Reports on the diseases of cattle in the United States made to the Commissioner of Agriculture, with accompanying documents. / Department of Agriculture.

United States Department of Agriculture

Date:: 1869

Credit: Reports on the diseases of cattle in the United States made to the Commissioner of Agriculture, with accompanying documents. / Department of Agriculture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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$Not SO witli tlie destructive malady tlie lunff i)la«ue, or epizootic ]ileuro-i)iioiiinoniii, wliictli is silently but seriously ravaging the Eastern States. This alleetiou constitutes the subject of my second re])<nl. Its method of propagation, by diflusiou through the air of a specili(; animal poison or virus, offers an instructive contrast to the comparatively harm- less disease of the south. The lung plague kills slowly and surely wher- ever it penetrates, without regaixl to latitude, breeds, soils, conditions of weather, or systems of cultivation. It can 1 »e stamped out; and i ts ju opa- gation in a mild form may be resorted to for the protection of catth; that have been suspected of entering an infected area. It attacks animals but once in their lifetime, and presents all the characters of specific erup- tive fevers, of which the human or ovine small-pox may be regarded typical. A few words may not be considered inappropriate as to the nature of our investigations. They have extended over a period of ten months, and in all parts of the United States except in the far west. The turthest point west we have reached has been near the terminus of the Kan- sas Pacific railroad, and southwest to Corpus Christi. The great object in view has been to determine and demonstrate with precision the causes and signs of the several diseases examined, with a view to the sugges- tion of means of prevention and cure. The history of special outbreaks, the niethods of extension, tlie essential symptoms and pathological changes indicated by sick animals, and the institution of careful per- sonal inquiries among those who have witnessed the maladies at differ- ent periods, have specially engaged our attention. We were first in having opportunities for a careful study of the chants in temperature which occur in splenic fever, and, taken in conjunction with similar observations originally made by us in relation to the rind- erpest or Kussian murrain, and since in numerous outbreaks of pleuro- j)neumouia, it will be found that very definite and highly practical re- sults may be anticipated from persistence in this method of observation. Indeed so important is the matter in connection with the eutire subject of comparative pathology, that it may not be deemed inappropriate to give a resume of our operations on this particular point. Last July we first used the only available thermometers that conld be obtained in Chicago, Centigrade thermometers, of French manufiicture. The Surgeon Geueral, however, kindly acceded to a request made through the Department of Agriculture, and two carefully compared self-regis- tering thermometers, made by Mr. L. Casella, of London, w^ere forwarded to the w^est for the purpose of our inquiries. With these we were ena- bled to correct and verify the earlier observations. The normal tempera- ture of cattle varies from lOQo to 102° Fahrenheit. The a\-erage tem- perature of Texan cattle is from one to two degrees higher than that of northern steers. There may be accidental deviations, of which the most noticeable is at the period of cestrum, when a cow may indicate a tem- perature as high as 100° Fahrenheit. It is, however, rennu-kable how$