The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-22 00:00:00

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The Cattle Disease versus Heat.

(From the Newcastle Daily Journal)

It would be of yory little appositeness to the question of
the disease that is at present destroying the cattle of this
country to enter, as some of our contemporaries are doing,
into a descriptive catalogue of the diseases to which cattle
are subject. Cattle undoubtedly partake of the curse en-
tailed upon all the world by the original transgression.
The "ills that flesh is heir to" are not confined to huma-
nity; but the whole animate creation are subject to a nu-
merous train of ills. Cows, the description of animals to
which the attention of the people of this country is at pre-
sent particularly directed, in respect to the disease that has
befallen it, are subject to blood disorders, to fever, to func-
tional disturbance of the skin, and of other secreting or-
gans ; to organic cutaneous diseases which are apt to be-
come chronic ; to rheumatic affections ; and to a large
number of inflammatory disorders. But,what is of more con-
sequence at prespnt than an enumeration of the numerous

train of ills to which cow flesh is subject, is some sugges-
tion for the removal of the special disease which has broken
out with such virulence that it is threatening to seriously
reduce the number of cattle in this country, and by that
means to diminish, to an injurious extent, the food of the
people.
The suggestion that we have to make is that heat be

tried, both as a means of prevention and of cure. The
suggestion of heat as a therapeutic agent in cattle disease
has already been made, though not in reference to the par-

icular disease that has now broken out. It was made some

time ago, however, and by a gentleman whose name has
been greatly before the public in connection with the pre-
sent disorder. We allude to Professor Gamgee, who, in
his well known work on Dairy Stock, has the following
remarks on this subject of heat as applicable, by means of
k.3vhat is called the Turkish bath, to the cure of disease in
cattle :—" In the long category of diseases," says Professor
Gamgee, ".we shall find one and all pertain to the kind
likely to be much benefited by heat. But it is to ward off
disease, and to preserve health, that among dairy-stock,
particularly in large towns, the bath might prove of great
service." Again, says the Professor, "As a therapeutic
agent, the hot-air chamber holds an intermediate position,
between evacuants and stimulants. It is undoubtedly a
general tonic, because it fits important organs for the free
and healthy exercise of their functions, and thus operates
beneficially on the blood, and on nutrition, and hence in-
vigorates the body. That it is evacuant, no one can doubt
that has witnessed the kind and quantity of cutaneous se-
cretions, whether in man or animals. Viewing the subject
as a veterinary, I unhesitatingly say that we have in heat
the most effective diaphoretic, the most active depurant,
and the most efficient means of producing healthy
reaction that we have yet had at our disposal. It is a great
addition to our therapeutic means. We needed a satisfac-
tory means of acting on the skin of lower animals in febrile
and other diseases, and here we have it." Not to multiply
evidence, it is yet worth while to quote the opinion of an-
other writer on veterinary surgery, if only for the purpose
of showing that the opinion of Professor Gamgee is not
the only one in the profession favourable to the employment
of heat as a curative agent, and as a preventive of disease.
The writer to whom we now refer, in speaking of heat
applied in the same form as by Professor Gamgee, namely,
by the so-called Turkish bath, remarks :—" The Turkish
bath, not only as a medicinal agent, but also as a preven-
tive of disease, deserves consideration ; and one cannot
help thinking that the hot-air chamber is almost as neces-
sary an adjunct to the extensive stock-keeper as to the
veterinary surgeon, and for the simple reason that in it we
have an agent which exerts more powerful influence than
any derivative, ox-purge, or blister, with lowering vital
power, for it carries off, or at any rate diminishes, the
amount of any virus that may circulate in the blood, and
by this means cleanses the system, and renders it better
better able to throw off disease, and to resist the attacks
of it."

These are the opinions of men, both of whom aro emi-
nent in their profession ; and the reader will have gathered
from them that not only are these distinguished veterinary
surgeons favourably impressed with the belief that heat as
a therapeutic agent can be applied with benefit to the
lower animals, but that tho belief has been put into prac-
tice. The application of heat has, in fact, been tried, and
tried successfully, among others by Lord Kinnaird, who
although he may be best known in the neighbourhood of
Coaly Tyne for his connection with the Government in-
spection of mines, is yet well known as a large agricul-
turist and cattle breeder. His lordship's experiments with
heat in cases of cattle distemper are conclusive. He has
had a so-called bath erected at 3iillhill ; and its curative
properties have been demonstrated in the most marked
manner, in such cases as \hose of calves suffering from
scour, &c. But still more decisive is the effect it has had
upon stets affected with pleurcr-rnetrateenie,. Out of three
patients which were on the spot at the time the bath was
visited by a reporter two had every appearance of pro-
grossing towards perfect health. They ate well, walked
about with seeming comfort and ease, the cough had lost
its nasty metallic sound, the discharge from the nose was
stopped, the animals were no more hide-bound, and their
coat had no longer the staring aspect of disease. The third
patient, which was a larger animal than the other two, was
not yet so far recovered, but was a great deal better. This
is not by any means the whole of the experience to the
same effect. The gentleman, indeed, who has introduced
the Turkish bath to this country, we mean Mr. Urquhart,
has himself found that dysentery among dairy stock-yields
readily to heat. Loss of milk is one of the symptoms of
dysentery; and on the fourth day after the beginning of
the attack, Mr. Urquhart has frequently hid cows back to
their full milk; while heat in the skin, and loss of appe-
tite, are got over the day they appear. It must be under-
stood, however, that the heat required to produce a favour -
able impression in cases of pleuro-pneumonia must be very
great, up to 200 or 212 degrees, boiling point, in fact. At
a less temperature, the curative effect was not visible. In
other diseases, less dangerous, but, if neglected, hardly less
fatal, the hot air bath has been found a perfect cure.
Now, to apply these facts and this reasoning to the case
of the present disease in cattle. It will have been observed
that the symptoms of disease already cured by heat are the
same as some that are found in the prevalent disease. In
pleuro-pneumonia there are loss of milk, dysentery,
diarrhoea., loss of appetite, cough, inactive skin; in the cur-
rent disease these symptoms are found along, of course,
with others. The principal difference in the symptoms of
pleuro-pneumonia and the prevalent diseases seems, so far
as is yet known, to be that, while in both cases the ani-
mals are hide-bound, in the former the skin is hot, and in
the other cold. This difference, however, would seem to
furnish an additional reason not only for experiment with
heat in the case of animals seized with the new disease,
but also for expecting a satisfactory result.

- -
DISEASE UPON THE STAGE.—Given a tea-urn, and
gouty man upon the stage, and it is required to
know what a popular dramatist will do with them.
gouty man, stout, red-faced, helpless, and much padded
about the legs, will be wheeled on in a chitir by the comic
' servant, and fixed at tho breakfast table. A tea-urn will
then be brought in, foaming like a brewhouse copper, and
placed upon the table, when the comic servant will with-
draw. After a few seconds taken up with speaking, and the
business of the table, the gouty man will find the
water dripping from the tea-urn upon tho worst of
his two lame legs, which it is totally out of his power
to move. The gouty man cannot reach a bell, and he
knocks violently on the floor with a thick stick, the
audience in the meantime roaring with delight, when
they are made fully aware of the humour of the position.
After a most unwarrantable delay the comic servant =Ores
his appearance with anything but signs of pity and con-
trition upon his countenance. He pretends to be nearly
bursting with half-concealed laughter, at which the audi-
ence shout in sympathy, and when he condescends to re-
cover his speech, and addresses his afflicted master, who
is suffering from a painful disease, most painfully aggra-
vatedby the consequences of his gross neglect, instead of
asking pardon, as in duty bound, he says, in the tone of
an injured and unappreciated servant : " Well, sir, if I
don't give satisfaction, I'd better leave ! " If the stage is
a faithful reflex of the manners of the time (and we are
bound to consider it so, according to the highest autho-
rities) we have small reason to congratulate ourselves
upon the improvement in our humanity. Putting feeling
out of the question, wo may naturally ask what there
is about gout which renders it so intensely and so pre-
eminently comic ? Small-pox, fevers, and broken limbs
are never served up to amuse an audience, although the
whole put together can scarcely equal the pain and help-
lessness represented by gout. The pleasures of the table
are falsely fathered with the disease, although many more
desperate cases come from workhouses than from palaces.
Gatherers of comic material have either advanced too far
in the province of disease, or have not penetrated far
enough. There may bo a wide, a fruitful, and a compara-
tively untouched field yet open to them, for mirth-provok-
ing purposes. Rheumatism has many phases that might
be rendered amusing in the hands of a master. Indigestion
has been largely used ; but bilious fever is still virgin soil.
Ague and yellow jaundice would be effective in their dra-
matic manifestations, and are perfectly novel to the English
stage. Consumption has been well worked on its senti-
mental side: but there must be a comic aspect if diligent
searchers will only seek it. Thep lague has been repre-
sented to a British audience with very equivocal success,
but the persevering dramatist should not be disheartened
by a single failure. Even the gout, well-used as it is, is
not entirely an over-worked mine. Why do the leading
wits of the age linger idly at the half-way houses of death,
and not push on their journey to its legitimate conclusion?
If disease can be made funny, why not the last scene of
all ? Death is not always strutting in its dignified poses ;
and many men have left the world with something mar-
vellously like an anti-climax.—From Iloilingsheaes " To-
Dag:,

"Ting letter has been addressed to the
Lcuiur ui Liie Times :—.
Sir,—lf Admiral Rous had sufficiently in his mind the
complications and dissatisfaction that have arisen under
the laws of racing and betting, even when codified and re-
vised by so eminent an authority as himself, he would be
more charitable as regards the motives, if not more tole-
rant
of the arguments, of those who do not agree with him
upon the Claxton case.
He imputes unfairness to the writer of the articles trans-
ferred to your columns from the Globe in not quoting the
second part of Rule 2, regarding cases of " incorrect pedi-
gree or nomination."
It might be a sufficient answer to the charge of suppressio
yen to say that this part of the rule is not to bo found in
sonic, at least, of authoritative books of reference down to
last autumn. But the fact is,'that portion of the rule does
not apply to the present instance, which is not one of
merely " incorrect pedigree or nomination," where the
stakes and bets may be separated. In the Claxton case no
such incidental error is involved; it is the vital and radieAl
question of a good and sufficient nomination, or no nomi-
nation at all. Admiral Rous, if criticised in the spirit he
himself shows, might be accused of unfairness, for he
omitsthla
th
a b
est
thltlei,
ansfstrucki.om importantooi provisionnugt
oi
into
ttoh er
thea thatee. the rule applies only
where " the horse is not otherwise disqualified by the laws
of racing." The main object is that Claxton was other-
wise disqualified—on the best possible ground—namely,
unpleasant question as to
who tells the truth regarding the conditions of the sale of
Claxton, which would settle the main and, indeed, the
only point whether he was lawfully or improperly struck
out of the race. I simply take the decision of the stewards
and that of Lord Westmoreland and Mr. Payne, represent-
ing the committee of Tattersall's. Finding Admiral Rous
agreeing with both, I submit that he is in a difficulty from
which he cannot extricate himself.
Claxton was scratched, or ho Was not. In the former
ease, Admiral Rous will have to make an addition to the
laws of betting in something like these

Words :
"Bets made upon a horse after he is scratched are not
thereby void if the horse be subsequontly permitted to run
through error or fraud."

On the latter supposition—namely, that Claxton was not
scratched—the Admiral will have to amend the laws of
racing, by providing that—
"A horse rightly nominated, not struck out by proper
authority, not otherwise disqualified, and coming in first,
may, nevertheless, be deprived of the stakes if any person
should erroneously or fraudulently inform the stewards
that he was struck out by proper authority."
I leave it to the Admiral to say if either of these rules
would be likely to conduce to the honesty of the Turf.
Admiral Rous says that people materially interested in
racing should look to the Calendar and mind their business,
and that those who do not cannot complain if they lose
through their own negligence. I most thoroughly agree
with him, and beg him to apply his dictum to the present
case.

Let us suppose that I, having a good judgment about tho
merits of the horses in the Huntingdon Stakes, come to the
conclusion that Claxton and Suspicion must beat the best.
I attend to my Racing Calendar and find Claxton struck
Out of all his engagements on the Ist of August. I there-
fore think it is all right for Suspicion, send down to take
the odds, or take them myself in London. Is it right that
I, the attentive man, should have to pay and not receive ?
On the other hand, we will say that I am inattentive to
my Calendar, and I back Claxton. Is it so hard that the
bet should be declared void, and that I should have no
money to receive—l am not called upon to pay, be it under-
stood—upon a bet made by me through misapprehension ?
In this case am I not one of those, who " are too idle to read
the Racing Calendar, and to attend to their business, and
have nobody to blame but themselves for not receiving the
bets ?"

The Admiral gives you a case as a precedent. I shall
give him another, with an opinion which I hope he will
not be too high-handed in refuting :
"In the Bedford Stakes at Newmarket, October, 1847,
Lord Spencer struck the Empress out of this race a short
time before the races commenced, but the trainer, not being
aware of the circumstance, started her. A question arose
as to whether Lord Spencer was liable to pay the whole
stake or only the forfeit; the stewards decided he must pay
the whole stake.

"Remark.—With all due submission, I assert that this
decision was in direct violation of racing law. Empress,
being struck out, was virtually defunct ; if she had come in
first she would not have received the stakes, and if she had
been backed at the post the bets would have been null and
void. She was therefore to be considered an intruder, and
liable to be fined for galloping with the leading horses in a
race."

The case is, I think, in point, for it is that of a scratched
horse subsequently allowed to run in error. The opinion is
to be found at page 90 of the " Laws and Practice of Horse-
racing," and the author is Admiral the Hon. H. J. Pious.
I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

Improvement of Firearms,

(From the Paris Correspondent of the Times.)

The French 'War-office never loses sight of that
important object, the improvement of firearms. In
the workshops and armouries depending on that de-
partment constant experiments are made and fre-
quent trials took place, and private inventors are also
encouraged to submit their models of improved arms.
For a long time past a breech-loading rifle for gene-
ral use in the army has been desired, and, before
introducing so important and expensive a change,
the subject has of course been profoundly studied.
Among others who sent in models was a M. Man-
ceaux. His and one other, produced by an employe
of the department, were the only two that survived
the numerous trials to which all such inventions
are subjected. A difficulty arose between M.
Manceaux and the War Department with respect
to priority of invention of certain parts of his rifle,
of which parts he desired to prevent the introduc-
tion into another model. The affair came before
the Civil Tribunal of the Seine, and was decided
last year in favour of the War-office. Manceaux
appealed, and judgment has just been given by the
Imperial Court of Paris, which confirms the decision
of the lower tribunal, but orders the War-office to
pay one fourth of the costs. The details of the affair,
as given in a long report in the Gazette des Tribuneaux,
are chiefly technical, but a document produced by
Manceaux at the Court of Appeal is sufficiently
curious to be worth notice. It is the history of
one of his rifles which went through the Mexican
campaign :

The Ist battalion of Foot Chasseurs sailed for Mexico
in March, 1862. On its arrival at Vera Cruz on the 16th of
the following May, there was delivered, by order of General
Douay, commanding the brigade, to Sergeant Cavalier, of
the first company of the battalion, a rifle on the Manceaux
system, in exchange for his regulation rifle. Lieutenant
Chardon, a pupil of the normal school of shooting, was or-
dered by General Douay to observe the trial of this arm,
and to keep a diary of its services ; but he was killed in the
course of the campaign, and the report he had begun was
lost. Sergeant Cavalier carried the rifle through the whole
campaign, which lasted for that battalion from May, 1862,
to October, 1864—two years and four months. He used it
for the first time at the siege of Puebla. The battalion was
in position at Fort St. John, situate at 2,000 metres from
the town. He alone was able to fire with effect at that dis-
tance. His bullets were seen to strike groups of the enemy,
causing the horsemen to scatter. From that position of
Fort St. John several officers of the battalion used the
Manceaux rifle with success, and especially Captain /dor-
hain, who knocked over several Mexicans with it at a dis-
tance of 1,500 metres. General Douay himself fired with it
at a distance of 1,000, 1,500, 1,800, and even 2,000 metres,
and hit several Mexican horsemen. When Puebla was taken
Sergeant Cavalier made use of his arm with the bayonet,
and killed several men with it. He found it very light at the
end of the rifle, very penetrating, very murderous, and easy
to handle. In consequence of the long range and of the preci-
sion of his weapon he was constantly selected in the course
of the campaign for ambuscades, and to fire at great dis-
tances. The rifle was found well adjusted for all distances,
even the greatest. Its weight was 5 kilogrammes and 30
grammes. Cavalier, who carried it for more than two years,
and marched 1,600 leagues with it, declared that he did not
find the weight excessive, and would willingly submit to
it, in consideration of all the advantages of the rifle. I
recoil caused him no fatigue, and seemed to him to be
firedm
dmuch
less severe than that of the regulation rifle.
He
alto-
gether about 1,200 shots from it, remarked that he
readily:fired three shots to ono that his comradestimesin
afirmed.m. from
their rifles. He had often fired five e.
Width fire,
fire
vsehroytsrarin ealydamyi,
He had often
The arm was easily
as ilylmoaadneyd,asansdo
in-
tervals for the rifle to cool, but without cleaning. After
having fired all day, he would resume firing the next morn-
ing without cleaning it, and without finding any difficulty
in loading. This had several times occurred."

Against this remarkable narrative M. Manceaux's
opponent in the lawsuit protested, but we are not
told on what grounds. Some of its most important
statements, we may suppose, could hardly be dis-
puted, since Manceaux cites the names of several
officers as able positively to depose to their truth.
he range of the rifle—nearly 2,200 yards—seems
very great. Five shots in the minute is rapid firing
to be effective, especially for a rifle that has to be
capped, and would leave little advantage to the
Prussian needle gun, which needs no cap. It does
not clearly appear to what peculiarity of the rifle is
due that remarkably penetrating and murderous
power of the bayonet at its end, described with such
unction in the above interesting and historical
sketch.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 2h. 50m.—Afternoon, 3h. sm,
To-Monnow.-Morning, 3h. 20m.—Afternoon, 3h. 38m,