The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1860-06-05
THE CATTLE DISEASE IN NEW ENG
LAND.

The greatest alarm prevails In the New Eng
land States in consequence of the new and con-
taglous form taken by the terrible disease which
has for some months prevailed among the cattle OF
Massachusetts,, and which is now spreading into
New Hampshire and Connect cut The republi.
can says:
The disease has been styled pleura-pneumonia
but careful investigation proves it to be the lung
murrain, a disease clearly and unquestionably
contagious, and communicated from one animal
to another by the breath The disease is confined
solely to horned CATTLE but with them it is as con-
tagious the plague, and more fatal in its results
No animal that takes the infection ever RECEIVERS;
and the contagion is sure to be taken by all ami
mails that come within the influence of the breath
OF a diseased one. The measures adopted by the
| Legislature of Massachusetts, by no means meet
the case for although nearly one thousand head
have already been killed by the Commissioners,
the disease is more generally prevalent than at the
beginning. The disease is several weeks in de-
veoping itself, and does not terminate fatally, in
some cases, under six months time, so that while
the Commissioners examining and killing dis
eased animals in section, others that have the
seeds in them are distributing it over the land
with almost the rapidity of the wind, injecting
whole herds and threatening the most disastrous
results
1t is now proposed to convene both the Legis-
latures of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and to
pass stringent laws to prevent even the move
ment Of cattle from town to town, for six months,
at least, as the only certain method for check
ing the spread Of the disease, The present aspect
of the disease is regarded by the Massachusetts,
Commissioners as most alarming. The petition
which has been prepared, calling on the Cover
to convene extra session of the Legis-
ature, sets forth that the pleura- pneumonia has
extended itself over a broader territory than was
at first anticipated; that additional power and
larger appropriations are required in order to the
accomplishment of the object for which the Com
missioners were appointed on behalf of the Com
monwealth; and that further authority and means
for roofing out this evil are absolutely necessary.
The Boston Journal contains a letter from
individual who has just arrived from the Cape of
Good Hope. The writer believes that the cattle
disease, producing so much alarm in Massa-
chusetts, is the same that has lately proven
destructive to horned cattle in South Africa. The
disease at the Cape is called the lung Sickness it
was introduced about years ago by the i'm
portaton Of two Dutch bulls, and spread before its
destructive character fully understood. At
tempts were made to isolate the infective stock,
and to confne the stock to certain limits, but it
was all in vain. All transportation and much of
the travel in South Africa is reformed by oxen,
who scattered the disease every where. Various
remedies were tried without success, until inocu-
lation was adopted, which proved successful, it
did in the smallpox. The writer thus describes
the process of noculaton:
"kill diseased beast not too far gone, and take
as much of the lung as you require for the num-
Der Of cattle you intend to operate upon, THROW
them down one by one, otherwise make them
FAST cut the hair short off about nine inches from
the tip of the tail, make incision through the
skin an inch long; insert bit of lung the size of
a bean, rather larger, bandage it properly, and
in about three days the virus ought to take, and
within the week the bandage should be taken off,
when the wound appears swollen. Many of the
cattle lose their tails by incubation, and some
die when proper attention has not been given but,
SO far as [ nave had experience, few cattle have
died of this sickness after being inocusated"
The disease has been very destructive in South
Afrca-a part of the world where cattle are
valued than any where else. The price of draught
oxen there has risen from fifteen to fifty dollars
since the existence of the plague.