Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/67

 MUKRAIN 59 the public mind to be preoccupied with its more prompt and fatal congeners. Pulmonary epizootics are mentioned by Tacitus and Co- lumella, and in 1693 Valentin described one which, being confined to cattle, was proba- bly that of our own day. Since then it has usually spread in the track of armies and co- existed with the rinderpest. Though existing continuously in the greater part of western Europe during the whole of the present cen- tury, yet it has respected certain countries for a length of time or entirely. Thus England was protected by the narrow strait of Dover till 1839, when the disease was introduced by the same series of importations which carried aph- thous fever. Denmark imported it repeatedly from England and Holland, but as often stamped it out by the destruction of the infected ani- mals and a thorough attendant disinfection, and kept clear until the recent war with Ger- many. In 1860 it was imported from Scot- land into Norway, but was at once extin- guished by a close quarantine and careful dis- infection. In 1858 it reached Oldenburg from Scotland, but was immediately annihilated by the destruction of the infected stock. Switz- erland, long slandered as the native home of the plague, has cleared her farms, and now keeps them sound by inexorable slaughter. Mecklenburg has met with an equal success. In 1858 the disease reached Australia by an imported English cow, and was allowed to spread on the open plains until many of them were almost depopulated. In 1843 and 1850 it was brought to Brooklyn, N. Y., and in 1847 to New Jersey, by English cattle, and finally in 1859 into Massachusetts by Dutch cattle. The New Jersey outbreak was extinguished by the destruction of all the cattle on the farm. In Massachusetts a government com- mission was appointed with power to isolate exposed herds under strict supervision and to kill all diseased animals, remunerating the owners out of state funds; and they finally extinguished the disease after six years' effort and the slaughter of 1,164 cattle, besides those which died of the plague. In New York no sufficient effort was made, and the plague has since been known in the city as the swill-milk disease, and has spread in Kings and Queens counties, into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- ware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. Its progress is greatly retarded by the absence of any cattle traffic westward ; but should it ever reach the great stock-raising regions of the west, it can scarcely fail to rap- idly overrun the entire country. The disease is undoubtedly propagated by contagion alone in western Europe and America. The poison, which pervades the entire body, is concen- trated in the pulmonary exudation, and being exhaled in the breath spreads much further on the atmosphere than those of rinderpest and aphthous fever. It is conveyed long dis- tances in the clothes of human beings, and hence butchers and jobbers are continually spreading the disease in infected countries. Markets, cars, boats, loading banks, roads, pastures, yards, buildings, clothing, utensils, fodder, &c., are also fruitful means of its dif- fusion. The bovine race are alone suscepti- ble. After an incubation of four to six weeks, the temperature rises to 103 or 104 F., and an infrequent short dry cough appears, which increases in frequency, depth, and hoarseness. Soon a staring coat, stiff gait, cold horns and legs, tender spine, intercostals, and breast bone, accelerated pulse and breathing, partial- ly suppressed secretions, impaired appetite and rumination, and occasional dryness of the muz- zle, mark further progress. The physical signs of effusion into the lungs and pleurae are pres- ent from the first, and the progress of the dis- ease, as well as of recovery, may be followed from day to day by auscultation and percus- sion. At first the patient may lie on the side most affected, but as the disease advances he stands obstinately with legs apart, nose pro- truded, and each expiration accompanied by a deep groan. The nose discharges a muco- purulent fluid, with solid masses of mucus and even blood, and a fetid watery diarrhoea sets in and rapidly wears out the animal. Emacia- tion becomes extreme, and death ensues in four to six weeks, if the patient has escaped the earlier risks of suffocation. The mor- tality is usually from 50 to 60 per cent, in a newly invaded locality. The lesions are mainly confined to the chest. The lungs are infiltrated with serosity, or later are firmly hepatized, and show the yellow lines or mar- bling common to all bovine pneumonia; the pleurae are more or less filled with serum and covered by false membranes, the bronchia con- gested and covered with a muco-purulent dis- charge ; softening, abscess, gangrene, &c., are not uncommon, and in the worst cases the ex- udations are often blood-stained. This disease is more amenable to treatment than rinder- pest, but, unless where a land is already in- fected throughout, it is rarely advisable to treat it. Treatment consists in such measures as will moderate the fever, sustain the depressed vital functions, favor the elimination of the poison, and check its reproduction. Laxatives with cooling diuretics and arterial sedatives are often serviceable, especially in the early stages, while in the very prostrate states diffusible stimulants may be freely used. Counter-irri- tants may be applied to the affected parts of the chest whenever there is evidence of ac- tive inflammation, while disinfectants (carbolic acid, bisulphate of soda, and the sulpho-carbo- lates) may be given by the mouth as well as employed to disinfect the building and dis- charges. The hydropathic treatment by thor- ough wet-sheet packing has been employed successfully, being repeated as often as the fever rises anew. But prevention is the most economical course, and when few animals in a country are infected this is best secured by their prompt destruction, followed by a thor-