On the cattle plague Part 7

It was necessary, however, to master the creature, so they surrounded her again, pressing her back this time into a corner of the pen, to overpower her. But lo! the animal takes a sudden spring, and leaps over the bars. a.s.suredly this cow, for a beast suspected of the typhus taint, had given a proof, if not of health, at least of extraordinary vigour; and her owner, who had seen her condemned with much vexation, now thought he saw ample reason to reclaim her, and drive her back to the market for sale. However the cow, on taking such a leap, and under conditions so unfavourable, came down with all her weight upon her limbs, fracturing one of her forelegs.

After this accident, we were able to prosecute the examination we desired, and Mr. Tegg showed us a row of little glandular swellings on the ridge of the gums, and livid spots on the v.a.g.i.n.al mucous membrane, which confirmed his diagnosis. The owner of this cow, nevertheless, still discredited the diseased state of the beast; so to convince him, she was driven off at once to the slaughter-house to be struck down; but, unfortunately, three or four others filled the required area, so that the poor cow was forced to witness the execution of her fellow-creatures before being killed herself. The look and posture of this cow, her excited yet terrified glance as she surveyed this scene of carnage, was one of those pictures which no pencil could draw; and although we acknowledge that man possesses an incontestable right to apply to his own use the dead or live matter of animals for his food and sustenance, we could not help feeling for the poor victim, slipping over the blood, and thus scenting death before receiving the stroke.

We are not excessively sensitive; we have seen a hundred horses bleeding from the incisions made by veterinary pupils, and scores of oxen slaughtered; we ourselves have practised numerous experiments on animals; but the affecting sight of that animal witnessing the slaughter of others, and waiting her turn to die, touched us deeply. We could not help asking ourselves, how it was that man could dispense with compa.s.sion and good feeling even in that b.l.o.o.d.y toil, and why he did not bandage the eyes of the doomed creatures he was going to sacrifice?

These dumb animals that we treat like inert matter are sensitive like ourselves; they are very conscious of pain; and if it be our privilege to compute the number of our days, we ought not to forget that they are, like us, endowed with intelligence, so that when they are thus detained at the place of execution, all their senses and faculties being concentrated on their destroyer, they are fully conscious of the cruel fate which awaits them.

At last it was the poor beast's turn to be slaughtered, and ten minutes afterwards we opened her entrails, and had proof that Mr. Tegg's judgment was exact, for already the stomach and intestines offered to view indubitable signs of the typhus at its first period.

The owner of the cow was then convinced and brought to reason, but he still very fairly a.s.serted the goodness of his motives, about which none present doubted at all, and applied for compensation to the full value of the beast, both as butcher's meat and offal, which application was granted.

Judge, therefore, by this particular example, how many tainted cattle there must have been which have propagated this distemper, some with and some without the knowledge of their owners; and, "_horresco referens!_"

how much of this tainted meat must have been purchased and eaten by the public, since this cow had all the appearance of health and vigour, and the real diseased condition might not have been detected at all, but for the experience and sagacity of Mr. Tegg, the inspector.

VI.

In this consideration of the causes of the contagious typhus in bovine cattle, we have deemed it essential to invite attention both to those which are generally recognised and admitted, and to those which, though they may have been settled in the minds of observant and experienced men, may yet appear hypothetical to certain readers.

Besides which, in every scientific work, allowance must be made for the past and future; and here we have two vital distinctions. If the man who undertakes this task does not go on, he falls back; and it was to avoid incurring this reproach that we have pa.s.sed our old boundaries and visited new avenues. We are aware that more than one objection might be urged against the opinions and theories which we have exposed, in order to account for the outbreak of typhus in England; we might antic.i.p.ate, we might reply to these objections; but we would rather recapitulate our inquiry into the causes, in the tangible form of practical propositions.

From the general considerations above given, we think we may conclude,

1st. That the causes which generate the cattle typhus on our globe are permanent and unceasing, not only on the banks of the great rivers which empty themselves into the Black Sea, but also in other countries--in America, in Africa, &c.; wherever, in a word, exist the conditions, not of race (the race of the animal in this case being but secondary), but of climate and of the organic elements which are indispensable to the formation and development of typhic miasma.

2nd. That the cattle typhus, although it exists not necessarily, but through the improvidence or want of caution in man, on different parts of the earth, never appears at all in the temperate and more genial zones, save under particular and special circ.u.mstances, a.n.a.logous in some degree with those which generate the human typhus--inclemency of the seasons, overcrowded dwellings, bad or insufficient food, and want of cleanliness; and that these particular and special circ.u.mstances give birth to the epizootic genus, rendering the cattle fit and apt to receive the germs of the contagious virus, and to foster its incubation.

3rd. That the cattle typhus, thus accidentally developed in the temperate and genial zones, by means of the vicious hygienic conditions amidst which horned cattle are accustomed to live, and which serve as the causes of its propagation, is afterwards transmitted by the contact of animals living in the same stall or shed, or collected in herds on the same ground, or transported in the same vehicles, by land or sea.

4th. That the droppings of animals, their litter, their dead bodies, and their detritus, or broken-up remains--also the stables, vehicles, and implements which have served for their use, and all matters or substances which have touched them or approached them--are generative elements of the distemper.

5th. That the typhic miasma, thus reproduced and multiplied in one place under the influence of all these producing causes, is conveyed by the winds to great distances, smiting those well guarded cattle which appeared to be fully protected from the possibility of infection by their isolation.

6th. That the want of prompt and stringent measures first to concentrate, and then to stifle this typhus in its focus; the love of lucre, the perfidy of some, and the absence of foresight and caution in others, may be, and have been in the particular cases which we are dealing with, material causes and agencies of its diffusion.

Such we consider to be the causes which engender and propagate cattle typhus, and which will serve as a basis for the preventive measures to be employed in order to withstand and check its propagation.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] We are aware that the transport of cattle is conducted in a different manner during the prevalence of this epizootia. The account given by two German veterinary surgeons of the management of the vessels of the North German Lloyd's, and of the manner in which the animals are treated, is a proof of this; but before the appearance of the epizootia, the transport of animals by land and by sea left much to be desired.

This account will be found at the end of this work (NOTE A); and all doc.u.ments in support of the facts which have served as the basis of our dissertation, are also in the Appendix, arranged alphabetically in the form of notes.

[C] See Notes B, C, D, E.

[D] See Note F.

[E] On the 15th of September, the thermometer stood at 80 Fahrenheit.

[F] See Notes G, J.

[G] See Notes K, L.

[H] See Note M.

[I] See Note N.

[J] See Notes O, P.

[K] See Notes R, S, T.

[L] See Note V.

[M] See Note Y.

[N] See Note Z.

CHAPTER III.

_Description of the Contagious Typhus of the Ox; its Symptoms, Course, Progress, &c._

I have already written the history of the typhus which affects the ox; I have shown and dwelt upon the signs and characters of typhus diseases generally, deducing therefrom the denomination and definition of that of the ox in particular; finally, I have described the causes which generate and diffuse it abroad.

Now, I must make known the various phases and alterations to which the disease is liable, and which, in the language of the medical schools, are called its symptoms and characteristics; its progress or course; its prognosis; its _post-mortem_ appearances, &c. &c.

This examination, like those which have preceded it, will afford new foundations for medical practice.

I.

_Symptomatic Characteristics._--The typhus of the ox, like all infectious and contagious diseases, offers to observation four successive changes: 1st, a _period of Incubation_, during which the original structure is subject to internal and latent derangements; 2nd, a _period of Initiation_, during which the first evident signs of the disease are manifested; 3rd, a _period of Endurance_, during which the phenomena are fully developed; 4th, a _period of Decline_, or wasting atony.

These divisions and cla.s.sifications, it will readily be conceived, are rather fanciful, for nature does not adapt herself to our methodical forms. Still we shall abide by them, because they have their relative and practical utility, and because they will afford to the pract.i.tioner suggestions more easily understood; and finally, because the organic changes are different at these various periods, which in their entirety const.i.tute the typhus of the bovine species.

The description of those different phases through which the organism of cattle smitten with the contagion has to pa.s.s, has moreover been given in a masterly manner by the veterinary physicians of the different European countries, especially by those in which opportunities to observe it have been most frequent--that is to say, by the Russian, German, and French veterinary doctors, Jessen, Roll, D'Arboval, Gelle.

The English physicians of the 18th century, as we have already seen, were also in no respect inferior to those of our own time. Finally, Mr.

Simonds, who published a very able Report on his return from his scientific exploration in Galicia, in 1857, and the skilful Professor Bouley, in his recent communications to the Academie de Medecine, in Paris, respecting his examination of the present cattle typhus in England, have described the disease with minute exactness, as we ourselves have verified on the various sick beasts which we have seen during the last two months.

1. _Period of Incubation._--Several careful experiments, which have been cited in the historical division of this work, and numerous fortuitous occasions, have authorized us to a.s.sign a duration of nine or twelve days to the period of incubation, according to the general conditions of the epizootia, the manner in which the contagion is transmitted, and the former state of health of the affected cattle.

Thus an epizootia at the outset, either when it has become general, or when it is at its decline, does not always transmit typhic miasma of the same virulent intensity, nor does it always provoke in the frame a labour of incubation which is invariable. The contagion transmitted from animal to animal living continually in the same stalls or sheds is followed by an incubation more quick and active than that which results from a chance contact in the markets, or from a contagion produced at a distance, by the transmission of the miasmatic effluvium along the public highways.

Let us add to these considerations the relative state of each animal's health, and we shall then perfectly understand that the incubation must vary both in its continuance and in the characteristics of its manifestation. In some animals it scarcely betrays the derangements produced by its morbid operation: they preserve their appet.i.te and their usual looks. A close and attentive observation would alone be able to distinguish some slight alterations in their way of living, in the regularity of their rumination and sleep. But in others, there is no mistaking a something irregular and unusual in their appearance and living; the vital state is no longer the same. Thus an animal which used to be cheerful and familiar becomes silent and solitary; it browses the gra.s.s with less eagerness and avidity; it lies down more frequently and longer; it lingers by the side of the hedge along the field, or it wanders about, here and there, with a listless look, and without any object. Others moan and complain, bellowing at intervals in an unusual manner, very expressive of languor and pain.

But apart from seasons of epizootia, the beasts too often exhibit these imperceptible shades of variety in their looks and actions for the attention to be struck by them; these changes, therefore, are almost always unnoticed.