NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
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epithelial cells of a yellowish or greyish colour. The sick animal fre-
quently moves the jaw and grinds the teeth. The muffle swells; its
epithelium softens and is removed. The buccal membrane sometimes
presents, in addition to its congested appearance and its yellowish red
colour, which is very manifest on the gums, the sides and inferior surface
of the tongue, ecchymosed patches more or less hidden by epithelium
which has become thickened. The papillæ are congested. The thicken-
ing of the epithelial layer which covers the mucous membrane of
the mouth is not always regular. The mucous membrane of the
mouth often presents an uneven appearance with a greater or less
number of saliant points, at the level of which the thickening has been
more pronounced; at these points the derm of the mucous membrane
has been more congested than at others. For this reason the epithe-
lium of the mouth easily desquamates; it detaches itself in small
masses from the more thickened points and is removed with the saliva.
This desquamation occurs on the surface of the whole of the mucous
membrane and more especially in certain spots, the labio gingival
cushion, cheeks, tongue, etc., in the form of plaques or grains. The result
is that the derm is denuded at a number of points, and there presents
itself of a reddish-yellow colour. The reddish colour which the saliva
sometimes assumes is explained by this epithelial desquamation; the derm
being denuded, its capillaries congested and distended with blood,
may be the seat of hæmorrhage, and blood thus becomes mixed "with
the saliva. The lips are almost invariably swollen, and vesicles may be
sometimes seen resembling those of aphtha and formed by the collection
of serous material beneath the epithelium.
In Europe these changes in the structures of the mouth are almost
invariably met with. In India, on the other hand, they are by no means
well marked, but they are occasionally met with in severe outbreaks of
the disease. If the mouth be carefully examined, we may observe
in some cases irregular patches of congestion and invariably a dark
congested appearance at the posterior part, fauces and pharynx,
and in some cases erosions will be met with there; but as regards
the tongue and labio gingival membrane, the characteristic appearance
which constitute the pathognomonic symptoms in Europe are frequently
wanting.
The abdomen becomes tender, painful on pressure; the animal looks
round at the flanks, as in colic; it paddles with the hind feet which are
brought well under the belly; it frequently switches the tail, and in
this manner indicates the presence of abdominal pain.
The rectal mucous membrane is hyperærnic, swollen, red and infiltrated.
There are rumblings of the bowels, borbyrygma, often audible at some
distance, which indicate the progress and aggravation of the disease,
and that the constipation which existed at first is about to give place
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to diarrhœa. This diarrhœa is at first fæcal, but soon becomes more
fluid and later is mixed with mucus or muco purulent greyish material.
It becomes softer and more fœted, even entirely liquid, and containing
blood or truly dysenteric. Defæcation is frequent attended with some
tenesmus, and the fæces rejected with some force. In a short time the
animal becomes more and more feeble and can scarcely move. The anus
becomes patent, dilated, and the fluid excrement escapes involuntarily,
soiling the tail and hind legs.
The symptoms furnished by the digestive apparatus are most
important and easily observed.
There is invariably a rattling and harsh cough present.
The respiration, at first scarcely altered, becomes gradually em-
barrassed, sometimes attended with a roaring sound, and the expired air at
first warm soon becomes cold and fœtid. It assumes a peculiar fœtid
odour, which is exhaled from the animal generally, and also from its
dejecta, and which is quite characteristic of the disease.
The pituitary membrane is the thickened congested, red or spotted,
and always the seat of a pronounced catarrh. The discharge is at first
serous, limpid; then it becomes thicker and yellow in colour, greyish, reddish
or green; it is very irritant and excoriates the part over which it flows.
The circulation is more or less accelerated, according to the severity of the
disease; the pulse may beat from 120 to 140; it becomes weaker as the
animal gets feebler and more debilitated, and death draws near.
The blood is gravely changed; it contains the colouring matter of the
bile which explains the reddish-yellow coloration of the mucous mem-
branes. The capillary system is much congested, which explains the
hyperæmia and coloration of the integument. The skin, conjunctivœ
buccal, pituitary, rectal and vaginal mucous membranes are generally
congested and reddish-yellow, or marked with spots of extravasation;
vesicles are often present in the mouth, vulva, and lips, which are swollen.
Lactation, which was only diminished perhaps at the commencement
of the disease, soon becomes almost or completely arrested: the teates are
soft and give nothing but a serous product in small quantity.
Localization of the disease in the nervous centres is by no means
uncommon even in India, and when it does occur symptoms of vertigo,
excitement, coma, somnolence or an access of fury, or even sometimes
rabiform symptoms, are manifest.
Rinderpest may, as has been already stated, affect various form
according to the different races of aminals, seasons, and regime of the
animals it attacks; it varies in different epizooties, and a host of other
conditions influence it. Hence it may assume a benign form in certain
countries, in which it is always present, such as the Steppes, India,
China, Thibet, Persia and the like at certain seasons of the year, and
under such circumstances the skin symptoms are most prominent, there
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being mocerate derangement of the bowels, and it very frequently
terminates in recovery. Cases having been reported in which as many
as 75% of the animals attacked recovered under treatment.
It is by no means unusual to find animals in this country suffering
from the disease presenting very slight and badly marked signs. The
only symptoms in certain cases are simply elevation of temperature,
congested skin, redness of the conjunctival mucous membrane and
the pituitary, a discharge from the eyes and nose, moist rattling cough,
slight dullness and diarrhœa. There may be complete absence of the
so-called pathognomonic symptoms, and recovery takes place in a few
days. In more severe cases in India we have the above symptoms
aggravated, the diarrhœa becoming dysenteric, and an eruption on the
skin resembling in some measure a variolous eruption; but such cases are
also mild, and the eruption is generally considered to be a favourable
symptom. There is a fairly good description of the more severe form,
or the malignant one as we may term it, given by an agriculturalist in
India, which is a practical, accurate one as regards this country: "In milch
cows the milk dries up, and this occurs two days before the appetite is
lost; after this purging sets in with a discharge from the eyes, mouth and
nose of a watery character; the breathing now becomes very laborious,
with an offensive odour, and the pulse much accelerated, with every
indication of a highly inflammatory state of the system; the tongue and
mouth are free from sores, and no derangement of the structures can be
detected. The excrement, which was previously thin and watery, now be-
comes mixed with clotted blood and mucus; at this stage the animal loses
strength and manifests signs of great suffering. The discharge of blood
and mucus becomes more frequent and accompanied by severe straining,
the difficulty in breathing increases, there is occasionally severe coughing;
the eye loses its brightness, the animal becomes more and more restless
finally dying amidst convulsions." Ninety per cent. of this gentleman's
cattle succumbed, although every effort was made by him to save them.
The following are the symptoms described by Veterinary Surgeon
Thacker in 1866, as noticed in Southern India: "The first marked
sign is a peculiar spasm of the muscles of the front of the chest and
neck, sometimes also of the hind quarters. This is apt to be mistaken
for shivering, which not unfrequently accompanies or succeeds ft.
Rumination ceases, and in cows the secretion of milk is stopped: the
coat stares, the ears droop, the back is arched, the hind legs standing
under the body. In the early stage the temperature rises to 105° F.,
but falls to 88º as debility becomes marked. The pulse is at first but
little disturbed, but with the development of the disease it rises to 100
or more, becoming progressively smaller and weaker, Respiration is som-
what quickened, and when the respiratory muscles become involved is
laboured.
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All these facts lead us to the conclusion that it may be preserved
in the soil, and direct experiments have established the fact. Feser has
caused the disease by injecting the microbes found on the plants from
marshy pastures of the Alps, where the disease is rife. Gotti caused the
disease by injecting the water, in which had been washed earth from
San Arcangelo, where the disease had been prevalent, under the skin
of young oxen It is apparent, therefore, that the germs may be
preserved in the soil or on its surface, and this explains how it is that
animals which live in places where these germs exist, may ingest
them.
The virus offers great resistance to those chemical agents which we
designate bactericides; it is only sterilized, especially when dry, by
the most energetic of these. Solutions of potash, lime, sulphate of iron,
sodium chloride, arsenious acid, chloride of zinc, turpentine, sulphurous
acid, etc., are useless for purposes of disinfection. The agents which
may be recommended for this purpose are:— phenic acid in aqueous
solution 2-4%; salicylic acid 1-2%; nitrate of silver 1-2%; sulphate
of copper 1-5 ; perchloride of mercury 1-2 p. 1,000, etc.
Animals susceptible to the disease.—Charbon symptomatique is
nearly entirely confined in its attacks to the bovine species; it has only
exceptionally been witnessed in young sheep and solipeds. It is
transmissable by inoculation to oxen, sheep, goat, and guinea pig. The
carnivora, pig, rabbit and bird are refractory. The disease does not
appear to be transmitted to man.
The large and small ruminants are the most susceptible to the
disease, although, as has been stated, oxen do notexhibit the same
receptivity at all ages. The spontaneous malady is very rare in calves
before the age of six months, and it is rather a difficult matter to induce
it in suckling calves. Well marked and characteristic cases have,
however, been noted by veterinarians in young calves, which had already
been submitted to a vegetable diet. This quasi-immunity which young
calves enjoy appears to be due partly to heredity transmitted by an
already immune mother, and more particularly to the mode of alimentation
special to the age, as well as to the condition of the tissues and humors
during that age. Experimenting with animals of various breeds, we
have been able to inject six drops of fresh virus of a very active charac-
ter into the muscles of the young with impunity, whilst animals more
advanced in age succumbed in the proportion of 90% under similar con-
ditions. These inoculations, however, sometimes give rise to lameness
and elevation of temperature in certain of the calves; and by employ-
ing larger doses we cause death. Six or eight drops may destroy
calves of less than sixteen days of age ; it requires from ten to twenty
drops to kill calves aged from fifteen days to three months. The
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below the normal; patient becomes restless, weak, lying down ; the eye
sunken, the countenance anxious, the senses somewhat aberrant; 70 per
cent. succumbed. The above is an excellent description of the form assumed
in very many outbreaks.
In other countries the disease is always severe and more fatal at its
first onset, and presents during its course two successive periods—a
congestive and a typhoid period. The first is characterized by an
elevation of temperature, acceleration of the pulse, and congestion of the
integument; then the second period comes on, and we observe coma,
somnolence, stupor, weakness, and rapid emaciation. The line of demar-
cation between these two is always difficult to determine.
At the commencement of the malady there is always prostration or
excitement. The integument and mucous membranes may not present
the icteric tint in all cases; sometimes their coloration is not uniform,
but they may be studded with yellow, red, or black patches.
The discharge from the nose sometimes becomes sanguinolent, and
epistaxis may occur. Pulmonary emphysema is not uncommon, nor
is subcutaneous emphysema. In rare cases pulmonary congestion and
emphysema may lead to the confounding of Renderpest with lung and
chest affections. Simple emphysema of the lung, however, is not attended
with congestion of the integument, sanguinolent nasal discharge, etc.
By auscultation and percussion it will be clearly distinguished from
peripneumonia. According as the various symptoms predominate, we say
that Rinderpest affects nervous, vertiginous, comatose, furious, bron-
chial, pulmonary, gastric, or enetric forms, but as a rule, we meet with
several of these forms combined.
In some epizooties we observe the cutaneous form more prevalent, and
especially in parts of India; we then get a variolous exanthematous,
vesicular, pustular or phlegmonous eruption on the skin.
Renderpest may on some occasions be complicated with foot and
mouth disease or with anthrax; it may co-exist with pneumonia or
tuberculosis, etc., and in such cases it is exceedingly grave.
In females at an advanced stage of gestation it nearly always
provokes abortion.
The course of the disease varies according to the form it affects ; it is
generally rapid, in severe cases terminating in death after the lapse of
4, 6, 8, or 10 days. Animals become rapidly debilitated in this disease
and they fall into a state of somnolence and stupor, which is very marked ;
nutrition is arrested; emaciation is very rapid; the sick are surrounded
by a fœtid atmosphere. In the last stage of the disease the saliva,
discharge from the eyes and nose thicken and become sanguinolent;
the diarrhœa becomes seromucous, sanguinolent and very fœtid.
Finally, the individuals from want of strength remain constantly in the
recumbent position, the head resting on the ground; the respirations
11
become deep, and the animal after short agony succumbs amidst con-
vulsions.
Rinderpest does not always terminate fatally. In India and Russia
and in other eastern countries very large numbers sometimes recover
from the malady, but the mortality seldom is less than 50 per cent., unless
in extraordinarily slight cases. When recovery takes place after a
serious attack, which is rare, it is always preceded by a long period of
convalescene, during which relapses may occur, and after which certain
permanent lesions may remain. The benign form of the disease is most
frequently followed by recovery : animals apparently recovered must be
considered as suspects until fifteen days have elapsed since recovery,
because virulent matter may remain on the surface of the body for this
time. When an animal begins to progress towards recovery, the first
sign indicative of improvement is an increased quantity of fæculent
matter in the evacuations, which gradually assume a more consistent
character ; the pulse becomes softer and fuller, then the appetite begins
to return, the warmth of skin natural, and lastly rumination and the
secretion of milk returns.
Rinderpest resulting from inoculation differs hut little from the
spontaneous disease; the symptoms are the same; its medium period
of incubation is from 5 to 6 days and may vary between 3 and
21 days, and its severity is about the same. The virus of Rinderpest
does not appear to be attenuated by successive cultivations, and inocula-
tions during an epizooty cannot be recommmended at present, although
some cases of the inoculated disease are of the benign form.
Rinderpest always assumes an epizootic form in a country into
which it is introduced; it is rapidly transmitted from the first sick to
other animals and spreads from the first stable to others, over localities
and districts, etc., tending always to propagate itself and not to
disappear.
The disease varies according to season, in India being especially
noticed in some parts at the end of the hot weather or after the first
rains; it extends more easily in moderately warm weather and is more
fatal in winter; excessive heat seems to modify its severity and
limits its spread. In places where it is enzootic, it is not generally fatal.
Symptoms of inoculated Rinderpest (Fleming).—The symptoms
of the inoculated disease as witnessed in the Steppes are said to differ
from those which appear-when it has been produced in a natural manner.
In the former, the first manifestations are witnessed after a variable
period, from the 3rd to the 6th day, very rarely beyond the 8th and
9th. The earliest indications are fits of restlessness, tossing the head,
whisking the tail, pawing and kicking, and, at intervals, a slight dry
cough. Then succeed dulness and prostration and a desire to separate
from the other animals; the beast lies extended at full length, general
12
and partial tremblings are observed, and shiverings, particularly in the
ulnar and patellar muscles; a paroxysm of fever sets in, which lasts from
one to six hours. After the paroxysm, which at times terminates the
disease, the animal gets up and its liveliness and appetite return ; but
there may occur a relapse of greater severity, and when these relapses
persist uninterruptedly, it is an indication that the fever is assuming a
putrid character. The pulse becomes small, quick, irregular and inter-
mittent, and is imperceptible towards the close of the malady. The
region of the loins is very sensible, and the animal nearly falls when
pressure is made at this point; the visible mucous membranes are dry,
at first red coloured, and, if the disease continues, subsequently of a pale
yellow, then a bluish hue ; the matter discharged is thick and stringy, the
eyes are tearful, the muffle hot and dry, the ears, base of the horns and
limbs are cold. To constipation succeeds a serous diarrhœa, which soon
becomes frothy, fœtid and blood-tinged, and is alternated with tenesmus.
The respiration is difficult, plaintive, and at last the animal lies or falls
down, throws the head round to the side, and stretching out its limbs
rigidly dies, most frequently without any convulsive movement. Cows in
calf nearly always abort before death occurs. When emphysema appears
about the back, it is nearly always a very unfavourable sign ; according to
Stephannoff, the inoculated disease presents this peculiarity—that it is
nearly always fatal when the symptoms appear four or five days after
inoculation. Before the 15th day the crisis occurs ; if the animal lives
beyond this period, recovery is certain in the majority of cases. The
progress of the malady according to the same authority quoted by Reyhal,
is influenced by age, sex, the physiological condition of the animals,
their individuality, the season, temperature, and state of the atmosphere.
Therefore it is that young animals withstand its effects better than
adult and bulls and cows in calf. Those seasons which are uniform in
temperature, as the summer or winter, are more favourable for inoculation
experiments than spring or autumn. The operation also succeeds better
with Steppe than other cattle, and probably this may be the case with
Indian animals. In other animals, however, it usually produces quite as
serious a form of the disease as that which is induced naturally.
Prognosis.—In European countries it is a very fatal disease, excep-
tionally so in the majority of cases. In India and Russia this mortality is
much less, but still very considerable, and the losses which result are
considerable on account of its nature and the insidiousness of its attack.
The prognosis must necessarily be very guarded, and will depend on
the severity of the attack, the locality, and the form in which the disease
manifests itself. It is more hopeful in the plains after very hot weather
and less so in the hills in moderately warm weather. It is also more
likely to terminate in recovery when it appears in the form which is
marked by considerable skin eruption, etc.
13
Diagnosis.—When the disease exists in a district and we observe
its introduction into a village, its diagnosis is not a very difficult matter,
as we have to guide us what can be designated logical deduction in addi-
tion to the symtoms manifested; but generally, in the absence of precise
indications, the first cases are not easy to detect, as the symptoms at
first are not diagnostic. If, however, there is any reason to suspect the
existence of Rinderpest, either from any indication of its presence or
from presumption arising from the probable existence of anterior cases,
or of the importation known or suspected of animals sick or suspected,
we should always exercise prudence and take such precautions as to
secure against its probable existence, for we shall not for long be kept in
doubt as to the certainty of the existence or otherwise of the disease.
We should in all suspicious cases seek to obtain all the information
possible as to whether Rinderpest exists in neighbouring countries or
districts, whether the animals have been recently imported, etc., etc. We
should never neglect to carry out post mortem examinations on any ani-
mals which may have died, for the lesions of typhus are very important
and may contribute much to establish the diagnosis. If information on
these various points is not forthcoming, we must direct our attention to
the sick animals themselves, taking the necessary precautions, such as
sequestration, isolation, disinfection, etc., to prevent extension of the
malady; but the diagnosis becomes easy when the symptoms, vague at
the commencement, become accompanied by shiverings, trembling, con-
gestion of the integument, flow of tears, discharge from the nose, des-
quamation of the buccal membrane, diarrhœa, stupor, and other symp-
toms which characterize typhus. We may then be almost certain as to
the nature of the malady we are dealing with, and in order to remove
any doubts we may have on the subject and to confirm our diagnosis, we
may examine the lesions at post mortem examination or, if necessary,
have recourse to inoculation.
Lesions.—The lesions of typhus are very variable as to their num-
ber, seat, extent, intensity, according as to whether the malady has been
fully developed or is in a more or less advanced stage.
The principal lesions have their seat on the mucous membranes of
the digestive passages, of the respiratory organs and of the urinary
apparatus; we may also meet with them on the skin, in the subcutan-
eous connective tissue, muscles, nerve centres and circulatory apparatus.
The lesions of Rinderpest always present certain general characteris-
tics; they show themselves more particularly in a red, reddish-yellow,
brownish or blackish colour, uniform and regular, or marbled or irregular
and studded over with darker coloured spots. This coloration is due to
hyperæmia of the tissues and changes in the blood, and it is accompanied
by a more or less abundant exudation, bringing with it a certain quantity
of the colouring matter and soaking the tissues. When the coloration is