The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-06 00:00:00

The Cattle Disease.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,--On my return from Coburg yesterday I re-
quested my bailiff to draw up a statement of what
has occurred during my absence at a farm which I
hire at Golder's-green, three miles from the Regent's
Park on the Finchley-road.
Having perfect confidence in the accuracy of Mr.
Panter's statement, and thinking it may interest the
public, I forward it to you for publication.
When I left England a month ago there were
about 130 mulch cows in four sheds. In the two
largest and best managed I found only one cow
yesterday. His Royal Highness the Duke of Coburg
informed me last week that what he believes to be
the same disease visited Coburg last year. No one
can trace its origin, and no medical treatment was
successful. Air and water were their only remedies.
Some men had died from eating the meat killed at a
particular stage of the disease. His Royal Highness
had seen a horse die in four hours, killed by flies
which came from the carcass of a cow which had
been allowed to remain above ground. The dis-
ease disappeared in the autumn as mysteriously as
it had come.

I understand that Professor Symonds is of opinion
that the disease mentioned by the Duke of Coburg
is not the same as that from which we are suffering
here—that its name is the Siberian Pest.—l am,
sir, your obedient servant, GRANVILLE.
Sept. 5.

" Golder's-green Farm, Hendon, N.W., Sept. 4.
" My Lord,—Your lordship wishing to have particulars
of the breaking out and continuance of the cattle plague
here, 1 have the honour to send a statement.
" On the 13th of July I purchased five Dutch cows in the
Metropolitan-market, and placed them in quarantine at
Child's-hill farm, one mile from here. On the 22d of July
one of them showed signs of debility, diarrhoea followed.
Thinking it was only a cold, she was treated accordingly,
but continued to get worse, and died in five days. Two
more were attacked in a similar way, when veterinary ad-
vice was called in, but in five days the whole either died or
were slaughtered. Every precaution was used to prevent
the spread of infection here; the men who attended the sick
cattle were not allowed to go among the healthy ones, and
vice versa.

"But previous to this, hearing of the disease in the Lon-
don cow-sheds, I adopted precautionary measures, such as
a liberal use daily of chloride of lime, administered ono
ounce of nitro in half a pint of water to each cow, and a
small quantity of tar, and painted their noses with tar.

"But, on the Bth of August, unfortunately the disease
showed itself hero in a fat cow that had been for tenmonths
in the best built, best drained and ventilated shed. No new
stock had been added for nine weeks. In a few hours four
more cows showed symptoms of it. I immediately had
them all removed and slaughtered, and made a post mortem
examination of them, and found the windpipe in a state of
decomposition, the lungs inflated, the small intestines red
and inflamed, and the meat of a dark yellow colour out-
side, and dark red inside, which I think unfit for human
food after the first stage.
" The disease confined itself to the above shed of 48 cows
(which are now all gone) till the 20th of August, when it
broke out in another shed of 35 cows, some ten yards from
the former one, and continued its ravages, taking from two
to four cows daily, till they are all gone but two, ono of
which has not been attacked ; the other, which was a bad
case, is cured, and partly come to her milk again. On the
first symptoms I had her separated from the other stock,
and did not treat her for two days, when diarrhoea set in ;
I then gave her a bottle of brandy and four ounces of
ground ginger in three quarts of old ale. She lay in a kind
of stupor for 12 hours, when I could see a change in her
for the better. I continued to give her daily four quarts of
gruel made with old ale and two ounces of ginger. In four
days she was sufficiently recovered to eat a little hay, &c.,
and do without further treatment. In another case the
above treatment failed, and the animal died in three da) s.
"In other cases I allowed any one to treat them who
thought they had a remedy, both professional men and
others. One persevering young veterinary surgeon came
up out of Somersetshire and treated two cases most ener-
getically, but failed in both ; one died in four, and the other
in eight days. In other cases tonics, stimulants, blisters,
and setons have been tried but failed.

" The whole of the 81 cows lost were of the English
breed ; wo have not as yet had any loss out of the other
two sheds, consisting of about half English and half Dutch
cows, and standing about 40 yards from the infected shed.
" It may be interesting for your lordship to know that I
had the shed at Child's-hill farm immediately cleansed
with disinfectants, and washed with hot lime, &c., and
bought 12 fresh cows and placed them there on tile 16th,
which are now in perfect health, and a neighbour situated
midway between here and that farm had 23 cows lying in
a field ; the plague took 20 of them, and in three weeks he
replaced them with new stock, which aro still healthy, he
having had them a month.

" Another neighbour, a mile distant, had a fine herd of
72 cows (English) lying in the fields a fortnight ago. The
plague broke out among them, and now he has only eight
left in health.

" From my own experience, and from all I can learn, I
believe the disease is atmospheric, and of a typhoid cha-
racter.

" The first symptoms in a milking cow is an almost en-
tire loss of milk, then loss of appetite, a watery discharge
from the oyes, nostrils, and mouth, which thickens as the
disease develops itself ; rumination ceases, her ears hang
down, her eyes are heavy and sunken, bloody matter is
seen in the excrement, great debility is seen, diarrhoea sets
in, and death takes place in from three to nine days.
"I have read of iron water being a preventive of the
disease. All the water your cows have drunk comes six
miles through rusty iron pipes.
" I have tho honour to be, my lord, your lordship's most
obedient servant, " CHARLES PANTER.
" The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G., &c."

THE JUDGES' CHAMBERS.—At the Judges' Cham-
bers yesterday Mr. Justice Montague Smith was engaged
to a late hour in hearing summonses and other matters be-
longing to the three Common-law Courts. Mr. Sleigh ap-
plied in the case of " The Queen v. Schmidt " for leave to
put in bail. The defendant was committed at Brighton for
receiving stolen property, and his wife was also committed.
A Mr. Pocock had been robbed of his watch at the railway
station by being jostled against by two women and a man.
Mr. Inspector Carpenter, of the London police, attached to
the Brighton Railway, obtained a search warrant, and the
watch, with several others, was found at the beershop of
the defendant at Cross-street, Hove. The defendant now
made an affidavit of his innocence, and stated that he was
out all the day attending to the business of a fly-owner.
The learned counsel said the prisoner could not be tried
for some time, and he hoped he had shown sufficient for
the learned judge to grant a summons to admit him to bail.
His lordship said the learned counsel might have a sum-
mons, and one was accordingly issued calling on the other
side to show cause.

FATAL SCAFFOLD ACClDENT.—Yesterday after-
noon an accident, which immediately proved to be
fatal, occurred at Messrs. Aldebert and Co.'s premises, Bow-
street, Long-acre. A bricklayer named William Adkinson
was, with other men, engaged in putting another story to
the above premises, when the deceased, in stepping from
the top of a high ladder on to the scaffold, missed his foot-
ing and fell from a he ight of 36ft. on to a stage Bft. from
the ground. On the lower stage were pieces of brick, one
of which fractured his skull and penetrated the brain, in
which it remain, firmly wedged,