The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-21 00:00:00

TREATMENT OF CATTLE DISEASE BY HEAT.

Two terrible scourges hava afflicted Europe this year—
the cholera, which after having desolated the south of
France and Italy, is now finding numerous victims in
Paris ; and the typhus bondis, which is decimating the
cattle in Belgium, Holland, and, in particular, England.
The ravages of the first are decreasing, but nothing seems
to be able to stop the violence of the other As for Eng-
land, where so much capital is invested in the rearing of
cattle, the epidemic there has assumed the proportions of a
public disaster; meat, milk, and butter, those great neces-
saries, have become excessively scarce—indeed, there is
quite a famine.
A commission has been appointed to investigate the
causes and progress of the epidemic, and to consider the
best remedy. According to the Spectator this commission
is about to publish its report; but the state of things is
depicted in this•in such dismal colours that the only thing
the commission can do is to demand the convocation of
Parliament, in December instead of February to discuss
the question which alone occupies public attention.
We can tell the British Parliament, and before that
assembles, tell England and all the countries which the
scourge has not yet visited that there is an infallible re-
medy which ought to have been generally applied in Eng-
land, seeing the numerous experiments which have been
made and the remarkable results obtained.

The popularisation of this remedy has been retarded be-
cause it clashes with scientific prejudices which we cannot
have. A distinguished scientific man, Mr. Urquhart, whose
name was konourably mentioned in the English papers
some years ago, and whom the pure and light air of our
mountains has restored to health, and who has just built
a chalet on the " Prarion," has been the promoter of this
remedy in England, but he has had to sustain a severe
struggle with the prejudices of which we spoke above, and
over which he has not as yet been able to triumph.
This remedy is no other than that spoken of in the
article which appeared in the Mont Blanc on the 24th of
September, entitled, " The Arrival of the Cholera,"
viz., the Turkish Bath, or tho application of radiat-
ing heat. "By heat," says Mr. 'Urquhart, "an open-
ing is made, by which the poison and the urea may
escape, which tries. to find its
.way through ;the skin ;
by powerful shampooing, even to bruising, cramps
are relieved, the tension of the muscles arrested,
and the equilibrium of the circulation restored." Two
competent men, Dr. Thudicu,m, who is considered in Eng-
land her, most distinguished chemist, and Dr. Gosse, of
Geneva, have both proved the efficacy of this remedy.
"Henceforth," says the former, in a letter explaining the
physiological action of the Turkish Bath, "the cholera,
with its algide-period, will cease:to be a fatal disease." The
latter, in consequence of an experiment crowned with suc-
cess, has been led to substitute radiating heat for that of
water or vapour ; by these two latter there being caused
a great loss of strength, while radiating heat gives off elec-
tricity, which increases the strength of the person sub-
mitted to it.
The action of the Turkish Bath is identical in the case
of persons attacked with cholera and animals affected with
the cattle plague. Numerous testimonies are given from
all parts as to the efficacy of this remedy. A doctor writes
to Public Opinion that a farmer who, out of eleven cows,
had ten smitten with the disease, instead of slaughtering
them to save the one, he thought himself of submitting
them to the bath. At the end of a week he had lost none
of the animals, but their health had materially improved.
They were on the road to complete recovery.
The Sun also has published a letter from Mr. Scriven,
who has devoted himself to making experiments for four
years, without ever being disappointed by the result. This
gentleman's letter is subjoined, preceded by some few
words from Mr. Urquhart, to whom we are indebted for
this obliging communication.

To the Editor.
"Chalet des Melezes au Prarion, 28th Sept.

" Sir,—As you inserted my letter on the cholera, I sup-
pose you will willingly accept the one I now send you,
taken from the English papers, on the epidemic which is
decimating the cattle in England. The remedy for the
two diseases, the same. Numerous experiments during
five years have left no doubt regarding the action of heat
on the diseases of cattle—that is to say, it cures them all.
Such a result cannot but react on the investigation of the
measures to be taken to preserve us from the epidemic
which threatens the human race.

Tho two questions are connected in another way. Al-
though the effect of the Turkish Bath on beasts in Ireland
and Scotland is indisputable and undisputed, no step, that
lam aware of, has been takeii to arrest the course of an
epidemic which affects the welfare and threatens the pro-
sperity of the public.
So also against the cholera; neither in the place where
it has committed its ravages, or elsewhere, has anywhere
it been thought of to employ the natural agent, the most
simple and efficacious, and which at the same time is both
the oldest of remedies and the latest discovery.

D. URQUILMT.

Absorbed by other matters, we have left these letters for
seine time on our file. Our attention has been recalled to
them by fresh documents which we have found in
the Morning Star of the 18th of October. The first is
an important despatch from the British Ambassador to
St. Petersburg ; the next is a letter from a physician,
confirming the important effects of the treatment by heat,
whether in the cholera or the cattle disease. These docu-
ments are as follows

Mr. Urquhart quitted St. Gervais a few days ago to go
to England to construct there Turkish baths for cattle.
We shall publish the ulterior details which have been
promised us on this important question.
We will add only one word more, says the Mont Blanc:
the action of heat is evident in all the cases cited above,
whatever the manner in which it has been applied, whether
in local or complete baths, or by the vapour bath, etc.
Tho perfection of the system consists in the employ-
ment of radiating heat, of which Mr. Striven speaks
when referring to the Manual of the Turkish Bath. The
apparatus employed to produce it is simple and cheap ;
it consists of a grate or basket for coke, surrounded by a
coating of iron-plates ; that is to say, a common laundry-
stove. The conduits for the smoke aro disposed around
the room in such a manner as to lose caloric. This appara-
tus is that which we have seen at the Chalet des 21Ielezes.

An important letter upon the subect, written by
Mr. Urquhart himself, we would here append to
the foregoing. It is dated Chalet des Melezes, St.
Gervais, Sept. 20, Haute Savoie, France, and runs
as follows :

I have been so painfully disappointed in my endeavour
by letters to induce persons in England to try the effect of
caloric that I have been prompted by the public spirit of
your experiment to suggest to you the employment of that
means, and to offer you some explanation as to the means

of carrying them into effect, should the suggestion meet
with your approval.

Heat is the great disinfector. Heat is the great purifier
of the animal frame.

These qualities have within the last few years been esta-
blished in an irrefragable manner. The question seems to
be why they have not been employed in the case of a new
disease, and one which has defied all other modes of
treatment.

The answer is given in what has been done, or rather
not done, in reference to cholera. Hero, practically and
theoreticelly, heat has been recognised as the cure. Yet,
where the malady has appeared, and whore it is appre-
hended, no one has so much as suggested the construction
of Turkish baths. But, on the contrary, where these
baths exist, European medical men have dissuaded from
their use.

If, on these ground., you think fit to make the trial in
reference to the murrain, you can do it at a triflng cost.
It requires but to close in a loose box, or the end of a
stable; 8 feet square will give space for two cows; 11 feet
,by 12 will give space for six cows at a time. A common
laundry stove, placed in a trench 18 inches deep, at one
side of the room, with a flue in iron carried a few feet on
at the same level, will raise the temperature to the boiling
pitch, or above it.

I intreat of you to let your decision be the result of your
own reflections. If you consult a scientific man you will
get an unfavourable answer, and be set against it, and thus
lose the opportunity of making the experiment, as well as
all the advantages which you yourself might derive from
having thus become acquainted with the means of increas-
ing the enjoyments of life, and prolonging its duration.
The experiment cannot be made unless you have a per-
son understanding the use of the bath. I have directed
superintendent of the Hammam in Jermyn-street to take
this letter, and to be in attendance in case you wish to
consult him, and I have also desired ono of the shampooers
to be at your disposal in case you desire his services.

I have recommended a laundry stove, not as being the
best, but as being the least bad of any to be obtained ready
made. I enclose the sketch of one I have ordered here, for
the bath of a friend who is building a chalet near me; and
which is destined to heat a room 14 feet by 8 and 10 feet
high. DAVID URQUHART.

And now, finally, let us commend the following
plain statement— as to what may be called the appa-
ratus or appliances for the employment of this
beneficent remedy for cattle stricken with the
rinderpest—to all those who may be desirous to ob-
tain for cattle disinfectiug and cleansing heat :
Take a loose box, close it in with boards—lath and
plaster partition, filling the interval with sawdust, so as to
render it impervious to air and heat. Lay in tin. of saw-
dust over the ceiling ; place a ventilator 2iin. square in the
ceiling, or near the top of the box, by which the air is to be
admitted. Place a similar ventilator in the partition, or
down at the height of a man's head, for occasional use.
Set the door so that it shall open outwardly and close her-
metically. Put a second glass in the window panes and
part up the frames. Dig a trench at ono side, other than
that at which there is the door, 2ft. deep and 3ft. wide.
Flatten the earth, and lay upon it a sheet of sheet-
iron 2ft. by 3ft. Place on it an iron cradle 14in. by
18in., standing 4in. from the ground, and being itself
10 inches high. Over this place a sheet-iron case, 18
inches wide, 20 inches long, and 2 feet high. This case
will have in the front a hopper 4 inches square to throw
in the coke, a slide below 1* inch by 3 inches to light the
fire by, and to give air ; and a drawer at the bottom, or
open space, for the ashes 7 inches by 4 inches. Then fit
on the pipe for the flue, at the other end, light the fire, and,
in a couple of hours, you can send in your cattle. The
railing in front of the furnace should be strong, although
cattle are always quiet in the bath.
N.B.—No bottom to the case which constitutes the stove.
The ashes will soon close up any passage of air. Trouble
and expense is thus saved; and any change or reparation
is made at once. The, flue should be as large, but as low
as possible. If the trench cannot be continued round the
second side of the room, then the flue may be a second
case of 18 or 20 inches in height; at the end, narrowed to
4 inches, with a damper. It may then be sent through
the wall anywhere, for all the available heat will have been
taken out.

And the outlay for the erection upon any farm
of what might be called an impromptu Turkish
Bath for Cattle—and the outlay for that, it may
here be asked very anxiously ? Can that outlay be
conjectured? Hardly, we should imagine. For
the cost may actually be set down as amount-
ing to no more than £2 or £3—not £2O or £3o—
to no more than £2 or £3 sterling.