The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1866-03-24
The Cattle Plague.

hictions in former times. Such diseases
have engaged the attention of SOME of the
most eminent medical writer's, beginning
with Hippocl ates himself who devoted a
CHAPTER to veterinary medicine, in which he
speaks of twenty seven diseases peculiar to
animals Some diseases attack only Horned
cattle others, sheep and others, again,
horses. Swine are the sufferers at one time;
poultry at another. There are some pecu
liar to dogs, to cats, to fish, to bees, &c -
! Some are common to several species of ami
mails; and instances abound of both men
and animals suffering from the SAME cpl
demic. We might cite, for example, typhus
fever, inflammation of the stomach and
bowels, quinscy, pneumonia, plague, dyson
terry, carbuncles erysipelas or St. Anthonys
fire, and hydrophobia.
The disease which has committed such
ravages in cattle, and excited so much alarm
among their owners and the public at large,
in Europe, is called by the not very disin-
gushing term of cattle plague IN England,
and is believed in France to be typhus. 1t
is not believed, however, by those who have
made it their business to Investigate the sub
just in the latter country, that the disease
owes its origin to the ordinary causes Of
typhus fever-impure air from crowding,
filth, &C. They trace it to the stcppes of
Russia and corresponding high lands in
Hungary, the cattle feeding on which are so
often afflicted with this pestlence, and trans
nit it to the countries of Western Europe.
to which they are driven for sale. A notice
of some of the epizootc diseases in former
times will not be without instruction, as
showing reSemblances between them and the
present one, and Offering, incidentally, some
suggestions for prevention and cure. We
pass over. with simple allusion to the fact,
the infections to which the people of Rome.
in the early period Of her history, beginning
with Romuus, were subjected by the sue.
cessve epidemic visitations and excessive
mortality in their cattle, in which the own.
ers were not always spared. Coming down
to later age, we learn that from A. D. $40
to 1916 there were no less than twenty. seven
seasons of such disease, by which France,
Germany, England and Italy were ravaged.
In the year 1861, the dogs in Naples were
carried off in large numbers by apoplexy;
SO in 1867 were the sheep in entire iIocks, in
Lombardy. A sheep would go to pasture
frisking, and all Of sudden fall down dead.
Too early an exposure to cold and damp air
after shcaring, was regarded as the chief
cause Of the seizure. An Epidemic cgtarrh
or bronchitis spread in l7l6 among horned
cattle and horses over all Germany, also
Bohemia and Moravia. Dogs in France, in
l7G4, were seized with violent and spas.
modic cough, accompanied by vertigo, con
vulsive movements and complete paralysis
of the hind legs, in which state the animal
often died suddenly. Putrid sore throat, in
the reign of Constantine the Great, (376)
took its rise in Hungary, and thence passed
over the rest of Europe, destroying speedily
the animals which it attacked. 1t reap
peared at different times in the sixteenth,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In
Spain; in 1910, it found its victims among
|
England, during the years 1879, 174S and
1862, it decimated the horses. Pneumonia
carried off large numbers Of horned cattle in
Champagne and Avergne, in 1772. Chick
ems, and all of the barny yard tribe of poul.
try, were destroyed by the same disease in
the Pavian and Milanese territories, in the
winter of l779. Gastric fever, of an cpl.
demic character first showed itself in 1909,
on the borders of Tartary; 1t then rayersed,
in period of twenty.three years, every
country in Europe, from the Baltic to the
Mediterranean, and from the Black Sea to
the Atlantic Ocean.
Typhus is the most terrible of epizootic
diseases, especially among horned CATTLE
The brains and bowels are the organs which
suffer most. In reading an account of the
typhus of I'LL, and of that of 1740 in refer
ence to its original homes ard its symptoms,
we might easily believe by changing dates,
that we had the picture of the present cattle
disease before u.s. The first of the two now
mentioned was spread through Italy and Ger
many by cattle brought from Hungary The
disease was eminently contagious and infecs
tious. The animals which escaped death
owed it more to nature than to treatment. -
In the second visit, or that of 174O, the
disease prevailed il Europe for ten years. -
The celebrated Camper practised blood let
ting, with alleged success, when the disease
prevailed among the cattle in Holland IVA.
The operation was rcsortcd to on the first o,
second day of the disease if later the effect
was fatal. Others more wisely recommended
preventive, rather than curative means. In
1895, typhus among cattle was introduced
into Lombardy, from Hungary. In the early
part of the last century, 1711-lA, most
destructive epizootic of small-po began in
Italy, ard soon reached France, Germany
and Holland. 1t was confined to oxen and
cows and calves, and at one time threatened
an entire extinction of the whole species-
The most approved treatment consisted in
early blood letting at the onset, drinks OIL
barley water and at the moment of the ap.
pearance of the eruption, Peruvian bark in
wine, and draughts containing spices and
opium. Setons were used with success.
Rs5"'rhe Leonardtown (St. Mary's county,