The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1874-02-07
DAI nNJ As COJNTY TEXAS FEBRUARY

III which they become languid, droop
. and often die, commonly called hollow
horn? What is the cause of this NOR
bid cOndition--its symptoms--thc or
guns essentially afiected-the best cur
ative treatment?
Something more than n year ago,
read portions of Il lecture by the learn
ed Professor Law, Professor of Neterin-
ary Medicine, New York, in which lee
ture the professor scouts the idea that
there Is a disease of horned cattle, in
which the hollow horn is the leading
appreciable symptom; and the learned
professor scouts still more at what he
regards as the absurdity of boring the
horn for this disease.
/ have been for thirty years familiar
with seeing horned cattle dropping,
presenting the general outward appear
ance of being out of condition, with
muscular weakness, and rs L have
thought, muscular stiffness, and the
horns cold to near their roots in the
head the animals, nevertheless, eating
as if enjoying Il measure of health. l
have often witnessed what L supposed
to be the good curative effects of boring
the horns, as it has been followed by
many: and where the horns have not
been bored, have seen the animal fall
down and die Il death more or less lin.
gering. | have suspected that this
diseusc of cattle, rs it presents itself in
Texas, has never fallen under the OBJ
servation of the learned Professor Law.
The above, over the signature of A.
S., (Ashbcl Smith, appears in the Gal
weston News. Few old farmers in
Texas or the western States but will
agree with Us in pronouncing "Profes-
sor Law, professor Of veterinary medi-
cine, New York" entitled to be scout
ed himself for such broad utterance
rs is charged to him.
We assert, after an experience of
about forty years, that there is, and in
all that time has been, II disease in
Texas, Missouri and elsewhere, COM
monty called "hollow horn" among
cattle. Its symptoms are very well
described by Colonel Smith. Unless
allowed to run too long, it is easily re-
lieved by boring a hole in each horn;
and in most cases it is remediable by
rubbing turpentine in the hollow de-
preston, behind the head, between the
horns. Sometimes, in old animals,
when the disease has been suffered to
run too long, o little turpentine with
pulvori2ed black pepper is put inside
The horn, and occasionally, to insure
more prompt relief in extreme cases,
we have the points Of the horns sawed
Off down to hehollow, pepper dropped
in and tho horn bandaged if the
weather was cold.
In all genuine eases the bony sub
stance inside the horn, the pith, as
farmers call it, is found 10 be in state
OF greater or less decomposition. We
have ourselves bored into horns and
found this pith entirely gone-in lighter
cases partial life is shown by Il few
drops of blood on the gimlet-while the
same operation in sound horn has
caused flow of blood. a hundred
professors in New York cannot upset
facts absolutely known for generations
to thousands of farmers.
Our observation has been that hollow
horn rarely, if ever, attacks an animal
kept under Il shelter and well fed. 1t
appears almost invariably to be the
result of scant food and exposure to
cold, wet, sleety weather. When thus
treated, protected from exposure and
well fed, recovery is rapid, and it is a
singular fact often seen, that cattle
thus relieved late in winter, gain flesh
more rapidly on the rise of grass than
other animals.