plague) or strica (a stroke), indicating in the compound, either cattle plague or disease by which cattle are suddenly striclcen; from which we may infer * PMlOBoph. Trans. 1720, No. 365, p. 83. Vol. VI of Abridgment, p. 481. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 59 that our Anglo-Saxon ancestry were not free in remote periods from an outbreak of pestilence among their stock. In an appendix to a posthumous work on diseases of cat- tle and their cure, by J. Eowlin, a veterinary surgeon of con- siderable eminence, a century ago; an account is given of this distemper, in which the one of 1745 is distinguished from the one of 1765 : the common external sign of the former being " hlotclies arising all over the body," and of the latter the symptoms "in the roots of the tongue or glandular parts of the throat." The one is also described as an emph'i/sema, or a flatulent crackling swelling, attended with a mortifying Naclc- ness. In the other the primary symptoms are said to be evi- dent " by the mouth being generally open, and a matter fall- ing therefrom ; by opening the mouth you will find on one or both sides of the tongue a large hlacMsli colored substance, which will easily yield to the pressure of your finger." In fine, if, we undertake to separate from any authentic list of the symptoms and morbid appearances of the mur- rains which scourged the continent as well as England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; in the first instance, those which are peculiar to and accompany all deadly dis- tempers of cattle ; and next those which indicate primary and idiopathic affections of the lungs, or constitute the invariable signs of catarrhal fever ; what is there left on which to base any diagnosis of a malady which, in its uncomplicated form, does not touch a single serous surface, does not of necessity involve the thoracic organs, but leaves its stamp solely on the mucous vestment? Where, at any rate, to take the most apparent indications, as tests even for untutored minds, where is the simple epithelial denudation of the mouth ? where the characteristic redness and aphthae of the vulva ? We insist, in the behalf of science, which sooner or later has modified, if not curbed, the fatal march of pestilence, that indistinct views and crude generalizations on this pest, or its theoretical pathology, should be banished at once from the field of observation ; and that facts, indisputable in them- selves and arranged according to the methods of scientific induction, should alone guide all future investigation as to 60 EINDEEPEST. the nature or treatment of tliis distemper. We should as soon now deem it wise, from the vague descriptions given by- Homer or Plutarch of the cattle pestilence which prevailed in their days, or from the lines of Virgil in his Georgics, "Coiicidit, et mistum spumis vomit ore cruorem Extremosque ciet gemitus ... - - - - at ima Solvimtur latera, atque oculos stupor nrget inertes Ad terramque fluit devexo pondero cervix," or from any such meager materials, to theorize upon the pathology of the murrains which afflicted those ages, or their resemblance to or identity with those which have appeared in m^odern times ; as from the occasional pustules, inflamed follicles, or the congested epithelium observed in Einderpest, to ally it with variola, typhoid fever, or scarlatina in the human subject. But to proceed with the more positive share of our task. We have seen that the eruptions noticed on the flank and udder are papular (p. 39), not pustular, and that in a majority of cases they appear as indications of convalescence or reso- lution effected through the functions of the skin ; so that it is quite impossible to trace any parallel between the Pest and small pox, unless it be urged for the most fatal cases, where coma and death follow closely upon the first intimations of ailment, and the type of the former be sought in that most malignant form of the latter, known as Variola sine eniptione. All methods then, designed to ward off or mitigate an attack of the Pest by inoculation with variolous matter from the human subject, would, on grounds of similarity as to type between these diseases, and viewed theoretically, be con- demned as empirical; a conclusion amply confirmed by many abortive trials to prove it otherwise. So too, we must treat as fanciful the opinion lately advanced, that this epizootic should be regarded as an acute internal scarlatina; the reddened appearance of the mucous surfaces, unaccompanied by the rash, as in the human subject," presenting the only com- mon symptom. Yet we are happy to record the fact, that no attempt has been made, either for prophylactic or curative GENEEAL PATHOLOGY. 61 ends, to transfer tlie poison of Scarlatina, into the veins of a Einderpest subject. Except in a few cases where vaccination may have intro- duced, in addition to the specific virus of the Pest, some typhoid germs, the inner surfaces of the viscera do not exhibit evidences of the degeneration peculiar to typhoid fevers, or observable in the muco-enteritis of cattle ; nor do the respiratory organs reveal serous effusion, as in typhoid pleuro-pneumonia. Dr. Tucker in his rejjort to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, while repudiating any theory of iden- tity, says : " The i^urijle gum, the black, saltless blood, and some other symptoms of the African typhus, may be recog- nized in the Einderpest." Why might not a parallel be drawn also with cholera, and influenza ? The answer to this and the refutation of all the fanciful conceptions to which we have alluded, is given by science, which has very recently exploded the old classification of diseases, and has grouped those which we have mentioned, with many others,* in one leading class of zymotic diseases (order, miasmatic). The word Zymotic is derived from the Greek of ferment, and was first suggested by Dr. Wm. Farr to indicate that diseases, so named, manifest in their course a destructive influence on the circulating medium, approaching as near as may be to fermentation, and due to the action of specific poisons of organic origin. These, like inorganic poisons introduced into the system, are found to obey certain general laws ; first, that each has a specific action, and secondly, lies latent in the system a certain though varying period of time, before its specific action is evinced; and thirdly, that the phenomena resulting from such action vary with the amount of poisonous matter taken into the system, and the receptivity of the patient. The miasmatic order of this class, as applied to the diseases of cattle, may be understood to embrace all diseases which are commonly ascribed to i)almlcd or animal malaria, all due * Sucli as chicken-pox, measles, quinsy and diphtheria, croup and hooping cough, ague, remit- tent, continued and 3'ellow fevers, ophthalmia, er3'sipelas, hospital gangrene and childbed fever, plague and carbuncle, dysentery and diarrhoea, &c. 62 EINDEEPEST. to specific disease poisons, capable of propagation from one animal to another, and communicable either by direct contact or indirectly through various channels of intercourse.* It is frankly admitted that this or any classification would be valueless in the investigation of the Einderpest, unless it be conceded that this epizootic is wholly distinct from others, not only in its leading characteristics, but in its source or origin as a blood-poison. And it is principally in this latter sense, that we can pronounce it a disease " sui generis,''^ developed through the agency of a poisonous germ, which breeds after its own type, and multiplies "after its own kind," and by a process as regular and uniform as that (to use the emphatic though homely language of John Simon, medical officer of the Privy Council in his sixth report) " by which dog breeds dog, and cat breeds cat, and as exclusive as that by which dog never breeds cat, nor cat dog." The seminal principle or germ of the Pest being considered then as one and distinct from that of other epizootics, its vary- ing manifestations remain to be accounted for. Its develop- ment as to time and potency is dependent upon certain spheric conditions, and the different susceptibility of races and individuals. Prof. Koll states that for many years the cattle plague hung upon the Polish frontier without entering Austria, initil certain other diseases appeared among cattle and men, and then it became a general pestilence. As far as the historical records of other desolations among the lower orders of creation bear reliable testimony, this view is corro- borated. It is also confirmed by the cyclical periods which, as is claimed, mark the devastation of this plague in its native steppes. Again, it has been too frequently observed to admit of denial, that its fatality has been less marked with those cattle, of whom it may be said that the Pest is to their manor born, than among other races. Devons taken to Eussia, after thriv- ing admirably for a time, when brought within range of this distemper, yielded under its most frightful manifestations, and in droves. * See Aitken's Science of Medicine, Vol. 1, p. 200. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 63 So among the cattle first seen by Prof. Simonds in quaran- tine at Kamienica, a neigbborboocl which had then been free from the plague for eleven years, were four steppe oxen, three of which recovered, one having never sickened ; while of the native cattle, with whom these and six other steppe oxen were housed at this and an adjoining village, in sheds belong- ing to the same proprietor ; thirty-one, being the whole herd in one place, died within nineteen days after the steppe oxen arrived : and of the other lot, which included the four first mentioned, twenty-eight in all ; thirteen died and eleven were slaughtered.* The power of contagion being limited or increased by the operation of certain conditions in nature which it may be diflScult to define, or by varying developments of constitu- tional vigor (which may be equally vague in statement, though undeniable in fact) we are prepared to understand why in different climates and with different races of cattle, the sj^mptoms and the morbid anatomy may seem doubtful or conflicting in particulars, and yet center in a common type, to mark the specific action of a specific virus. Thus, where from any predisposing or dominant cause the force of the disease in its early incubation is expended on the membranes investing the brain (cerebellum, principally) or the spinal cord, we should exiject the twitchings, nervous rigors and fury, and the consequent effusions in those regions observed in Hungary and Galicia by Egan and Simonds. Where, again, as in the few cases referred to by Prof. Gam- gee, the concentrated action of the poison is seen in the tra- chea and its bronchial branches, we could hardly imagine relief from this obstruction of the respiratory functions in time for any reaction on the intestinal canal. And where, lastly, the grand onslaught of the distemper was in the latter direction, we might reasonably look for lesions so much more distinctly pronounced, that what seemed only aphthous ap- pearances in other cases might in these be imagined to be * Perhaps a more marked case is given by Dr. Weber, as occurring at Kamionlja Woloeka (Galicia), where 101 oxen, which were brought from Bessarabia, developed the contagion in the farmsteads in the village, so that 158 animals were attacked, of which 93 died ; only one of the imported oxen suflfered. 64 UrNDEEPEST. ulcerations ; and glands which, in a vast majority of cases, seemed untouched, might give signs of purulent destruction. Making every reasonable allowance for different manifesta- tions in cases such as those we have given from Jessen, where the disease was induced by inoculation ; or for a predis- posing tendency to the typhoid state, muco-enteritis, pleuro- pneumonia and the like ; we are still able to group together all the seemingly conflicting indications, and define the gene- ral scope of this disease by its congestion of tlie mucous tissues, more or less diffused, and that congestion as mainly destruc- tive of the epithelial covering of these tissues. In the incubative stage, marked changes manifest them- selves in the condition of the blood, and the commencement of feverish action. We have seen (p. 22), that when the virus has once been absorbed, it permeates within a few hours every portion of the blood, rendering each drop a fresh medium for inoculating the healthy animal with the Pest. It would almost seem credible, that the poison is a vital germ, feeding upon the germ cells of the blood, appropriating its serous and driving off its saline constituents ; and propa- gating its kind until the red corpuscles become amorphous and shrivelled (see PL x, fig. 3). Gamgee, however, did not in his microscopic investigations, observe the serrated con- dition of the corpuscles noticed by Dr. Smart. In some cases he found "a great excess of white corpuscles, and in others delicate needle-shaped crystals, which are probably hsemato-crystalline,* form in the blood after this fluid has been drawn from the body."t (PI. x, figs. 4, 5 and 6). The moment that the normal balance in the blood con- stituents is disturbed, feverish action, which escapes notice by ordinary means of observation, is truly established. Gam- * These crystals may be regarded as evidence mostly of the decomposition which the blood undergoes, and of abnormal chemical combinations of its saline constituents. They resemble closely in form and appearance those recently obtained by Woemley in the methods proposed by him for the discovery of poisons when found in human tissues in minute quantities. For these correspondences, see his " Micro-chemistry of Poisons, PI. I, figs. 1, 2 and 3, where the forms of crystalline products are given, as revealed by the microscope magnifying, from 80 to 225 diame- ters ; the 1-250 gr. of chloride of potash having been tested by a minute trace of tart, soda ; 1-100 gr. potash as nitrate, treated with bichloride of platinum in one case, and tartaric acid in the other, and in PI. IV, fig 4. where the crystals of tart-emet. from a hot super-saturated solution without any re-agent, are magnified 80 times ; and in other plates for the needle-pointed crystals. t See Cattle Plague, p. 64. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 65 gee, reviving the use of the thermometer,* first proposed in 1754 by De Haen, a celebrated Clinical teacher in the Hospital of Vienna, as the best aid in the diagnosis of pyrexia ; instituted a series of remarkable experiments in the use of one of Oasella's registering thermometers. He dis- covered an elevation of temperature in the earliest stage of the disease, varying from one to four degrees, Fahr., " jjrecefZ- ing the acceleration of tlie pulse and every otJier symptom." He inserted the bulb and about two inches of the stem of the thermometer within the vagina or rectum, and kept it in place a couple of minutes. To x>revent error in the use of the instrument, he adopted the precaution, between each observation, of dipping it in water (90° Fahr.) and used a few drops of Candy's disinfecting fluid for cleansing pur- poses. He found the temperature of these parts, when the animals were in a healthy condition, and the females not in the period of oestrum or sexual excitement, varying from 100° to 101°, rising occasionally to 102°, and perchance, in a hot day or when driven from their pastures, " one or two- tenths more" than usual. He visited, on the 17th of Novem- ber, a stock of Ayrshires, at Oorehouse, near Lanark, where a cow seized on the 9th had died on the 14th, a second case occurred on the 15th, a third on the 16th; and where, on cursory examination, he found six more ill. On the 18th he examined forty-two cows with a thermometer dipped in water 100° Fahr., before each observation, inserting the instrument in the rectum up to that portion of the stem marked 80°. Of this entire lot, one or two had slight discharge from the eyes ; one gave more marked indications in rapid respiration, one in urine of dark brown color, and a half dozen in scanty supply of milk. The rest were eating and ruminating, giv- ing full quantity of milk, &c. ; none had diarrhoea. " The temperature was recorded at 102° in one case ; at 104°, 1- in another ; at 104°, 8- in two ; from 105° to 106° in ten ; from 106° to 107° in seventeen; in the rest from 107° to 107°, 8-. Twenty-five succumbed by the 22d inst., and only five were living on the 25th, " in spite of careful nursing and the best * Also tried by Dr. Sanderson (Sequel, &c., p. 13). 9 66 EINDEEPEST. medical treatment." Gamgee observed variations in the frequency of the pulse and temperature during the course of the disease, as Jessen did between the pulse and respira- tions ; also a sudden lowering of temperature with increased frequency of pulse from 120 upwards, a few hours before death. A gradual decrease of temperature until it reaches the normal standard prognosticates recovery.* It seems a matter of regret that Dr. Gamgee, who has evinced in all his researches, skill and learning of the highest order, should have felt such utter hopelessness of the efficacy of remedial treatment in i)oss6 if not in esse. Otherwise we think he might have gained another laurel to his veteri- nary prowess. Nothing seems to be clearer than this pro- position, that if the pest is to be properly regarded as a zymotic disease whether developing its fatal germs in the blood, on and in which they feed and multiply ; or by an action analogous to ferment, or that chemico - physiological action which Liebig has denominated catalysis, j)roducing abnormal changes in the circulating medium ; before the dis- integration of structures (the principal test of infection in disease) is manifested: or to take a more palpable illustration, to be viewed as poison from a venomous bite, which must be instantly neutralized, or whose absorption and propagation must be arrested without loss of time that life may be saved ; the treatment must be antidotal or destructive of the foreign germ-life, and attempted before the j)rocesses of decomposi- tion in the blood have gained much headway. And to this end the use of the thermometer as afresh proposed by Gamgee is indispensible, But it is unnecessary further to foreshadow the use to which we propose to put this method in the treat- ment we may recommend. The microscopic researches of Dr. Brauell, of Dorpat, made in Southern Eussia in 1861, extend, in some respects, the pathological views to be derived from the investigation of lesions heretofore given on the authority of Smart and others. He observed in the glands of the mouth and pha- rynx, new formations of cells simultaneously with (probably * Cattle Plague, pp. 40-44. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 67 before) the detacliment of the epithelium, and a more exube- rant mass of such cells in the glands of the fourth stomach, and small intestines, followed by the hsemorrhagic erosions, or so-called superficial ulcers. In the solitary glands of the small intestines, in a less marked form than in the Peyer glands, the cell development goes on, attended by the " so- called plastic exudations and croupous deposits from the follicles, the vesicular eruptions and the ulcers " of the glands described by authors ; all owing their origin to the nature of the cell changes. In the mucous glands of the membrane lining the respiratory passages, there is cell multiplication, associated with the extraordinary development of the ele- ments of connective tissue, whereby the detached masses are accounted for. The separation of these is the end of the process. Brauell aflSrms that there are never and nowhere exudations of lymph. He also notices differential manifestations as between the natural Rinderpest and that from inoculation. " The nodules which appear on the skin owe their origin to the modified development of the epidermic cells on small localized spots, from which the deeper sooner or later become detached and result in the dispersion of the nodules. The most superficial layer of the skin, wherever it is covered by each nodule, sometimes suffers molecular change." Perhaps the most important observation made by him in inoculated cases, is that, in the lateral ventricles of the brain, and particularly under the arachnoid over the cerebrum, exudation is met with.* It may not be easy of comprehension how the imbibition of the virus through the organs of the skin, should produce such marked cerebral disturbances, not consequent upon its inhalation by the lungs, or its absorption by the mucous surfaces of the mouth, nose, &c. When this statement of Dr. Brauell is connected with the general testimony of all observers, that in a multitude of cases where the pest has been induced by the setou or puncture, the lesions are more extensive and serious ; it may lead us, as a teaching of practical * Et ubi supra. (Cattle Plague, pp. 66-69.) 68 RINDERPEST. sagacity, not only to avoid inoculation as a method of cnre, and to guard the entire dermic structure of subjects exposed to contagion by cleansing and care ; but in some measure, at least, to adapt their treatment, when ill, to the consideration, however conjectural it may seem, that the secernent function of the skin is the most important instrumentality by which the poison may be counteracted or eliminated. Lest we may seem to speak slightly of the inoculative method, which we cannot recommend as a therapeutic or pre- ventive agent, we will add a brief sketch of the efforts made to test it as an agency of cure. The seeming success which result- ed from inoculation for small-pox in the human subject, led to great hopes of the efficiency of a similar use of the poison of the distempers of the last century. England, which was prompt through Dobson, in 1754, and Dr. FlcDiynge, in 1755, publicly to approve the method, exhibited the same decision in proclaiming it a failure. The first tabulated series of expe- riments, were made under the direction of the famous Camper, on a small island on the southwest of Zeeland, of which ac- counts are preserved for three years prior to 1773. In 1770, sixty-one animals were inoculated, by threads charged with the virus and passed beneath the skin, of which eighteen recovered and forty-two died ; one not having sickened. Of those treated in the next two years, a fraction of over one- third did not catch the contagion, and the number of deaths reported was three. Gamgee, in his review of this subject, deems the experi- ments of 1770 most reliable, as he found in the accounts for the two succeeding years, records* " of long periods of incubation, and constant recovery, quite incompatible with our existing knowledge of the disease." The success of Dr. Barrasch, who inoculated twenty-five hundred cattle in Hungary, of which only seventy-five died, and the serious losses of Eussia, amounting, as was esti- mated, to ten millions of roubles annually, led to the appoint- ment of a commission with the view of extirpating the pest * These may be regarded as additional evidence that the distemper of that period was not the Rinderpest. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 69 among tlie steppe oxen and on their native pastures. Jessen and Unterberger conducted the experiments, which were first tried with the virus taken from a subject who had taken the pest naturally; then from one so inoculated, making the first remove, and so on until they obtained and used the virus in the tenth remove. With great alternations of large percentages of recoveries and failures ; with instances of immunity in the midst of surrounding pestilence, which inoculation, wherever tried, had not stayed or much amelio- rated ; with a tabulated record, though on a small scale of 50 per cent loss with matter in the first and ninth remove, 66§ per cent with that in the third remove, and no loss whatever with that of the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth: it is difficult to discover any method for the arrangement of such statistics and the evolvement of any scientific formula. The impression that steppe cattle might be advantageously fortified in this way, was modified by the observation that inoculation must be accompanied by mild and uniform weather, and followed up by careful nursing. The recent trial on steppe animals at Karlowka, in 1864, in which of three hundred and forty-nine inoculated animals, the sickness consequent upon the operation was so remark- ably intense, that only ten were declared to be " not severely aifected," accompanied by the fact that there are in the steppe regions of Southern Eussia herds among which the pest has not prevailed in ten, twenty, and in one case forty years, give great force to the practical question put by Prof. Unter- berger, whether such experiences do not prove how disad- vantageous under certain circumstances protective inoculation may be even in the steppe regions. Jessen, whose loss in the treatment by inoculation of the stock of the Grand Duchess Helena Paulowna, has been reported at ninety per cent, does not pronounce so decidedly against the method as his colleague, although he admits great losses by inoculation with fresh matter. He sums up his report with the following conclusions : 70 EINDEKPEST, I. Animals having had the Rinderpest three to four years pre- viously, cannot be infected again. 2-3. Vaccination in the first generation (taken from diseased ani- mals), on sound cattle, after they have passed through the disease, frees them from further infection, 4. The loss by first generation is too large to recommend itself 5. The vaccine can be mitigated by second generation, producing only a slight aifection. 6. This slight affection is also a preservative against new infection. 7. Vaccination in older animals often fails, probably because they have had it. 8. Vaccination sometimes does not take, and yet they take the plague naturally afterwards. 9. Some cattle show no symptoms of disease after vaccination, and yet they seem to be proof against infection. 10. Well preserved vaccine keeps good for a few days, even in hot summer. II. It is yet to be discovered on which day of the disease to take the virus, to get its full power. 12. The tears, even diluted with distilled water, remain infectious (these and the nasal mucus having been used for vaccination). To these may be added other conclusions arrived at by Gamgee, who obtained 40 per cent of recoveries in experi- ments by inoculation in seventy-five cases, and who, besides refusing to recommend this method as a preventive ; noticing the aggravations resulting from cold, wet and exposure ; declaring the means adopted for cultivating or modifying the virus unsatisfactory and unreliable ; and any liquid from the body of a sick animal capable of becoming a medium for inoculation, adds : 1. The cutaneous eruption not constant in natural Rinderpest is usually seen in inocu.lated animals. 2. Sheep can be inoculated from cattle, and again cattle from sheep, without modifying the virulence of the virus. 3. Glycerine modifies and then destroys the virus, as in the case of pleuro-pneuraonia (typhoid ?) 4. Animals escaping after inoculation, without indicating the characteristic symptoms, are not protected from future attacks. 5. The produce from progeny of animals which have had the Rinderpest, is as susceptible to an attack as any other.* * Cattle Plague, pp. 198 and 199. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 71 The science of Pathology which has made such mighty strides during the last half century, has yet to search out the nature and perchance figure the form of those poisonous germs which develop zymotic disease ; to give them distinct- iveness by due classification, and to separate or identify their action on and power over the animal economy, with those of the well known poisons of the mineral or vegetable world, especially, perhaps, of the sporules of the various tribes of fungi. The work though vast, is not beyond present hope. It has now all the preparation needed lo justify the loftiest claim, and maintain the highest attitude of expectancy. The microscope which has depictured and classified the various forms of spermatozoids constituting the generative power of the divers species of the animal kingdom; which has counted the number of the dust sporules* which feed upon vegetable products useful to man and beast, and which, as we have seen, reveals to the eye the various shapes of blood corpuscles when invaded by various parasites of variant diseases, may yet so group its subtle lenses and direct their ken into such unexplored hiding places, and triumphantly parade the tiniest instru- ments of torture which the common enemy of all things living employs. t While we await with becoming patience, such wondrous revelations, we are not without the analogies of nature in disease to assist and advance our investigations. Dr. Salisbury, of Ohio, in the presence of an alarming epidemic of scarlatina, inoculated himself and family with the smut of the Indian corn, produced an eruption and fever similar to that of the prevailing distemper, and effectually warded off the contagion. Had he gone a step further, and ingrafted the poisonous fluid developed by this coniomycete upon a healthy structure, he would have identified or shown * The sporule of the Uredo segetum, one of the most minute of the couiomycetous fungi which attacli gramineous plants, has been decyphered as equal in size to l-7,860,000th part oJ an inch square. + The most serious diiBculty in the present extension of microscopic vision, which has re- vealed the multiplication of bacteria and low animal and vegetable organisms by powers esti- mated at 3,000 diameters, does not seem to lie in a further extension of micrometric power, but in the transparency of these infinitesimal germs ; a difficulty which may soon be remedied by the ingenious adaptations of enthusiastic observers. 72 EINDEEPEST. tlie disparate action of the inoculate and natural forms of the scarlet infection. We know that a pregnant heifer may, by ergotized grain, or grasses infested with fungoid growth, sud- denly abort, and unless removed from her associates of the byre, the poisonous exudations from the vulva will produce like disaster upon the entire pregnant stable; leaving in the future for all such aborting from the contagious matter, less chance of carrying their next foetal burdens to full development, than in the case of the one which miscarried under the action of the 'vegetable poison. So that there may be in nature a general law by which cer- tain poisons, vegetable as well as mineral, may become poten- tized in their victims, and taking to themselves a more deadly virus, spread the most virulent infection. Strange as the announcement of such a doctrine, mysterious as the con- version or cooperation of such agencies may be ; they do not afford so great a puzzle to the understanding, as that by which we are called upon to account for the first developed case of any contagion, whether of small pox or cholera in the human race, or of any of the deadly murrains in the bovine. We state the difficulty which is experienced in the scientific world, without insisting upon any theory, conjectural or imag- inary. It is enough to dispel existing delusions which trace the sources of contagion solely to malarious vapors or atmos- pherical degenerations, or again, to active animal or vegeta- ble parasites, or to any other source than that of poisonous vitalized germs. It is impossible to deny the vitality of pus corpuscles in ophthalmia, in the public nurseries or hospitals provided for children ; or of their minute offsets (revealed with wondrous power of subdivision under the microscope), as they are trans- ported through the air, remain dormant on clothes, com- municated by towels, until they reach the conjunctiva, pre- pared, in under-tone or by morbid process, for the supply of nutrient matter for these putrid germs. The statistics of surgical cases in our armies during the late war confirm the observations made elsewhere, that pus globules invade the GENEKAL PATHOLOGY. 73 system of one recovering from the primary effects of wounds or amputation, and carry liim off with pyaemia. Like observations as to syphilitic or gonOrrhoeal pus, the poisonous matter of puerperal fever, or the more familiar illustration of vaccine lymph, give confirmation suited to the general mind of the theoretic views we have advanced, and which are so thoroughly supported by the researches of Prof. Boeck. But the nature of this exotic germ-life which, when intro- duced into the vital economy, is the harbinger of pestilence, is not to be explained by (as the morbid germs themselves are not to be confounded with) the animalculse observed in the dying organism. The bacteria which have been revealed by the microscope, prove only the previous destruction of tissue and its advanced state of decomposition ; such relation being reversed, however, in the case of parasitical growths. Should we pass over, although not precisely relevant in this connection, another condition, under which this morbid germ-life may be sustained, we should be guilty of a neglect which might result in great practical injury. It may not be easy to prove that the germ cells of the Pest or other infectious disease can multiply in excrementitious matter as in the living body. But it would be unsafe to consider the exuviae when kept moist and of a moderate degree of heat,* as incapable .of furnishing the media for such propagation, unless we had reason to conclude that the matters thrown off by the bowels or otherwise, contained none of the nutrient matter, on which these germs of pesti- lence might feed, or the enveloping substances in which they might lie dormant and be preserved. For all practical pur- poses, and as the first law of hygiene applicable to such cases, all matters thrown off from the organism that is contending with the Pest, should be regarded as a fresh nidus of infec- tion ; unless thoroughly disinfected by chlorine, carbolic or sulphurous acids or the like. * Prof. Hertwig stated at the First luternational Veterinary Congress, a case where dung of diseased animals, even after it had lain in % frozen state for four weeks, was known to have trans- mitted infection. (Gamgee's Cattle Plague, p. 479.) Even the water in which Rinderpest flesh (whether previously salted or not) has been washed, if drank by cattle otherwise untainted, will produce an outbreak ; as will the hawking about of the flesh. (lb., p. 36.) 10 74 RINDERPEST. Here it may be desirable to insist upon tbe necessity of a very careful diagnosis. This should be made at the earliest possible opportunity of observation, and then with all the precision which scientific research demands. We have already observed the great importance of thermometric obser- vations as testing the commencement of feverish action at a time anterior to its sensible perception by ordinary methods. Where the means of applying this test are not afforded, it will be proper to observe the condition of the papillae of the buccal cavity (and where easily done of the Schneiderian mem- brane) before epithelial desquamation has taken place. These will show to the eye (more thoroughly if aided with an ordi- nary lens), enlargement if not engorgement, in the uprising of small round nodules (seldom according to Jessen larger than a millet seed), with marked redness beginning at the apex. The papillae are still covered with epithelium, be- neath which, after a little while, a yellowish or yellowish gray fluid can be seen. Within twenty-four hom^s, the invest- ing membrane breaks away, and if the neighboring papillae are not then affected, the minute orifice may soon be hidden and heal ; but if they are, their cicatrices become confluent, the epithelium is rolled off in masses, the scarlet redness of the subjacent mucous membrane is quite apparent, with irre- gular marginal outline. As others in a widening circle become affected, redden, and desquamate towards the outer rim, the central portion thus run over, loses its ruby tinge, and gradually assumes an aphthous or gray appearance, mis- taken by the ignorant for an ulcer. The philosophy of this action in these minute nodules can only be fully revealed through microscopic teachings, which show that each papilla and the villi (fringe-like hairs which emanate from it and give to all mucous membranes, more especially in the smaller bowels, a velvety appearance), are furnished with a complete vascular plexus (arterial mainly in the villi*) ; and that through such exceedingly delicate net- work the diseased blood corpuscles are borne, and are thus enabled to expend their peculiarly destructive action upon * See Quain's Anatomy. GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 75 the speck-like expanse of epithelium which invests the exter- nal surface of this miniature circulation. Whether these processes of congestion and desquamation in the Pest are precisely the same in epizootic aphtha or eczema, is not probable, if analogy be sought with the ob- served action of the latter disease in the fourth stomach, (see p. 40,) where hsemorrhagic or apoplectic effusion and erosion, sometimes attended or followed by melanotic deposits, seem to take the place of the simpler lesions which result from pure capillary congestion in the former malady. N"o careful inqui- sition has, as far as we can learn, been as yet instituted to demonstrate or disprove in the membranes lining the mouth and pharynx, the difference of action just indicated. The appearance to the eye of these lesions in the mouth and the common phenomena of smacking the lips, of aphthous eruption and salivary discharge, are said to be the same in both affections ; and to distinguish between the two, resort is had in order to identify the eczema, to the morbid condition of the cleft of the lame foot, the papulae on the teats and the symptoms of congestion and inflammation of the udder.* The unwary might also easily be deceived by the redness of the vagina which exists in the case of those that have recently calved, or aborted after long gestation, or who arrive at the period of sexual excitement ; if looking only at the arterial color of the parts to which the unusual flow of blood is directed in these processes of nature, they should im- agine a general papillary congestion to have taken place, not to be resolved and fade away without epithelial disorganiza- tion. Nay, it is further said, that in those who are ruminating in pastures and daily yielding a full flow of milk, a like rubes- cent demonstration not unfrequently takes place, so that the mere indications of color may be fallacious. Unless then, the sanguineous tinge of the vulva be seen on the near approach or in immediate presence of the Epizootic Pest, it would be * Gamgee's Cattle Plague, p. 56. 76 RINDERPEST. no sure sign. If the eye, unaided, could not detect en- gorged or discliargiiig papillae, a lens should be brought into requisition, before the true pathological sign should be antici- pated, the destruction and peeling off of the epithelium. We will briefly notice other sources of illusion. The dis- charge from the eyes and nose occurs in many affections, fatal or transient ; but in the Pest, it soon becomes glairy and changes to what is termed a turbid secretion. Yet it would be absurd, in view of the pathology of the murrains of the last century we have so fully detailed ; to confound this discharge with the purulent one, resulting from a phleg- monic or ulcerous condition of the system ; neither should the prediction be too easily made, that the initial watery flow, however copious, would readily be changed to one of more significant consistence or color. Gamgee gives an apt illustra- tion* of this, from cases occurring at his establishment in Edin- burgh, during a series of inoculation experiments, conducted by a commission of the French government. Great care was exercised in the purchase of animals free from the distemper, in order that such experiments might be wholly reliable. Three animals were purchased one day, receiving the guar- anty of the seller as being free from any contamination with the prevailing epidemic. They had each, however, the glairy discharge from eyes and nose, but did not develop any further evidences of ailment. It appeared, on inquiry, that they had been exposed to easterly winds in an ill-sheltered field, and the discharge was only diagnostic of a slight catarrh. Greater complication arises mainly from discrepant author- ities, perchance from inherent causes, as to the proper diag- nostic position of the lung and skin symptoms. Smart aflSrms that " there is no cough or lung symptoms in the pure and uncomplicated examples of the disease," but limits the respiratory changes to a prolonged outhreath (p. 23). Egan, Gooch and Gamgee notice a short, dry or husky cough, with difficulty in breathing (Gooch), attended by more noise in expiration than in pleuro-pneumonia (p. 24). These may, at the commencement of the attack, be regarded as merely * Gamgee'8 Cattle Plague, p. 49. geneeaij pathology. 77 nervous demonstrations, pointing to cerebellar or spinal irrita- tion. But if they do not shortly subside, if with the cough the head is kept depressed and protruded, and a spasmodic action of the nostrils and flanks sets in, serious pulmonary paralytic action, if not lesion, must be apprehended. Gam- gee, combatting the observations and authority of Smart, insists that emphysema occurred in many cases under his eye, usually beginning in the anterior lobes; the modus operandi of the peculiar respiration induced, being explained by Dr. Weber, who says that the anterior intercostal spaces become somewhat fixed, while the jjosterior true ribs are raised with an effort and sink rapidly.* The signs which attend this forceful outbreath on percussion have been given (p. 41 and note). Auscultation reveals rales of various pitches, either accompanying the vesicular murmur or super- seding it. The sounds of the heart are inaudible and impulse imperceptible on the left side.* But these furnish indications of a fatal resolution, and are not to be regarded as among the earlier symptoms. The cutaneous eruption which frequently occurs on the neck, back and teats, justifies a favorable prognosis, if occur- ring in the earlier stages ; but if, instead of drying up and scaling off, the papules remain or multiply, and the color of the skin becomes a dirty yellow, desquamation of the epider- mis becoming general, and the surface of the neck and of the integuments extending over the crops becomes greasy from a sebaceous secretion (see p. 39 and note, &c.), then coma and death may be speedily anticipated. In the first issue the relief that is afforded to the perspiratory energies, with- out serious impairment of the subcuticular structures, is communicated to the nervous centres, and a rallying of the sustaining power is soon manifest. But if, as in the second issue, the destruction of the epithelial cells of the skin pro- ceeds far enough to involve to any great extent the nervous periphery; the ganglia, cord and brain labor with the barest possibility of recuperation of energy. * Gamgee's Cattle Plague, p. 49. 78 EINDERrEST. It is ill view of the preservation of this balnuce of nervous power in struggling' nature, or, if more precisely phrased, of the salient energies of the filamentous nervous expanse reticulating- about every gland and perspiratory orifice of the skin ; that we may find a clue to the mystery in which we were conteut for the time being to remain, when we did not essay in a previous connection (see p. 60) to explain the cereb- ral disturbances, produced by the burrowing of the inoculative virus throughout the epidermic cells and their mucous sub- strata. Nor can we find time to dwell upon this problem in physiology, or deduce auy corollary, except as presage of the practical use to which we may apply it in the treatment recommended. The nature of these eruptions on the skin we have seen not to be vesicular. AVherever they have appeared to be partly umbilical, the Pest is complicated with ordinary cow pox ; Ganigee giving the assurance that he had never seen an eruption of this description where the previous existence of the vaccine pustule could be doubted. Moreover, this erup- tion is not to be mistaken for the maculae or petechiiB which are met with in typhus of the human subject ; the former of which are slightly elevated spots of a dusky pinkish red color, somewhat like the stains of mulberry juice, fading under I)ressure, but changing sometimes to the nature of the latter, which are of a dusky crimson or purple color, numerous and closely compacted, unaftected by pressure. IS'either these eruptions, the appearance of the tongue, the pyrexic period, the general absence of capillary congestion in the bowels, the red serosity found in almost every serous cavity, the deep dusky red hue of every sti'ucture in contact with the blood, in which the salts are increased instead of being diminished ; the absence of bile acids and the presence of tyrosine and leucine (p. 38); nor the absence of exhausting diarrha?a ; the deep inspiration followed by short respirations in rapid suc- cession ; the wasting of the involuntary muscles ; the soft- ening of the heart and the atrophy of the brain which occur in typhus, furnish any common basis from which we may view the Pest as its counterpart ; nor for the justifica- GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 79 tion of the synonym given to it on the Continent, " Typhus bourn contagiosus," or " Le typhus contagieux des betes bo- vines" of the French school. Time will not permit us to notice all those marked symp- toms and lesions of typhoid fever (in themselves very numer- ous and variable) which are not to be found in the vast ma- jority of cases in the Pest. We may briefly specify the greater redness observed on the surface of the mucous membrane in the latter disease (compare the capillary conges- tion of the small bowels, P. IV. fig. I) or the engorged spaces between the rugae of the caecum (PI. YIII fig. I), with Pis. OXII, OXIII, OXIV, of Lebert,* where the mucous surfaces of the smaller bowels do not show congestion beyond ery- thema ; this faint rosy or pinkish redness being a character- istic of typhoid exanthemata in the smaller bowels, as con- firmed bytbe previous exposition of Cruveilhier (Liv.7Pls.l-3). This congestion quite limited to the ileum ; the deepening erythema investing the solitary glands, leaving the adjacent tissue almost ansemic; the ulceration of these glands, as also of those clustered in groups, (Peyer's patches or plates) start- ing from within the mucous bed and inducing frequently gangrene, not only opening out upon the inner surface, but perforating sometimes the peritoneal coat ; the invariable en- largement of the mesenteric glands and of the spleen ; to- gether with infiltration and consequent solidification of the lungs, previously adverted to, (p. 41) make a more marked de- I)arture from the type of the Pest in typhoid than in typhus fever. Yet, however, it must be constantly borne in mind that vital depression, which is the leading characteristic of what is commonly called the typhoid state in disease, is man- ifest in the Pest from the first stages until convalescence is established. The exanthematous process which shows itself, as we have seen in the agminated and solitary glands, producing slight rubescence, then injection, tumidity and enlargement, ordi- nates the general progress of what is commonly described as follicular growth. When the enlargement has reached its * Traite Anatomie Pathologique, Gen. et spec par H. Lebert. Paris, 1855-61. 80 BINDEEPEST. acme two variations occur; in dimiuisbed or suppressed secretions from tlie glands or follicles, or in its becoming more abundant; in wbich last case are manifested alternative methods of disposing of the fluid secreted ; in its either being poured out in the membrane very freely, or in being retained in the cavity of the follicle, becoming inspissated and under- going various other secondary changes.* The progressive stages of exanthematous action thus defined, give enabling facility to explain the seemingly discrepant statements given by difterent observers as to the manifestations of the Pest on the intestinal canal ; in the apparently opposite show of diar- rhoeic discharges, unmixed with mucus, as in the majority of cases (see p. 2G, &c.,) observed by Smart and others ; in more acute cases tinged with blood, becoming dysenteric in appearance, «&c. ; in others jjartaking of the character of rice water stools, and, as in the vaccinated cases, leaving traces of purulent destruction. Yet we are not, by reason of such occasional manifestations, to misapprehend the general nature of this Pest for muco-enteritis or dysentery, as the principal seat of such lesions is in the tubular glands (follicles'of Lie- berkiihn) of the large intestines. The occasional occurrence of rice-water stools intimates that in the acutest form of the catarrhal inflammation of the mucous coat of the intestinal canal, we have some approach to the rapid and fatal exhaustion of cholera ; this leads us to dwell briefly upon the lesions of the latter disease, which bear not only to the ordinary observer, but to the skillful eye of the pathological anatomist, some very singular resem- blances. During the period of transudation, Ave find the same separation of the water and salts of the intercellular fluid of the blood through the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, resulting in the same colliquative discharges r>er anum, and the inspissation of the blood itself, which becomes dark and tarry (p. 38). The hypertrophied muscles, after death, show on section the same dark purple red color, with a shade of blue or violet (p. 30), although, according to Eoki- tansky, this peculiar iridescence is shown in other aftections.t * Rokitansky's Patholog. Anat., Vol. Ill, p. 56. t Typhus, ncnte convulsions, scurvy, cyanosis, and in persons suflfocated. Vol. HI, p. 304. GENEKAL PATHOLOGY. 81 We notice in the pest less marked absence of external heat, comparatively little tendency to the suspension of the de- carbonizing- function of the lung--cel]s ; and while in the intes- tinal canal the follicular structure is equally involved in both maladies, though in a different manner, and except in the rare cases seen in Pest, with discharges of a totally different character ; the congestive process in its earlier stages sug- gests its rationale as well as that of these variations. We need not reiterate that we do not seek to build up any theory of identity or analogy except that which is necessi- tated by the common zymotic character which pervades all pestilences. Having given the few points in which their orbital paths find conjunction, we still desire as far as i)rac- ticable within the narrow compass of a General Eeport to project the direction of their courses in departure. We shall collate two descrijitions of such variations from Perigoif, whose recondite observations on cholera accompanied by remarkable illustrations of lesions (also of microscopic re- searches) are to be found in his Anatomie Pathologique, &c. Premising that in the congestive stages of this disease, we are met with deeper blood-tinting than in any of the affec- tions of the human frame, we have before referred to ; we find it necessary to show other manifestations in these stages in the two diseases, between which it is now proposed to mark the difference. Perigoflf gives in PI. II, fig. 3, (in a case of death in typhoid stage), the sanguineous coloring of membrane less deeply tinged than others given by him, which on cursory examination would seem to be identical with that described by Smart (p. 32 and PL III). Sanguineous effusion upon the mucous membrane in dots occurs also in simple cholera; and when multiplied in an aggravated case j)resents an appearance of dark ecchymosis, bordering upon what is elsewhere described by Perigoff, as the incipient stage of mortification. His PL V, A, fig. 3, gives a view of the sigmoid flexure of the colon in the transition from the algid to the typhoid stage which bears a closer resem- blance to the inoculated cases in Pis. VI and VII (pp. 28 and 30). You can easily see in all of Smart's drawings 11 82 RINDERPEST. that tlie scarlet tiuge we are noticing is tlie result only of the congestion of the minute and intricate network of the capillaries, the attendant sign of this vascularity being always present ; while in these plates of Perigoif, this gorging of the arterial plexus is not apparent, the blood seems rather to be effused, its particles impaired and aggre- gating by some molecular attraction (not of course as in the normal adhesion of the rouleaux) ; in short, in the first plate referred to, a bright red, in the second the deep crim- son tinge quite approximating to a dark red ecchymosis. The mucous membrane in both plagues is peeled off or abrad- ed ; but in the choleraic cases, by a different process, and by a movement starting at a deeper point in the mucous tissue than in most cases of the Pest, being covered with mucosity as well as with detached epithelium ; and when these are removed, presenting not simply the spots of membrane run over by vascular engorgement and left seemingly aphthous; but depressed eschars in the surrounding membrane which is puffed up and ansemic* AVhen we follow Perigoff to his Microscopic Eesearches in cholera, we find his tracings of engorgement of the solitary glands and Peyer's plates, and their transformations ; of capil- lary congestion of the villi (villosities of the continental schools), as well as the deeper burro wings in the mucous coat ; confirming to a large extent the observations previously made, and giving the starting point, of congestion, infiltra- tion and exudation in most if not all zymotics. We must * For conflrmation of these and more singular indications and processes of abnormal action and illustrations of its rationale, see pi. V. A., fig. 1, where Brunuer's glands decpl}' inflamed, sur- rounded b}' injection are ready to ulcerate, summits j'ellow and containing pus ; the membrane (duodenum) swollen and presenting traces of dysenteric exudation ; also fig. 2 in same plate, where the mucous membrane completely hypertemical, is covered by thick adherent greenish yel- low effusion, composed of the debris of plastic globules, epithelial cells, &c. PI. VIII. gives sec- tion of the colon of one who had suftered from chronic diarrhosa when cholera supervened, and shows the aphthous appearance resulting from the former affection, with hj^perremia and sanguin- eous effusion in the intervening spaces from the latter. Ulcerations of Peyer's plates were seen but three times and then in the cholero-typhoide period. Comp. pi. IX., flg. 5 & U. PL XII. gives section of stomach in diptheritic cholera, the mucous membrane being hj^perajmic, and covered in places by patches of adherent gray exudation, these surrounded by a grey areola ; when the patches are scraped off', the subjacent membrane very hyperremical. (Comp. pi. VI., fig. 2.) In the case where the stomach was covered more or less with mushrooms (eaten in Lent by a Russian), the membrane showed a swollen appearancee, being described as in "uu etat catarrhal aigu"— hypersemic with punctated injection. GENEEAL PATHOLOGY. 83 refer tlie curious iu such details to the subjoined translation* of the text expository of these minute portraitures. The deficiency of its proper salts in Einderpest blood has been previously noticed (p. 38). In the inquiries prosecuted by Dr. A. Ganigee to ascertain the changes which this and other fluids underwent in the earlier and progressive stages of the disease ; no attempt was made to ascertain the percentage * Pathological alterations of the mucous membrane of intestines, enlarged 50 to 400 times, as given by PerigofF in explanation of his Plate XVI. Fig. 1. Peyer'8 plates (glands) of ileum, tumefied by simple choleraic processes, enlarged eight times ; mxccous membrcme detached, muscular covering naked. Plate of Peyer looked like a bunch of grapes, composed of semi-transparent vesicles reposing upon the mucous membrane, and covered by villosities. When magnified, the epithelial cells, their nuclei and globules, resem- ble somewhat the microscopic elements of vecani plastic exudations. Figs. 6-9. Isolated follicles of mucous membrane represented under aspect of vesicles, a little swelled, as in chronic maladies of mucous membrane, and surrounded by &bloody areola. Fig. 7. Shows enlarged by microscope nearly 30 times, little flj^-spots (mouchetures), round and blackened : met on mucous merabraue, near the isolated crypts in the typhoid stage of cholera and chrojiic diarrhoea, shown under the form of an areola, composed of the vessels of the sub-mu- cous coat ; at circumference and center of areola, sometimes numerous blackened points or fly spots, being the ruins of bloody globules escaped from the vessels and dispersed in the mucous tissue. Sulphate of iron enters into their composition, as is proved by its solubility in Hydro-chloric acid. The contents of these crypts resemble epithelial cells, and their nuclei; more than pyoid and plastic globules. Fig. 8. Isolated follicles, tumefied, enlarged 10 times and covered with villosities, which are swelled and engorged with blood. Figs. 10-11. Superficial layer of eschars in large intestines ; brown appearance depends upon agglomeration by matters of decomposed bloody globules, under aspect of brown spots, (con- taining sulph. iron) sometimes deep purple. Numerous crystals on surface of scars are the double salts of ammoniated phosphate of magnesium. Same microscopic elements seen in dysenteric exudations accompanying cholera. Figs. 13-21. Villosities of mucous membrane, covered with cylindrical epithelium, seen some- times in the algid (cold) period, dissolved in choleraic liquid, macerated and swollen ; and epitheli- al envelope detached and exfoliated. Alight touch detaches it completely; under the microscope looks like the down of the dandelion. The denuded villosities show sometimes a strong hyper- semic state, the vascular net-work is completely injected; or, in places, sometimes an amemic state ; the empty vessels showing across the pulp of the villositl.es, covered again in some places by nuclei of detached epithelium — the black fly spot and globules of blood decomposed and com- ing out of the vessels on the pulp of the villosities ; and the principal coloring that of bile. Some- ■ times, in fine, WiG. tissue of the villosities despoiled of the epithelium, is softened, macerated ; their extremities are ragged, flocculent, ulcerated and mortified. The pufling up of the villosi- ties, the hyperiemia, and tendency of the epithelium to detach itself after the maceration in the choleraic emulsion are principally observed in the algid period. It seems that the cellules of the epithelium were themselves altered. They appeared more swollen, more gorged with liquid, and fuller of fatty globules, than in the normal state. At the same time the mucous coat of the intestines is pale and antemic, the sub-serous vascular net-workis incompletely injected, and even when the vascular net-work of the villosities shows itself to the microscope, empty in whole or iu part, the contour of these vessels remains incom- parably more distinct than in the normal state. One sees that the net-work was but lately filled ■with blood, and that it had been in a hyperiemic state. I have often observed with the microscope, bloody globules in the vascular net-work of the vil- losities agglomerated, adhering strongly to the coats, having an angular form, stellated, color deep purple, yellow-brown or black-brown. As to the villosities deprived of epithelium, covered 84 EINDEEPEST. wliich tlie salts bore to either, except in- the case of the milk.* The analysis of the urinet in some cases showed the chlo- rides to be abundant ; in others, where inflammation (pneu- monic especially) was extensive, deficient; but these were never quantitatively determined. It is to be regretted that the same elaborate examination has not been essayed to ascertain the loss of the several saline constituents of the blood, and the order in which they take their departure from the serum as well as from the blood corpuscles in cases of the Pest, as has been in those of cholera. We would then with little points of a yellowisli or dark brown, softened and ulcerated, they have been ob- served principally during the typhoid period, and in the mixed kind of choleraic processes. Finally, in typhoid and choleraic dysenteric forms, I have often seen the mucous membrane, especially in the ileiim, stripped of its villosities for a considerable extent. The exfoliation of the cylindrical epithelium, and the denudation of the villosities, are not to be considered as pathological indications essential and characteristic of cholera. Ist. Because found in chronic diarrhoea, in typhus and dysentery, and other affections of the digestive canal. 2d. Not always found, in the algidperiod, at least, in such degree as to be regarded as i\i.e pnncipal alteration of the mucous membrane of the intestines ; and, 3d. When the exfoliation of the epi- thelium by the choleraic process has taken place, even to a considerable extent , this alteration is probably not primitive, but more a consecutive state, depending upon the dissolving and maceration of the villosities in the choleraic liquid. Fig. 22. The fatty globules on the liver are agglomerated, are of different sizes, and spread here and there in little clusters among the cellules of the liver, which also contain a greater number of the fatty globules than in the normal state. *Results of the Analysis of the Milk op Cows suFPEKiNa from Rinder- pest OBTAINED AT EVENINa MiLKING, NOVEMBER 17. No. of sample, Total quantity of milk obtained. Density, Water in 1000 parts, Solid matters " Casein, " Butter, " Sugar of milk, " Soluble salts, " Insoluble salts, " Day when animal became af- fected, No. 1. 9 oz. lOSt.S 903.100 96.900 52.0870 27.7180 7.7210 5 . 9755 3.3985 Nov. 17 No. 2. 9M oz. 1024.4 866.166 138.834 51.030 70.279 8.463 3.798 5.264 Nov. 16 No. 3. 5X oz. 1030.05 857.282 142 718 54.295 63.689 14.740 4.166 5 834 Nov. 15 No. 4. 2>^ oz. 813.60 186.40 34.921 129.314 12.820 4.795 4.550 Nov. 16 No. 5. 2^ oz. 1026.6 875.311 124.69 54.880 48.401 12.345 4.873 4.191 Nov. 16 Average Cow's milk. 870.20 139.80 44.80 31.30 47.70 6.00 + The specific gravity of the urine rose with the charge of albumen and excess of urea, from 1021 (urea 1.71 per cent) to 1034 (urea 5.47 per cent), in which last case, that of a cow slaughtered on third or fourth day of disease, which had suffered great dyspnoea during life and showed most marked pulmonary emphysema after death, on the addition of nitric acid to the urine, and with- out concentrating, a large amount of nitrate of urea separated out. (Cattle Plague, p. 78.) GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 85 have the confirmation of what must remain for the present as a probability, that in all zymotics such an order exists ; and that leaving- out of view those where the process of the decarbonization of blood in the lung's is arrested at the outset, or in the earliest stages of attack, this order is in most of the pestilential classes of disease much the same ; making a fair allowance for incidental changes in the terms of the series by way of permutation. This order in cholera, as determined by the ingenious researches of Dr. Schmidt of Dorpat, marks the steps by which the constituents of the serum transude into the alimentary canal, and after such action has been established for a little, those of the blood corpuscles move into the serum. This order is as follows : First the water of the serum (and of the blood- corpuscles in turn) passes before the solids, then the inorganic . before the organic solids ; next the clilorides before the phosphates ; and last, the salts of soda before those of potash. And in giving this summary, it is interesting to observe that the order, as Dr. Aitken says, "is very much the same as takes place during the action of some purgative medicine, such as elate- Kow although it would be appropriate for those versed in Pathological lore, and standing in the foremost ranks of science, or those capable of such intricate research, to com- pare the gradual withdrawal from the vital circulajtion of these essential constituents, with the symptoms which such successive drains upon the fountain of life produce ; we may be pardoned in the attempt to draw attention to such consid- erations as next demanding elucidation in the advancing pro- gress of Pathological inquiries, if we interpose an inference. Dr. A. Gamgee has intimated that the disappearance of chlo- rides from the urine, indicates the existence of pulmonary trouble, not hypostasis, carnification, or serous effusion, but what is ijopularly, as we have noticed in our earlier pages, termed difficulty of breathing, &c., in short, a state bordering upon asphyxia, l^ow, as it is fair to presume (at least until science by exact methods has determined otherwise) that the * Science and Practice of Medicine, Vol. I, p. 606. 86 • EINDEEPEST. chlorides leave the serum at a stage in the Pest correspond- ing to that when they move in cholera ; but whether at this time or at this stage in the process the bases of soda and 13otash go also or remain a little longer in the circulation, so that a disengagement of chlorine takes place in the blood, and is carried to the luugs in greater or less quantities, producing the partial asphyxia in the Pest commonly as before (p. 67) ascribed to uervous irritation, or that more general suspension of the aerating action of the lungs occur- ring in the algid state of cholera ; it may not be wholly pertinent or appropriate in us to inquire. We may venture at least upon such themes when we come to the therapeutical part of our labor. Stopping only to draw the attention of the scientific reader to the similarity in form, of the crystals produced by the. changes in the saline constituents of the blood, effecting in their singular escapade from the vascular system, new combinations on the surface of the tissues ; we ask the ex- pert in such microscopic crystallography, to say whether the cubical crystals Gamgee observed* are the same as those seent by Perigoff ; and then we would invite the attention of the Chemico-Physiologist to their true substance and composition : and if truly ammoniated phosphate of magnesium, to explain by what process, and in which of the series of saline degen- eration as just stated, they are formed. But let us bring this extended pathological summary to a close ; and claim, without any further attempt to sub- stantiate the thesis ; that it is necessary, in order to em- brace the various cases set forth in our earlier tracings of symptoms and morbid anatomy, and to bring unity out of their apparent diversity, to propound the following classifica- tion for the main varieties or stages of the Pest. 1. The Congestive or Catarrhal Stage, presenting the dis- ease in its simple and uncomplicated forms, where the lesions do not extend deeper than the epithelial coat of the mucous membrane wherever affected. * Page 62, PI. X, figs. 3, 5 and 6. t Page S3, note on figs. 10 and 11. TREATMENT. 87 2. The JEmidsive or HyperfEinic Stage in which the mucous membrane is softened (more so in all probability by its own ejections lying in the concave folds of the intestine, &c.) ; pours forth mucin in thin form, and is sometimes in parts completely degenerated, losing its hold on the muscular coat. (See p. 34, &c.) 3. The Exudative Stage, where the separation of lymph proceeds, and croupous casts or diphtheritic deposits are formed or poured out (like polypus). (See pp. 30, 31, 37, &c., and plates VI, figs. 1 and 2, VIII, figs. 3 and 4.) 4. The Suiypurative Stage, when the follicular growth takes on a pyoid form, and granulations are attended with purulent destruction. (See pp. 34-37.) It is only necessary to add that it is highly probable, giv- ing due weight and place to the evidence adduced by different observers, in various climes, and in successive outbreaks, touching the inoculative as well as natural forms of the Pest, that the largest number of cases would be found occurring and terminating either favorably or fatally in the first stage ; and that the residue would be ratably proportioned among the other stages, in a ratio, declining with the advanced complica- tions which they respectively portray. III. Treatment. The treatment of a distemper so insidious in its attack, subtle and masked in its incubative stage, and if left uncheck- ed, so fearfully fatal in its development, demands a method that shall be prompt and .resolute, and based upon the calmest conclusions of science. All empirical modes should meet with a sturdy rejection. Blood-letting, and the vulgar nostrums of farriery, should be discarded. The veterinary who has not thoroughly grasped by careful study the scope and action of this zymotic, should be denied a consultation or a fee. It would be better to trust to nursing and to nature than to him. For his professional blunders might, by the myriads of germs of pestilence created and diffused under his unskilful eye, add to the dumb creature his bungling 88 EINDEEPEST. destroys, holocausts of sacrifices to his qnackeiy. It would be otherwise with the instructed and intelligent expert. Veterinary science is now invoking to its aid the most erai- nent pathologists and therapeutists of the age, in order to secure the mastery of this disease. And this should not only be a cause of gratulation to all agriculturists of whatever nation or clime, and a source of hope for the future ; but it should inspire all further investigation, and the handling of everj^ case, wherever and whenever it may occur, with the same feeling. We do not hesitate then to say, terrible as the pictures of such desolations as have been wrought in Great Britain may be, that the treatment of this pestilence in any new country it may visit, should, from its first onset, be courageous and hopeful. The arm of science thus nerved strikes always for victory. And with the facts fresh in our recollection that the Eczema which broke out in England in 1839, and the typhoid or exudative pneumonia which followed in 1841, have lost all their terrors, and can only be found in a few sporadic cases in enzootic form ; we rejoice that the Edinburgh Committee, through Dr. Wood, their chairman, have proclaimed their faith that this epizootic is to become milder in its type, and that its fatal ravages will be notably diminished. Should this disease ever hold an extended reign in this country, not the knife but scientific treatment will check and overturn its empire. If the farming population, and those to whom cattle are a necessity, not only for milk, but for the purposes of labor and breeding, can be duly advised of the latter method, they will not be compelled to resort too un- frequently to the former. But it is not meant by this that science is indifferent to those wise measures of jjrecaution embodied in salutary enactments by the legislative authority. Isolation and quarantine are an essential i^art of scientific treatment, and unless these can be secured, and, with other approved remedial agencies, applied skillfully and oppor- tunely as to time ; destruction and instant burial with the use of disinfectants are the only alternatives left to incaution and ignorance. TEEATMENT. 89 As science cannot accept tlie rude instruments witli which fear always urges ignorance to arm itself, so the common sense of j^ractical men soon revolts from their long continued employment. The proprietors and tenant farmers of Kincardineshire, by memorial addressed in February, 1866, to the Privy Council, stated that until a then recent period, they were of opinion with a great majority of her Majesty's subjects — " That stamping out by slaughtering all diseased animals, and those in immediate contact with them, was the only remedy ; but that within the last few weeks a great change had taken place in your memorial- ists' opinions regarding this matter, in consequence of the successful treatment of the Plague in the parishes with which your memorialists are connected .... &c." After stating that on certain farms eighty cattle had been cured and only one died, and their belief that by pursuing such treatment, ninety per cent at least might be safely brought through the dreadful Plague; they besought the Honorable Council to act under a proviso for such purpose, expressed in the Cattle Plague Act of 29 Vict., Chap. 2, and to exempt from its operation (i. e., the slaughter of infected animals) for a period of two tveeJcs, all cattle coming under the immediate care of the Inspector whose treatment of the disease had been so successful ; to the end that if the experi- mental trial thus to be sanctioned should have a successful result, a like measure of relief might be extended to other districts. Strange to say, the Council refused to give a beneficent and liberal interpretation to the clause referred to, fell back upon the alleged original understanding of its pur- port by both Houses of Parliament ; confined its interpreta- tion to experimental cases under the direct charge of the Cattle Plague Commissioners, and refused the prayer of the memorialists. We pause a moment to remind the reader that more benign and less ambiguous provisions mark the enactments of law adopted by the State of E^ew York on the recommendation of its Agricultural Society. The " stamping out " process it is conceded, may effect the end it proposes within certain limits, provided these are sufii- 12 90 RINDERPEST. cieutly extended to comprelieud all infected cases. But if tlie quarantine prove to be an imaginary one, or if tlie pesti- lence lias broken out tbrougli atmospberic agencies and bas extended itself beyond tbe limits of frontier or local cordons, tben wben tbe maladroitness of fancied security bas been foiled, and all tbe allied antagonists to scientific metbods are prostrated, tbis dnttum fuhnen recoils upon its abettors ; and tbe appeal tbat tben comes to tbe skill tbey despised loses tbe full measure of benefit to bave been secured at tbe outset, bad better, not baser agencies been employed. Tbese are tbe plain practical lessons wbicb tbe bistories of all epidemics in tbe buman family, and of all plagues among the brute races, clearly and invariably teacb. Tbey mark tbe bold uprising and clamor of empiricism, and in its successive overthrows by tbe strides of pestilence tbey jioint to tbe modest but masterly persuasions and trials of science for true and enduring relief. And if we seem to dwell upon sucb teachings, it is because we are conscious that as " the still small voice " followed the tempest, tbe earthquake and the fire, and the preparations for it was not until these fearful manifestations bad awed the querulous, and doubting prophet ; so it always is in the face of mortal pestilences tbat tbe bowlings of terror, tbe onslaught of savage phrenzy and the fierce desolations of misguided zeal, precede the calm and benign intuitions of mercy and judgment, which make up what we call science, and give to it the radiance of a divine vision. Happy are those who are saved from the period of agita- tion, tumult and dismay, to witness the return of serene and successful counsels and procedures. Most fortunate is tbe people who, anticipating tbis as the natural order of events wherever prejudice and passion hold their course, use all their energy and wisdom to cut short or forestal their sway, and hasten to usher in the reign of order and method. As above intimated, we bave to propose, before we con- clude this branch of our subject, a method of treatment to be approved by the Society, and as we hope, also by minds versed in or attracted by scientific investigations. But before TEEATMBNT. 91 we proceed to so responsible a venture, we will pass in review the various methods pursued by the different schools in medi- cine, and by distinguished veterinarians and practitioners of the medical Art ; and to avoid repetition, such as contribute to the scheme we may propose will not be particularly dwelt upon in this general review. The different schools have been fertile in their inventions and modifications of the treatment pursued, whether prophy- lactic, hygienic or curative. Of these, the Allopathic, as the older and with a larger discipleship, is first in the order of our sketch, and of this school in Great Britain, Smart and Gamgee may be ranked as the leading authorities. In con- nection with the former, the Edinburgh Committee, made up of highly distinguished physicians and veterinarians, &c., deserve marked attention. Dr. Smart, who claims to have had considerable success in the treatment of the Pest, a summary of which we quote from his Eeport to the Lord Provost and magistrates of the city of Edinburgh, in extenso ; has, after insisting upon careful and assiduous nursing, proposed three kinds of drugs as all he found requisite to employ, to wit : *Laxative, with diu- retic action — f Stimulant (also possessing diuretic and diapho- retic properties) ; and as Tonic, one and a half ounces of powdered cinchona bark of the best quality, to be used when convalescence is fully established. This last is given in the early period of convalescence in combination with the stimulant, and at a later period with a quart of good sweet ale, given once daily and at night. He recommends, also, that two table-spoonfuls of laudanum be added to any of the mixtures prescribed or combined with its food, to control excessive diarrhoea, or obviate straining. His plan of diet requires the use of simple food, and until decided convalescence, well cooked, and given in small por- tions at regular hours. The full diet, (devised, according to * Laxative. Nitrate of Potaeh, ) , j^ ^ Powdered Ginger, ) Powder of sublimed Sulphur, 2 ounces. Treacle, 1 pound. Water to make a quart, and well mixed. + Stimulant. Carbonate of Ammonia, X of an ounce. ■ Sweet Bpirits of nitre, ( ^f each IK ounces. Spirit of MmdereruB, j- "* ^<*^" ^-/s " Cold water, 9 ounces. Mix. 92 EINDERPEST. Gauigee, by one of the best managers of cows he ever knew, who was in attendance at Smart's experimental byres) is composed of^ — " Four handsful each of branand brewer's draiF; one pound of pease- meal ; two pounds of mashed turnip (well boiled), not too thick, and given night and morning. At mid-day a gruel is given, of two pounds of oatmeal, well boiled in six quarts of water. In addition to these, some raw turnips (two pounds, for example, of greentojjs), and one pound of hay, may be allowed in small quantities during the twenty- four hours. To allay thirst, three to four quarts of water, pre- viously boiled and allowed to cool, are given in mouthfuls during the day.* This constitutes the full diet of a decided convalescent. Half of this diet is, in most instances, during the acute course of the dis- ease, too much. In all cases the same kind of food and periods of giving it are followed. There are some animals that for a time refuse all food, not excepting gruel. In such cases the gruel is administered by the bottle thrice daily, along with or after the medicine. The animal should get a little mash so soon as it takes it voluntarily. It is often expedient to miss a meal, esj)ecially whenever symptoms of an unfavorable indication appear. These are not of unfrequent occurrence during the course of treatment. Grass is given, and the quantity of hay and turnip increased as there is progress toward more ]3erfect recovery." His summary of treatment is as follows : 1. The animal is at once taken from its ordinary food and separa- ted from the rest. 2. It is to be placed in a well-aired byre or house free from draughts, and the temperature of which is maintained at 70° Fahr. or 75° Fahr. 3. It is to be well rubbed down, and thoroughly cleaned and cov- ered with a good rug. 4. If there be constipation, begin with the laxative and continue night and morning, or if required, oftener, until there is free scouring. 5. Let there be no delay in giving the stimulant, and, if needful, combine it with the laxative. 6. Defer giving ale and bark until convalescence appears. 7. To obviate straining or excessive purging, two tablespoonfuls of laudanum, night and morning, may be added to other medicine. * Many of the diseased animals evince a remarkable predilection for charred wood ; and as car- bon is an excellent antiseptic, it is only obeying a natural indication to supply materials to satisfy this craving. To do so, charred wood may be boiled with the water, and a few small charred branches of trees placed in the stall. TEEATMENT. 93 8. Be careful to avoid overfeeding, as an error in diet may prove fatal. 9. See that the cow is well milked night and morning (even when there is no yield), during the course of the disease. 10. All the droj)pings should be at once disinfected by solution of chloride of lime, and quickly removed. 11. The affected animals should be frequently and closely observed, and threatening indications treated as they occur. We give also in a note,* several examples of successful treatment, wMcli may serve as a guide as well as encourage- ment to the uninitiated. * First case. — A cow from an infected byre in the Canongate, admitted on the 21s< Septemler ; was very weak, and expected to die the same night ; the breathing was labored and sighing, and the animal was cold all over. Had taken no food for five days previously ; the milk and cudding quite absent during that period ; put under treatment next day, when it was thoroughly rubbed down and covered with double rugs. As there was already scouring, it was ordered stimulants three times a day, and to be fed entirely on gruel. It got worse apparently for two days ; scour- ing became excessive, and mixed with blood. On the %ath the cow was so well as to be allowed a little mash. The temperature was good, scouring less, and there was abundance of healthy urine. 0)1 26licable alike to most acids and corrosive drugs; that in its administrative trials every etl'ort shoidd be made to avoid as far as possible those local lesions in the digestive canal, which induce death before the general con- stitutional disturbance is produced ; for it is this alone which it is of importance carefully to study, both in the consequent cbang:es induced in the lining- or enveloi)ing- tissues of the principal organs — in their substance, and in that of the fluids of the body. AcidHui acetlcum {radical vinegar, as it was formerly called), may prove of more value than any other acid in this disease, and, if so, is of ready use in domestic vinegar. l>y doses of four tablespoonfuls a day of the latter given to adults, Dr. Parrot, of Dorpat, Eussia, successfully treated many cases of epidemic typhus in 1812 ; and this where the fever was accom- l>anied with obstinate diarrluea. In this latter symptom its use is always admirable. Dr. Thomson says that it has been administered in com- biiuition with salt in dysentery, checking* the purging- and correcting the factor of the stools.* Its existence in the sweat has been shown by Thenard, and when the acid is combined w ith a base, the a(hlitiou of the perchloride of iron to a solution of the salt, produces a deep blood red color, an etfect not observed, when the free acid is alone employed.! In this view, as well as of the combination commended by Dr. Thomson, its use would be more etticacious in a Zymotic, ♦ Materia ^fodioa. Vol. 11, p. 50. In tho prosonce of tho more fiisliionaWo reniodios of the ajje, this has almost passed into oblivion as an ethcient assent in Phthisis, for whieh Galon prescribed it, and Oriental physicians now nse it. In the form of vinesjrar its use is mostly eonflned to domestic cookin';, unless when some young female, nshamed of her obcbity, uses it so IVcely as to iuduce hiemoptysis and consumption. + Simon's Chemistry, Vol. I, p. 86. TREATMENT. 123 when saturated with salt, the compound to be adminiKtered hiv}^it\y diluted with wat<;r. It may be also ur^(;d that tills aeid represents <;h(imieally the fruit aeids — at h;ast the one most C/ominon in this elimate and country — Malic Acid. Liebi/^ r(5f»ardH all the org^anic acids as having an analogous constitution, and deems it " tlic moHi natiinil HHf)poHiliori lliut tlM^y conta,iri in one}) caHO a com- pound radicul, of which Jlylro^^cn is an clement; in Hucli a manner therefore that the convci'Hion of (Jarhonic Acid into an organic acid. liaH been cflected by tlie r(!))hicernent of a jtart or of the wliole of the oxygon of tfie radical, by hydrogen." In this way, and on this supposition, he makes the formula} of Acetic and Malic Acids the same, and adds : "It iH eaHy to see that tlic formula; of Acetic and Malic Acids cor- rcHpond to that of Oxalic Acid (only being doubled), and that Tar- taric Acid iu Carbonic Acid, in which half the oxygen of the radical liaH been replaced by hydrogen, while one-fourth of the oxygen external to tlie radical haH been separated or expelled without replacement."* It is not to be inferred, however, that the chemical theory of eriuivalents as thus expressed, is to serve as a foundation for equivalent medical action ; or that any such experience as is found in the laboratory would be repeated in the stomach of either man or beast. But the manipulations and conclusions of the chemist may serve as our sutlicient autho- rity for introducing these acids under the general classification and at the point we proposed at first on grounds of con- venience. And here it may meet a scientific requireinent, to bring to notice other prinjordial elements of blood-food. In such way this branch of our inquiry may take to itself a more perfect unity. We have cited common salt as the represeutar ♦ Animal Chomiijtry, p- '53, Atncr'u (Hd London) udltion. The formulaj arc a« follows : Carbonic Acid, C2 y ^ -f O2 = 2 K + 2 O. Oxalic Acid, C'2 [] ( -f O = 2 It + O. Malic Acid, C4 JJ^ i -f- O2 = -1 K -f 2 O. Acetic Acid, C4 Y/' i -f O2 = 4 It + 2 O. Tartaric Acid, C4 {J^ I _)_ O3 = 4 K -f 3 O. i 24 EINDERPEST. tive of the mineral constituents of the animal economy. We might, had our limits permitted, also have adduced the salts of potash and lime; of which nitre and the iodide and chlorate of potash and the phosphite of lime are the representatives in medical practice now most commonly in use. But of the non- mineral constituents, it is understood that the carbonaceous element of the animal frame (through vegetables) is derived from Carhonic Acid, two of whose analogues, as therapeutic agents, we have adverted to ; that the non-nitrogenized ele- ment (as in sugar, starch, oils, &c.) derives its hydrogen from tvater; while the nitrogenized elements (as in muscle, gluten, &c.) take their nitrogen from Ammonia. But as the uses of water are well known, and we have pre- viously expressed our views as to the value of ammonia as a medicinal agent, we may be considered as having sufficiently dwelt upon the typal forms of blood-food, and may pass to the second class, of those for which the claim has been made, of specificity in the Pest. On this class, the one which embraces antagonistic fer- ments, we shall not dwell long ; as we will not undertake to discuss and do not care even to point to those which in putrescent cheese or meat (as in badly prepared Bologna sausage), when introduced into the human stomach, have produced such subversion of the natural fermenting power of that organ and its adjuncts, as in many instances to baffle all medical skill. It is our purpose to treat in this class only of yeast, which, as we have seen (p. 100), has been said to have been success- fully tried as a remedy for the Pest ; and our view of it as a remedy will be chiefly by way of comparison. Yeast deports itself in the presence of many agents and re-agents, as the ferments of zymotic disease are believed to do, and may in this respect be regarded as their type. As familiar as the common mind is with this substance, its sci- entific definition may not find such ready discernment. It is a compound of nitrogen in the state of putrefaction or eremacausis (slow combustion or decay), possessing the power of causing fermentation in sugar or non-nitrogenized TREATMENT. 125 organic bodies, of which sugar and starch are the commonest instances, and carbon the chief constituent. The presence of water is necessary to sustain its power of exciting fer- ment, and this is lost under pressure, or when the yeast is desiccated and dried. It is alone its soluble part, however, that possesses the property of inducing fermentation, and this only after it has received oxygen from the atmosphere to which it must be first exposed. It then developes in its mass carbonic acid. Like vaccine or purulent matter — if not kept dry too long, and under attendant circumstances which ensure its own decomposition — when again moistened, it starts afresh on its destructive mission. The fermenting process is easily carried forward to putre- faction in bodies containing nitrogen, of which, in the animal organism, blood is the primum moMle. And as nitrogen has so low an affinity for the simple bodies, that it is said to be in a state of indifference to them, its evolution is always attended with an easy transposition of atoms. When acted on by alkalies, by acids, or increase of temperature ; organic compounds, containing nitrogen in the presence of water, throw off" all that element in the form of nitrates ; but if the azotised animal matter first moistened, be exposed to the action of the oxygen in the atmosphere ; then in the form of ammonia. When gluten, the vegetable equivalent of albu- men, is subject to the putrefactive process ; after the evolution of carbonic acid and hydrogen commences, the ammonia takes on its forms of phosphate, acetate, caseate and lactate, which are produced in large quantities ; so that for the time being the decomposition of the gluten ceases. But if water is freshly added, the process is renewed, and then in addi- tion to the products just mentioned, we have carbonate and hydrosulphate of ammonia and a mucilaginous substance co- agulable by chlorine, &c. Those who desire to follow the labyrinthine changes of which nitrogen is capable, will find that subject elaborately treated by Liebig,* from whom we have freely taken the views above expressed. We must turn, * Ag. Chemistry, p 282, et seq. 3.26 EINDEEPEST. however, to the brief consideration of the agencies by which fermentation is arrested. These are embraced in a long catalogue known as anti- septics, of which we may mention the most important; to wit, boiling water, alcohol, salt, an excess of sugar, the mer- curial salts, nitrate of silver, volatile oils ; the mineral, pyro- ligneous, sulphurous and carbolic acids. " Alcohol and common salt, in certain proportions, check also all putrefaction, and consequently all processes of fermentation ; because by these means the putrefying body is deprived of a certain condition of its decomposition, namely, the presence of a certain quantity of water." The action of these antiseptics, in arresting yeast ferment, and also the putrefactive process in animal substances, is of the highest interest in the pathology and treatment of zymotic disease, and will readily furnish to the enthusiastic student of medicine most valuable suggestions. His aim in their appli- cations in medical and veterinary practice, will be to select such as will produce the least disturbance, transient or per- manent, on the vital force. We will only add, that from the similarity of the action, while in the state of propagation, of yeast and morbid poisons, and the identity of the means bv which it may be arrested, that it is not improbable that yeast may exert a curative action in the Pest ; though even such probability requires that more numerous trials should be suc- cessfully instituted than those previously noted. The old school of medicine has long since exhausted its ingenuity in the use of mercurial salts and the like, in the treatment of epidemics, and has passed from the general use of the mineral acids ; and the present school rejoices in the dis- covery of the efficacy of those last named in our list, to wit, sulphurous and carbolic acids. This brings us to the consideration of two of the most valuable antiseptic remedies; which are embraced in our third division of specific agencies. The farmer has long been familiar with the fact, that if he burns a little sulphur ia a barrel which has been rinsed out with water, and confines the fumes produced, so that they are TREATMENT. 127 absorbed by the wet surface of the staves ; the cider he may subsequently pour into the vessel, Avill remain sweet for a long period and will not undergo the fermentation ordi- narily induced. This preserving power is one of the attri- butes of the sulphurous (not sulphuric) acid generated in the combustion of suljjhur, and has been taken as the start- ing point for some exceedingly ingenious researches by Dr. A. Polli, of Milan. This learned professor adopted the cata- lytic theory of disease, as applicable to those maladies in which the blood having absorbed some poisonous morbific germs, undergoes marked constitutional changes ; and though he was met at the threshold of his investigation by the dog- matic assertion of the celebrated Bernard, that any substance capable of destroying a catalytic poison in the blood, would so affect that fluid, that it would be thereafter incapable of vital function ; persisted in his inquiries, until he satisfied himself that not only did sulphurous acid possess this power, but that its compounds with soda, lime, or magnesia whether hyposulphites, simple sulphites, or bi-sulphites also exercised the same function, and could be exhibited in large doses and with perfect impunity. Two animals of the same kind, size, and condition, and fed alike for a few days, except that one received a certain amount of a sulphite in his food, were slaughtered; when it was discovered that the latter gave evidence of the existence of the drug in every tissue, organ, and secretion ; and furthermore, remained perfectly fresh though the weather was that of summer in a tropical clime ; while the former, to which no sulphite had been given, rapidly passed after death into an advanced stage of decom-r position. This experiment being confirmed by many others equally satisfactory, the deduction naturally followed, that as no fermentation could exist in the presence of a sulphite, and as this remedy could be administered without any injury to the vital function, and permeate every part of the living structure, that it was only necessary to saturate the system with a sulphite, in order either to prevent, or arrest the cata- lytic action in all zymotic maladies. 128 EINDERPEST. But further to establish this deduction by facts, the Pro- fessor next selected two dogs of equal size and weight, and in perfect health ; fed and treated them alike for four or five days, except that to one was administered a certain quantity of the bi-sulphite of soda. Some very foetid pus obtained from an ill-conditioned ulcer was then injected into the femoral veins of each dog (about a drachm to each), the experiment being repeated on the next day. After the first operation, both laid down, refused food, and remained pros- trated for twenty-four hours. The effect of the second injec- tion was more marked. They were seized with stupor, their pulses were rapid and feeble, and their respiration greatly accelerated ; when made to rise they tottered and reeled across the room. The one to whom the bi-sulphite had not been given grew worse, his wound in the thigh became gangrenous, and in ten days he died with all the symptoms of typhus; while by that time the other, receiving his daily dose, and having regained in four days his appetite, was entirely well. Like experiments have been conducted in a vast Dumber of cases by the Professor and his compeer, Dr. De Eicci ; sanious matter from ill-conditioned and phagedenic sores, — deflbrinated blood exposed to the air until it has become putrid — the discharge from the nostrils of glandered horses — have been employed, and in all cases proved fatal without — and wholly innocuous with — the concomitant use of the sul- phites. Conversely De Ricci has exhibited the bi-sulphite in an alarming case of septicaemia, produced by a lady's kissing the lips and face of a dear friend who had died very suddenly ; giving nearly twenty grains of the bi-sulphite in infusion of quassia, &c., every half hour at first, and then every hour ; and with the most perfect success. Since that time the use of the sulphites has been extended to cases of scarlatina ; mea- sles ; phlebitis, originating from the stinging of the back of the hand by the spines of a cactus ; the malignant epidemics of the Northern Coast of Africa ; puerperal fevers, &c.* * Dublin Quart. Journal, August, 1864 ; Glasgow Medical Journal, October, 1865. TREATMENT. 129 la most if not all these diseases, the administration of the sulphites has also proved prophylactic. When the fermenting process is arrested by sulphurous acid, the rationale of such action, according to Liebig, is that atoms of oxygen are taken up from the liquor of ferment, and combining with those of the sulphurous acid, form Sul- phuric Acid. If this transposition in inorganic, is also real- ized in organic fluids, and takes place during the administra- tion of the sulphites in zymotic diseases ; the resultant acid being formed in very minute quantities and generally distri- buted throughout the circulating media, could not exert its ordinary local effects, which are primarily escharotic and destructive of the tissues. Indeed, Pereira's statements in regard to the constitutional action of all mineral acids may be adopted here, that they become neutralized by combina- tion with bases (of salts), and are not absorbed as free acids which operate topically only. In this view we may be spared any extended discussion of the constitutional disturb- ances produced by the use of sulphuric acid ; and for the farther reason that its lesions do not correspond with those of the Pest. The Sulphite of Potassium develops in the treatment of zymotics, action equally beneficial with that of the like salt of soda. It is more expensive, and for that reason not so well fitted for general use. JSTevertheless, it should be em- ployed as we may recommend in experimental trials ; and in all desperate and long neglected cases, where it is proba- ble that the salts of potash have begun to leave the circula- tion. Carholic Acid sometimes called Fhenic Acid, but chemi- cally, Phenic Alcohol, or Phenol, is said to occur as a natural product in the secretion of the beaver, castoreum, whose pecu- liar odor is that of this acid ; it is also found in the oil of coal-tar. Its aqueous solution has an acrid taste, and an odor like that of wood smoke or creosote, of which last it is 17 130 KINDERPEST. probably a liomologue.* Its formula is O12 He O2. It is ob- tained by the decomposition of Salicylic Acidt (an acid of the benzoic group), which is itself derived from several species of Salix (willow), and from the flowers of Spirtsa ulmaria (queen of the meadow). As it is highly jjoisonous, it is to be administered with discretion, and largely diluted with water. In this form it is very valuable as an application to the skin, where wounds and sores reach a putrescent stage,} and like the sulphite of soda, thus dissolved, is readilj^ ab- sorbed. The latter so diluted and applied with a wet band- age, we have known to discuss the formation of ordinary boils ; the former of erysipelatous swellings. Whether this acid will act as readily or more effectually in arresting the Pest-ferment than Sulphurous acid, in its administration through the sulphites ; time and experimental trials will best determine. As we have progressed (though wearily, we fear, to some of our readers) in this extended review of the potential action of remedies propounded by various authorities as available in the cure of the Pest ; some light has been inci- dentally thrown (as we imagine) upon the pathological course of this distemper. We have seen the important and curious part which the chloride of sodium plays in the ani- mal economy (p. 119) in the preservation of its equilibrium, or what we ordinarily term the state of health. Inferentially we are able to approximate at least to the nature and order of those disturbances which must take place, when this essential element of the fluids and semi-solids of the body is withheld in times of scarcity, or through neglect to sup- ply it at stated intervals ; or when, in the progress of the fermenting processes of disease, it is decomposed or forced out of the circulation. Then its normal function must be deemed to be wholly negatived ; especially, we conclude that * Silliman's Chemistry (Organic by Hunt), § 789. t The common lulntergreen {Gaultheria procumbens), contains in its essential oil the ether of this acid — to which, or the oil of wintergreen, if strong nitric acid be added and the mixture 'boiled as long as red vapors appear, triniti'ic phenol biitropia'ic acid), is obtained on cooling, lb., § 793. X Also in the treatment of compound fractures of bones and in burns, as recommended by Prof. Lister; and in the treatment of burns of the first and second degree, by Prof. Pirrie, &c. TREATMENT. 131 the fluiditjt of tlie fibrinous and albuminous elements of the blood, and the form and consistence of the blood corpuscles, are impaired. At such a juncture (though science may not as yet have demonstrated the order of the successive stages) we may also infer that the transposition of the atoms of nitrogen, which in their allotropic forms make blood, flbrine, &c., com- mences ; the probability being that they take their departure in the form of ammonia, and that some of those subsequent combinations are formed in the body, which have been pre- viously sketched (p. 125). We can thus see how the secretions, not as in cholera, largely made up from watery constituents, but surcharged with alkaline carbonates, are poured out upon the mucous surfaces, with excoriating power ; bringing with them the first products of decomposed nitrogenized matter, to be in their turn fresh elements of corruption, if communicated to other animals ; or, if reabsorbed, additional exciters of the putrid fermentation. And we can readily infer, that when the bases (salt, potash, &c.,) of the inorganic constituents are withdrawn from the circulating media in certain measure, the ferment of the organic elements reaches the stage where putrid exhala- tions, the evidence of their accelerated decomposition, are first the harbingers and then the accompaniment of death. But as in organized structures we have not only to consider the play of elementary bodies, such as are reproduced in the laboratory, and thus display the chemical laws to which they are subject ; but also the power, countervailing doubtless in many ways, which vitalized membranes and structures exert in limiting or enlarging such laws ; and also that mysterious agency lying behind all possible phenomena, the vis vitce itself: so the views we have just advanced on the function of the saline constituents of the blood, and its easy disinteg- ration in their absence, total or partial, need further elucida- tion in the light thrown by physiological research on such topics. We can only glance at one or two illustrations. The mineral acids have been generally regarded (p. 126) as antiseptic agents. But they exert their power in various 132 EINDEEPEST. degrees of manifestation, and do not all deport themselves as pare chemical solvents. In some cases they can hardly be said to exert any direct, if any influence whatever, on the fermenting fluid. Take, for instance, arsenious acid (com- mon arsenic). Its action is wholly confined to the mem- branes and membranous tissues with which it is brought in contact. It does not exert the slightest influence, according to Liebig,* on the fermentation of sugar in vegetable juices, the action of yeast on sugar, or even the putrefaction of the blood ; its scope of action on the tissues being explained by the fact that the gelatinous tissues form a combination with this acid, similar to that which tannic acid forms with the skin. The prudential use to be made of this discovery of the chemist, and as corroborating what has been previously advanced (p. 110), is that this acid has no relation to the Pest; and that neither this nor any other acid should be employed in the treatment of any zymotic, whose force is expended in part or in whole on the membranes with which it is brought in contact, unless it has the further peculiarity of ensuring for, or restoring to them a more active power of absorption. But a more pertinent illustration is to be drawn from the behavior of common salt in the phenomena first observed by Dutrochet, when exploring the mutual action of two liquids on each other through a membrane. This action was named by him and is now generally known as endosmose. If a glass tube about six inches long and with an aper- ture of one-quarter of an inch, be covered at one end with a piece of fresh membrane, taken from an intestine, bladder or stomach ; and after being filled with a solution of salt, is held in a vessel containing pure water, so that the level of the two fluids is the same : in a short time there will be perceived an elevation of that contained in the tube, which is to be regarded as the result of a force exerted against the law of gravitation, and at its height is equivalent to and may be measured by a column of mercury two or three inches in height. * Animal ChemiBtry, p. 136. TEEATMENT. 133 If to the water in the vessel there be added salt enough to make it of the same saline strength as that in the tube ; in an equally short time, the flnid in the latter will go back to its original level. But if again, more salt be dissolved in the vessel, the fluid in the tube will soon be found at a lower point. The law of these changes of level may be thus expressed." " The spring water flows towards the saline water, and the weaker solution of salt towards the stronger ; as if forced by an extei-nal pressure to pass through the pores of the membrane, in opposition to the law of gravitation,"* Water also flows towards Uood, when into the tube is poured ox-blood, deprived of its fibriue, and the experiment is conducted in the presence of water heated to blood heat or 100° Fahr. • But this flow is dependent upon the existence of salt in the liquor sanguinis. If again to either fluid, as in the original experiments, there be added a free alkali (carbonate or phosphate), the change in level is more rapidly produced. And finally, if the outer liquid be made slightly acid, then " the flow of the acid to the alkaline liquid takes place with the greatest velocity." The philosophy of digestion in the flow of the alkaline fluids of the blood toward the stomach, which, when distended with food, secretes an acid, and the general percolation of fluids through the membranes of the body find an easy illustration in these experiments. The latter may also ex- plain how an acid judiciously selected and employed so as not to impair the susceptibility of the membranes, may be so moved by the swift propulsion of osmose, as not only to neutralize the alkali iu excess, but also to arrest the attend- ant decomposition. But aside from such conjectural views, we have at this time a practical purpose in drawing attention to the action of saline drugs. When these are introduced into the alimentary canal, to induce catharsis, the flow of fluids not so highly charged with saline ingredients, — * Liebig's Letters, p. 430. 134 EINDEEPEST. as in tlie experiment with the glass tube, covered with mem- brane — is toward the more concentrated sohitions ; and the bowels thus distended soon relieve themselves by purgin^^. A moment's reflection leads to the conclusion, that as by this operation the circulation has been deprived more rapidly of its saline constituents than it would have been by the force of the disease, the latter has received fresh augmentation of its power, and not the amelioration of condition antici- pated. Another deduction and we have done. Salines introduced even indirectly into the circulation to repair waste, should never be in a concentrated, but a highly dilute solution ; as it is only in this way we can institute an endos- mosal current by which they may be carried into the circu- lating media, and reverse the morbid current which tends to carry them out. We are now in a position where we may essay what we have proposed, and propound a method of treatment that may best accomplish cure. We would gladly avoid the responsibility which must always attend the proffers of those who challenge an untried enemy. But if we are clothed in the armor of science, and avail ourselves of the promptings of a wise instinct inspired by her teachings and instructed by the errors of those who have preceded us, we can hardly fail. If we should, however, we are satisfied that thus we will prepare the way for more successful overtures in future. We trust, however, that we may not be ranked with those who have at first counted without their host, or at the last, made false alliances. We do not propose to shield our methods under any special theory, however fashionable. We will not espouse all the conclusions of the chemico- physiologist, to the disgust of the humoro-pathologist, of the disciples of the vital school. We "take the good the gods provide" us. We essay only a common-sense solution of the foremost intricacies in the problem before us ; and will be content, if we succeed thus far, to leave what remains to the fancy or skill of the theorists of all TREATMENT. 135 creeds. But that we may not seem to be trifling with the honored and well earned confidence which the teachings of the different schools have inspired, we interpose an explana- tion. If one were bitten by a rattlesnake, it would be held by men of ordinary judgment to be the most reprehen- sible bravado in him, to refuse all the methods of relief pro- posed, and to trust entirely to the i)eculiar strength of his constitution to quell the poisonous invasion. And it would present a temerity entitled to but little less of blame, if he were wittingly to allow the ijoison " swift as quicksilver " to course through — " The natural gates and alleys of the body posset, And curd like eager droppings into milk The thin and wholesome blood ;" — that at the last he might either prove himself in posses- sion of a talismanic charm, strong enough to foil its enmity ; or by a succession of charlatan-remedies to bafle his antag- onist, or by countermoves, to weary him out. The instinct, or if you will, the common sense of the race, demands that no dalliance be held with such a mortal foe. The bane must receive its antidote, if to be found, and that without a mo- ment's unnecessary delay. In this view, the end proposed is to act as if the Pest germs were the poison of an asp, at once to be rendered inert; or some baleful dose swallowed, whose corrosive action is instantly to be neutralized. The first and great point then is to get rid of the toxic effects of the poisoned germs which are developed in this zymotic, and to this end, if one may quote a homely but expressive ijroverb, " not to let grass grow under our feet." As a guide to the unskillful — a hand-book also to the learned — we will indicate our proposed method of treatment in a series of rules. Rule I. — In apprehension or in the presence of an outbreak of the pest, a. Apply the thermometer (see p. 65) to the vulva or rec- tum; and if the heat of the parts (the females not 136 EINDERPEST. being in a state of sexual excitement, and none over- heated Iby driving, &c.) rises to 102° Fahr,; or — T). If no such instrument can be readily had or reliably iised ; observe the appearances of the inner mouth (see p. 74). If to the eye or by the aid of a magnifying glass there appear small round nodules (knobs) no larger than a millet seed, red at the point or head, or some of them broken and discharging a yellowish or yellowish-grey matter, and the thin membrane which covered the swelling and those adjoining peeled or rolling off:* All anhnals exhibiting these signs are at once to he put imder treatment as in Mules II, Sc. Rule II. — a. Let all such animals be separated at once from the herd, and placed in an out-building which is to be used as a hosptital — in suitable stalls or boxes — from which all hay, grass, straw, litter, loose dirt, cobwebs, &c., are to be removed. Sawdust, tan bark, or dry sand is to be their bed. h. Dissolve 2 oz. of Sidphite (not sulphate, which is Glauber's Salts) of Soda, or 1 oz. of the JBi-sidphite, in 12 quarts of pure spring or clear rain water. (If the treatment of the case has been long deferred, or the outbreak be deemed an alarming one, double the quantity of the salt may be emj)loyed, not otherwise). Administer 1 pint of this solution every hour (or half hour), after Gamgee's plan.f A tin twisted cup in the shape of a horn, with its mouth well rounded off, is to be employed to the exclusion of glass bottles. " The operator should go up to the right side of the animal, pass his hand over the face into the angle of the mouth in the left side. The head is bent round, not elevated, except to a slight extent ; . . . . the per- son giving the draught to plant his feet well on the * Those who apply the thermometer in time will save the whole period of incubation, or at least^«« days of burrowing of the pest-germs through the membranous tissues, and of their fer- ment in the fluids of the body. Those who watch the first signs in the mouth may save from tivo to four days. Those who are so indolent or inobservant, as to wait until they find the disease iu full blow, should "go farther and fare worse." Let them hunt up other indications which may serve to alarm them. We have no patience for such a task. t Cattle Plague, p. 98. TREATMENT. 137 ground, with his back against the animal's shoulder, and holding the horn in his right hand, pour its contents by degrees into the animal's mouth." c. Take one-half (6 qts.) of the solution as above, and add to it 12 qts. of warm water (120° Fahr.), so that the mixture when used may be at least ten degrees above blood heat.* Take a coarse cotton sheet, folded to four thicknesses, and wetting it with this warm solu- tion, (wringing the edges of the folds so that the water will not drip), lay it on the middle of a coarse woolen blanket (previously fitted as to size, and with straps to fasten it, &c.); then apply to the abdomen and fasten the blanket over the back. (Apertures may be made in the blanket if long enough, so that the hind as well as the fore legs may not be restricted in their motions, and so as to protect the chest and buttocks from the air) f . d. If no Sulphite or Bi-Sulphite of Soda can be procured, or more than one animal is to be treated, use CarhoUe Acid, 4 drachms to 12 quarts, pursuing the same method of internal as well as external treatment as in {b and c). e. For like reasons as in last rule, employ 1 oz. of Aqua Ammonia to 12 quarts of water, as in {b and c), or, /. 1 pint of alcohol with as much salt as it will hold in solution as in {b and c), or, ff. l^ quarts of vinegar saturated with salt as in {b and c), or, h. Other remedies, the specificity of which is to be proved by the same methods. ^. As an independent experiment with the sulphite of soda (or if the sulphite of potassium can be had, with it also), 20 gr. powders might be thrown every hour under the tongue, to be dissolved in the saliva which is rapidly secreted and then to be swallowed. * This temperature will meet the requirement of the fourth law of absorption by osmose as laid down by Matteucci in his fourth Lecture on the Physical Phenomena of Living Beings.— Am. Edit., p. 89. See also p. 133 of this report. t As the object of this application is to induce endosmose of the saline solution by the abdom- inal organs, and not a general perspiration, the blanket must not be too tightly secured. 18 138 EINDERPEST. Rule III. — If the symptoms do not indicate that the ferment has subsided, twelve hours after the medicinal di-aughts as prepared have been entirely taken, or if they recur, commence anew with a fresh portion of the remedy selected, and proceed as in Rule II (5 and c). Rule IY. — a. If nervous twitchings or the like make their appear- ance, apj)ly pounded ice in a bladder or bag, to the base of the brain and the spinal cord (from between the horns for a few inches along the neck). If this application does not soon relieve, and the Homoeopathic treatment is preferred, in the choice of intercurrent between the doses of the anti-septic remedies, as above to be employed ; give 10 drops of the tinct. of Bella- donna in four table spoonfuls of water, or if the Allopathic methods are chosen, and diarrhoea has supervened, add a table spoonful of laudanum* to a pint of starch emulsion (or warm water) and inject as an enema into the rectum. b. If after twelve hours from the commencement of the treatment, symptoms of aggravation appear, the dose may be doubled. Otherwise if evidence of improve- ment appears, it may be less in quantity and given at longer intervals. c. When it appears desirable to remove the bandage from the bowels, the portion of the body wet by it may be gently dashed with water from the well (60°-7O° Fahr.), then rubbed perfectly dry, and the body cov- ered with a fresh blanket so as to exclude the action of cool air. d. If the bandage is not used, still the animal is to be cov- ered with a blanket, and the temperature of the stall * It would be u-^eless to give morphia or opium in any of its forms, while a medicinal endos- mose is being instituted— as it is well known that these first check and then reverse the process (see Matteucci's Lectures, p. 79). They can be exhibited only when the morbid osmose has filled the bowels and brought on diarrhoea. If the brain conditions indicate the use of opium in coma, stertorous breathing, and upturned eye and contracted pupil (or a pinched eye), a warm solution should be applied and rubbed in, along the face or the under part of the neck, or one-half of a grain of morphine, or 5 grains of first decimal Homoeopathic trituration may be thrown in under the tongue. It will be readily admitted as unwise, in the present state of our knowledge, to hope for alleviation of symptoms by putting opium in any of its forms, in the stomachs, while they are in a state of suspended activity. Otherwise we admit, if scientific experiments could show that w^en the normal endosmosal current towards the stomachs had completely ceased, opium could exert an antagonistic power, and renew the current. TREATMENT. 139 kept not lower than 60'^ Falir, If the covering is sufficient, fresh air may be more freely admitted. Rule V. — a. When the patient gives signs of hunger, dilute milk or boiled gi-uels (as in Smart's method, p. 92), to which a free allowance of salt has been added ; or when thirst is manifest, water from which all chill has been taken, may be given a half hour before the administration of the medicine. b. Should any unpleasant odors arise from the body, breath or droppings, dilute sulphuric acid may be added to a small portion of chloride of lime, and after the early escape of chlorine, and when the caustic smell of lime is perceived, the vessel is to be removed ; and the con- tents, added to the droppings of the sick beasts, also to be removed, and covered with six inches of earth. Or carbolic acid may be used in dilute solution, and the sides and floor of the building sprinkled with it. And so with any disinfectant, such as carbolate of lime, sulphate of iron, dissolved in water, &c. Car- bolic acid may be dissipated through the building by throwing from time to time a few grains of it upon a hot plate — dipped for a few minutes in boiling water and then wiped dry. c. If constipation show itself so as manifestly to make the animal uncomfortable (and not otherwise), give two quarts of an injection of blood warm water, to which a couple of tablespoonfuls of. salt have been added. d. Should any disposition to swelling (emphysema) sho^v • itself along the back from the beginning, make the wet bandage large enough to go around the trunk ; if it be only partial, or occur at a late period, shift the band- age, &c. e. If any viscid or glairy secretions from the eyes, nose, mouth or vulva begin to flow, the parts are to be fre- quently bathed with a weak solution of carbolic acid, or with vinegar to which an equal portion of water has been added. 140 EINDERPEST. Rule VI. — The sequelae, of the disease must he treated accord- ing to their indications.* If the medicines haA^e not been pressed with too much activity, there need be but little apprehension of any violent reaction on their use. And if no such reaction manifests itself, the animal is best left to the " vis medicatrix naturce.^^ Rule Yll.^a. When convalescence is established, the diet as given by Smart may be folloAved. Before being admitted to the herd, the jDatient should be carefully washed with a weak solution of carbolic acid, into a stronger solution of which the feet first washed out in the clefts very carefully have been allowed to stand for a time. After this operation a quarantine of seven days would be advisable. b. To cleanse the premises boiling water may be sprinkled frequently and copiously over the stalls, flooi's, &c. If cold water is employed, the common washing soda of the shops should be added, and all boards, &c., carefully scrubbed. The clothing of attendants may be treated in either of the above ways, or may be washed with water to which carbolic acid has been added, or they may be hung up in a barrel, and sul- phur slowly burned under them, &c. This method of treatment will, we trust, be received by candid minds as fulfilling our pledge, not to commit it obse- quiously to the interest or dogmas of any school. It will be doubtless considered in this respect suflicientlj^ catholic. In the variety of agencies offered in Rule II, opportunity is offered to determine experimentally which is most efficacious. If the so called antiseptic remedies prove their superior virtue, they will furnish additional proof that this zymotic acts as a true ferment. If ammonium causticiim takes the lead, it will afford another illustration of the Homoeopathic law. If the absorption through the wet bandage (and we * The constitutional disturbances produced by the force of the disease— perhaps also by the remedies— may require further medical treatment. This must be determined according to the preferences of the practitioner and the methods of the school to which he belongs. The forego- ing pages mxy prove a sufficient guide to indicate which medicines in especial contingencies cover the case most completely. TREATMENT. 141 would like to see isolated trials of this method), should work successfully, this would draw just attention to the practica- ble adaptation in disease of the law of endosmose, and would ameliorate the heroic use of the water treatment. In conclusion, whichever of these remedial methods should give the greatest percentage of cures, would best indicate the selection of a prophylactic agent; though we imagine that even the use of this would not excuse the farmer or stock-grower who did not, in the presence of this epizootic, give to his cattle at least their ordinary quota of salt, as often as twice a week. P. S. Thanks are due and very cordially expressed to Alonzo H. Clark, M. D., of New York, for access to the jDlates, &c., of PerigofF; to S. O. Vanderpoel, M. D., and E. P. Hun, M. D., of Albany, for the studies of Lebert and Cruveilhier; to Sam'l Lilienthal, M, D,, of New Yoi'k, for translations from Jessen ; to John L. Vandervoort, M. D., Librarian of the New York Hospital, for transcriptions from Ram- raazini and Lancisi ; and to the Committee of the New York Medical Society, of which D. D. Smith, M. D., is Chairman, for marked courtesy and very valuable suggestions. It is not to be inferred, however, that either of the above named gentlemen, celebrated for their mastery of Pathology and Therapeutics, are committed to any of the conclusions in this report. These, hastily sketched in intervals of leisure, must stand as the independent conclusions of the writer, and as they have been put forth with much diffidence, a kindly criticism is solicited for them. mr, 27, '.'i:>.^. APPENDIX, Giving the descriptions of symptoms, and post mortem appearances, &c., of the epizootic of 1711, as described by Eammazini and Lanoisi ; as in the original text. Symptomata — Eammazini, p. 787. " Aflfectiones genus, quod Bubulo generi bellum ad internecionem usque videtur indixisse, ex frigore, rigore, hoi'ripilatione, mox ex calore acri, et veliementi per universum Corpus difiFuso, cum pulsus frequentia, febrem esse satis liquet, malignam vero, exitialem, pestilentialem etiam, si mavis, esse aperte testantur, quae illam comitantur symptomata ; qualia sunt, magna anxietas, et gravis anhelitus, etiam cum STERTORE, et in principio febris, stupor et species qusedam veterni, continuus ex ore, et naribus graveolentis materim descensus, fcetidissima alvi proluvies, interdum etiam omenta, anorexia, et abolita penitus ruminatio, pustules quinta vel sexta die per totum corpus erumpentes, ac tuber cula variolarum speciem referentia, com- munis tandem omnium eodem modo circa quintam, et septimam interritus, cum Boves paucissimi evadent, iique forte potius quadam, quam remediorum dynami. Hsec quidem ex se patent, quid vero intus patiantur miserandi Boves, cum jacent anxii, ac stertentes, ac dum stant immoti, capite usque ad terram demissio, conjec- tare quidam possumus, sed ex mutis animantibus, quae per nutus nihil significare possunt, nil certi rescire possumus, quod forsan in causa est, ut difficilior sit curatio. Causam igitur hujusce malignae febris pro viribus perscrutemur. Omnibus epidemiis, si a sporadicis aflfectibus differre debent, id peculiare inest, quod communem causasa liabeant, sive ab Aeris vitio, sive a corruptis alimentis, aut ab aliquo contagioso fomite prognata fuerit, qui ab uno corpore in aliud trans- migret illique eandem labem communicet." Observatum in Dissectis Cadaveribus, p. 791. "In Boum cadaveribus, quotquot Lanionum secespitae subjecta fuere coram Ex- cellentissimis Anatomes Professoribus D. Molinetto, et Yiscardo, id singulare in omnibus repertum est; in Omaso nempe, corpus quoddam durum et compactum, ventriculi parietibus fortiter adliserens, magnae molis, et intolerandce graveolentice ; in aliis vero partibus repertse sunt liydatMdes, in cerebro^ pulmonibus, sicuti etiam ingentes vesica solo flatu plenae, quae dissectse diram MepMtim exlialarent, ulcera in rcodice linguce, et ad illius latera vesiculce sero plenm. Illud vero corpus durum, et compactum ad instar colds, quo(^ in Omaso observatur, primum productum esse contagiosi miasmatis, pro certo habeo, dum tacite saevitiem suam exercens, stoma- cliicum fermentum labefactat, et corrumpit ; non enim est credibile, post febrem excitatam, conflari hoc corpus intra paucos dies, dum Boves ubi primum febrire coeperint, quodcunque alimentum aversantur, nee quidquam, nisi liquidum per os infundi potest : caetera vero, quae memoravimus, malignae febris producta esse, facile crediderim, sed omnium Phoenomenorum exactam rationem adferre velle, non patitur unius horae ambitus ; ampla enim materia suppeteret, ad integrum tractatum couscribendum." 144 APPENDIX. Symptomata — Lakcisi, p. 117. " Utique vidimus interdum in nonnullis bobus primum indicium contractse pestia fuisse, fugam arripere, ululare, stertere, ac mille modis quasi subito terrore perci- tos se se agitare ; scilicet quod venenum, cum in iis volatilium salium ubertatem, miramque fibrarum nervearuni in spasmos proclivitatem invenisset, diversos statim convulsivos qua externos, qua internes motus induxit. Alios etiam spectavimus, tametsi rarius, prmcoci morte, quasi fuhnine tactos interiisse, eos videlicet, qui natura sua jam enerves, spirituque fuerant destituti. Sed in plerisque prsecipua exceptse luis signa extiterunt subito moerere ; caput demittere ; e languidulis ocalis laclirymas, e naribus, et ore mucum, et salivam fundere ; atque interim febri cum horrore, vel IwrripUatione correptos, nauseantesque bumi jacere ; semper autem fhlogoses, pustulce, ut innuimus, liydatides, et ulcera linguam et fauces summo cum ardore obsidebant. Principio ut plurimum sitientes multum bibebant ; postea vero a potu, ciboque penitus abstinebant ; et idcirco cum deglutire, ac ruminare non possent, inedia, sitique celerius etiam, quam natura forte morbi factum esset, ad interi'tum adigebantur ; alvo ssepe ssepius lubrica, dejectisque foetidis, variegatis, et interdvim cruentis bumoribus. Plerique tandem omnes putidi, gravique cum anhe- litu, non raro etiam cum tussi intra primam hebdomadem occidebant. Qui autem ad alteram pertingerent (erant autem perpauci) evadere consueverant ; praesertim si cadentihus pilis corium exasperaretur, aut facto ad nates, et ad crura decubitu, ne libere possent incedere, probibiti fuissent. Vermes interim in naribus, ad cornuum radices, in labiis, atque ore comperieban- tur, quibus scilicet locis muscarum agmina poterant eonjluxisse." QUID OBSERVATUM FUERIT IN DISSECTIS CADAVERIBtTS. " Quod vero spectat ad ea, quae in bourn cadaveribus detecta fuerunt ; illud prae- nosse convenit, raro in peste denatis certas, et perpetuas apud illorum viscera affec- tiones deprebendi ; etenim lues a liquidis primo excipitur, et ab iisdem postea aut bsec, aut ilia membra pro varia eorundem conditione corripiuntur. Id sane eviden- tissimum apparuit in tribus extispiciis, quse nos fieri curavimus ; nam prater oris, fauciumque ulcuscula,, atque ossophagi, omasi, pulmonumque a rubore subnatum livorem, sen gangraenam ; quas quidem res in unoquoque pene similes comperimus, diversce in singulis occurrerunt viscerum Icesiones. Etenim in primo, qui tertia morbi die perierat, animadvertimus in omaso tum foeni duriusculam massam, tum pilam illam, quam Plinius Invencarum tophum apellat, ortam scilicet ex abrasis lingua pilis, et mox deglutitis, subinde vero peristaltic! motus ope in modum filtri accedente saliva coactis ; coetera viscera parum a statu sanitatis abfuerunt. In altero deinde, quoniam interierat 6 die, cum hepar et intestina tum pulmones spJia- celo tentata erant. In tertio cor etiam, et cerebrum corruptum pene diffiuebant Neque quidquam in ipsorum liquidis constans, et memorandum observare licuit ; ob peculiares enim fluidorum erases variam quoque illorum fluiditatem, et colores oflfendimus." EEBATA. Page 11, line 5 find 6, for " constitutiooeris," read — constitatio-geris. " 37, " 15, for " Grarabee," read — Gamgee. " 38, " 26, for "in one case," read — in the same case. " 39, " 27, for " irridescence," read — iridescence. DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. PLATE I. Fig. 1. Lower jaw of a Riiiderpest cow. Under lip everted. Showing charac- teristic congestion of the superficial membrane. Also its peel- ing oif at a more advanced stage of the disease, from the gum, exposing the raw surface of the mucous coat, See p. 31. Fig. 3. Microscopic view of the epithelium from same membrane, partly rolled up into scrolls and cylindrical forms, partly presenting its proper flattened and nucleated appearance; also showing mucous corpuscles, starch cells, &c. The epithelial scales are very granixlar, and evi- dently undergoing retrograde degeneration See p. 32. PLATE II. Fig. 1. Giving the equally characteristic capillary congestion of the mucous membrane of the swollen vulva, the aphthous eruption on the upper part of the left labia near the integuments, the inflamed clitoris and ropy discharge from the orifice, See p. 36. Fig. 2. Section of the 4th stomach of steppe calf No. 14 near the pylorus, show- ing the ulcer-like depression leginning to heal, See p. 29. PLATE III. Fig. 1. Section of the 3d stomach, exhibiting the scarlet rings frequently found in its gastric folds with their denuded and dusky centres, See p. 32. Fig. 2. (a.) A single papilla attacked, and the capillary congestion commenced, and beginning to spread, (b.) The same seen under the microscope, and the minutest capillary vessels engorged and branching off" towards the adjoining papillae. See p. 33. PLATE IV. Fig. 1. Mucous coat of the 4th stomach, contrasting its earlier and more advanced stages of degeneration, See pp. 33-4. Fig. 2. Same from 4th stomach of inoculated cow, No. 6, showing ecchymoses shining through the violet colored membrane, See p. 28. PLATE V. Fig. 1. Showing complete injection and arborescent forms of the capillary vessels when fully congested in the small bowels. Fig. 2. Characteristic mahogany appearance of the same after such extreme con- gestion, See p. 35. PLATE VI. Fig. 1 and 2. Sections of the duodenum in steppe cow No. 8, showing yellow fibrinous masses from Pej'er's glands (fig. 2, showing one Pey- er's g]ai\d and two Solitary Follicles, the exudation being removed ■from the former at both ends), See p. 30. PLATE VII. Fig. 1. Section of jejunum instcppe cow, No. (J, mucous membrane colored black- ish by pigment. Peyeriau glands strongly injected, See p. 38. Fig. 3. Section of jejunum in steppe calf No. 33, witli one Peyer's gland, tlie exiidation being separated from it. The solitary follicle, hypersemical and reddened, See p 31 . Fig. 3. Section of the large intestines, showing the " zebra appearance " of Boulay as the result of the extreme congestion of the larger vessels of its mucous folds (rugae), See p. 35. PLATE VIII. Fig. 1. Section of the mucous membrane of the cjecum of the vaccinated cow No. 6, See p. 38. Fig. 3. Free exudations (like polypus, with depressions, &c.), poured out in great multitude, in the concavity of the small bowels of the steppe calf No. 33, See p. 31. PLATE IX. Fig. 1. Appearance of the haemorrhoidal congestion of the rectum, . . . See p. 35. Fig. 3. Highly vascular engorgement of the capillary vessels of the mucous membrane of the wind-pipe, See p. 37. Fig. 3. Section of 4th stomach in eczema epizodtica, showing in the dark irregular patches the hsemorrhagic or sab-mucous effusions in tliat disease ; (observe contrast with appearance of same stomach in the Pest in Plate IV), Seep. 40. PLATE X. Fig. 1 and 3. Colors of newly drawn blood from (1) healthy ox, and (3), from Rinderpest cow, See p. 38. Fig. 3 and 4. Microscopic field (3) of (l)-(4) of (8), showing in (3) a few red corpuscles corrugated from sudden transference of blood when warm to the unheated slide of the instrument ; the proportion of white to red cells; the absence of granular matter, and the free almost isolated position of each cell ; in (4) the smaller size of the red, and greater abundance of the white corpuscles, their distention, rupture and shedding of contents; their stellar form ; the number of granules from broken cells, and the cohesion of the corpuscles in irregular masses, See p. 38. Fig, 5 and 6. Crystals (with white corpuscles), as seen by Gamgee See p. 63. PLATE XI. Fig. 1. Rinderpest milk, in most advanced stage of the disease, under the micro- scope, the fatty cells elongated and crowded. Fig. 3. Healthy milk, the butyric elements floating freely, &c., See p. 39. PLATE XIL Fig. 1. Flesh of Rinderpest cow, freshly slaughtered with fat, &c. Fig. 3. " after exposure to light and air for 84 hours, showing change of color and shrinking mostly in the fat. Fig. 3. Flesh of healthy ox, after like exposure, See pp. 39, 40. Fii 1 PL.tL\ PL.Yi: rig.i. '' ^^'Ai -, ivit-A, ^/'^^ i^^"^ tKsi^%ig^i^s.,^t".^^ i^"'^J^->^' .g.3. ^.'f :->- PL.X. i 'X',' -3 ' -uK/*. r^*-^ rV, 4^'i (ft <^ fe^ ®o ■L./'^ .Tn. ^igi LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 002 865 176 4