Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/69

 MURRAIN MURRAY 61 gans). The temperature, rarely elevated, may be even lowered. Death ensues in from six hours to several days. The blood globules are largely disintegrated, the fibrine replaced by a comparatively incoagulable less oxidized ele- ment ; if a clot forms, it fails to contract and squeeze out the serum ; the blood reddens but little on exposure, its liquid part is stained by dissolved hsematine, and it contains spherical and elongated bacteria. Rigor mortis is rare, decomposition setting in at once with intoler- able f cetor. The spleen is enlarged, sometimes ruptured, and other internal organs are often the seats of extravasation or exudation. The localized forms of the disease are as varied as the seat and extent of the swellings. All such swellings however have characters in common. They appear suddenly, after some general fever and lassitude, and increase rapidly. The skin covering them tends to gangrene, and dries and hardens in part or in whole, becoming cold, and crackling on pressure from the ex- trication of gas beneath. Blisters with red or purple contents may form, or a yellow or pur- ple liquid may ooze from the surface. Exten- sive sloughing often succeeds. Active inflam- mation and suppuration are favorable signs. The smaller swellings will sometimes shift from place to place. These external forms of the af- fection are less fatal than the internal. Among them may be mentioned many cases of so-called purpura hcemorrhagica in the horse, in which the head, limbs, and other parts are engorged ; the glossanthrax or black tongue; the black- quarter of cattle, in which extravasation takes place in one limb or a part of the trunk ; the carbuncular erysipelas of sheep and swine ; the anthrax of the mouth and carbuncular sore throat of hogs ; the boil plague of eastern Eu- rope and Asia ; and finally the malignant pus- tule of man. (See PUSTULE.) The treatment in the local forms of the disease is to destroy the diseased structures with caustic before the general system has been poisoned. For more extended swellings, attended by constitu- tional disturbance, antiseptics may be applied locally or, better, injected into the enlarge- ments. Carbolic, sulphuric, and chromic acids and iodine may be mentioned, the last having destroyed the virulence of anthrax fluids when dissolved in 12,000 times its weight of water. When sores have formed, the extravasations and exudations may be cauterized throughout, and the sound tissues beneath stimulated to a healthy action. But no sores should be made, save with the fine nozzle of the injecting syringe, where they do not already exist. In both in- ternal and external forms of the affection, the system must be supported by tonics and stimu- lants; gentle laxatives and diuretics may be used to eliminate waste and pernicious matters from the blood, and antiseptics administered to check the prolification of the poison as far as possible. Carbolic acid, chromic acid, the mineral acids, and iodine are especially to be recommended. By way of prevention noth- ing succeeds better than thorough drainage, removal of animals from dangerous enclosed valleys, rich river bottoms, &c., during the hot and dry season, keeping stock indoors un- til the dews have disappeared in the mornings, good steady dieting, the avoidance of suddenly induced plethora, the maintenance of a healthy action of bowels, kidneys, and skin, and a gen- eral attention to sound hygienic principles. MURRAY. I. A N. "W. county of Georgia, bor- dering on Tennessee, bounded W. by the Conna- sauga river and drained by its branches ; area, 320 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 6,500, of whom 757 were colored. The surface is elevated, and the soil generally fertile. Gold, silver, lead, and zinc are found. The chief productions in 1870 were 47,269 bushels of wheat, 151,286 of In- dian corn, 11,123 of oats, 5,810 Ibs. of wool, 40,851 of butter, 7,698 of tobacco, 288 bales of cotton, and 10,050 gallons of sorghum mo- lasses. There were 659 horses, 1,067 milch cows, 1,722 other cattle, 3,025 sheep, and 5,454 swine. Capital, Spring Place. II. A S. W. county of Minnesota, drained by the Des Moines and Rock rivers and other streams; area, 720 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 209. The sur- face consists of rolling prairies. MURRAY, or Goobva, a river of Australia, which rises in the Warragong mountains, in lat. 36 20' S., Ion. 148 15' E. Its course is very tortuous, the curvatures being short, ab- rupt, and almost incessant. After descending from the highlands, it flows nearly westward to Ion. 144 45' E., then takes a N. W. direc- tion to Mt. Lookout, where again turning it proceeds to Elbow, in lat. 34 S., Ion. 139 46' E., and there bending suddenly runs S. S. W. to Lake Victoria, into which it falls at Wel- lington in lat. 35 30' S. This river and its trib- utaries drain an area of about 500,000 sq. m. Its length is about 1,000 m., and its average breadth from 100 to 150 yards. It overflows its banks periodically, and sometimes rises 30 or 40 ft. above its ordinary level. During this season it is navigable to within 90 m. of its source, and then steamers and barges ply regu- larly between Wellington, Albury, and the in- termediate towns. Its principal affluents are the Goulburn, Campaspe, Murrumbidgee (with the Lachlan), and Darling. Lake Alexandrina, Victoria, or Kayinga, which connects it with the sea, is about 30 m. long and 15 m. broad, but in general very shallow. The entrance to it from the sea not being navigable, a tram- way has been constructed between Goolwa and Port Elliot, which is worked in connection with the river steamers. MURRAY, Alexander, an American naval officer, born at Chestertown, Md., in 1755, died in Philadelphia, Oct. 6, 1821. In 1776 he was appointed a lieutenant in the continental navy, but there being no employment for him afloat, he served through the campaigns of 1776-'7 as lieutenant and captain in the first Maryland regiment, participating in the battles of Flatbush and White Plains. At the close of the cam-