_The Origin and Causes of the Ox Typhus._
I.
I have drawn my conclusions as to the preventive treatment of typhus in
the ox, from the knowledge I had acquired of its morbid phenomena, its
nature, and its non-recurrence; and it is a logical deduction quite as
accurate as could be the result of a syllogism. The study of the origin
of this typhus, and of the causes by which it is generated and spread
abroad, will supply us with additional arguments to sustain this
deduction, as well as those signs and indications which are the very
foundation of curative treatment. The description of the disease will
contribute to the same result; for the rational treatment of a distemper
can be derived only from a knowledge of all the phenomena which occasion
it, of the functional derangements, and of the alterations observed in
bodies after death.
I wish particularly to say at once, in entering upon the subject of
etiology, that the special works which treat of it contain precise
information as to the causes and origin of the typhus in horned cattle;
and that the chief organs of the press in every country--those ephemeral
encyclopædias in which unfortunately so much vital force and
intelligence are dissipated--have published articles of the highest
interest on this subject. It would be physically impossible for me to
begin again a bibliographical labour similar to the one exhibited in the
First Part, in order to afford due justice to each of these public
writers, who have met the epizootia on the confines of their country and
fought hand to hand with it. This work is not susceptible of so much
enlargement. Let it be well understood, that I claim no other merit than
that of discussing these questions of etiology, in that order and with
that common sense which fix ideas firmly in the mind--which, if I may
use the term, _photograph_ them on those parts of the brain allotted to
the memory and judgment; also of drawing from known and admitted facts
more rational and practical conclusions than those which have been
current up to the present time.
Much has been already said and argued on the origin of the contagious
typhus which affects the ox; some adhering exclusively to the special
conditions observable in the breed of those oxen which are reared and
fed on the steppes of Russia and Hungary; others, more reasonably, as it
seems to us, ascribing it to the hygienic conditions generally, that is
to say, to the climate, the season, the feeding, &c., &c., amidst which
these animals are living.
All these discussions upon what has been said and argued on this subject
have been very useful. For, had it been rigidly proved that the oxen of
the steppes, by some peculiar organization, carry within them those
germs or physiological elements which at given times become the leaven
of the distemper, and, at a subsequent period, the elements of the
contagion, then, indeed, a fact of capital importance and prominent
authority would have been established, and the attention of all men
interested in these inquiries would have been exclusively concentrated
on that particular race of animals and on those countries smitten with
the curse, in order to arrest and confine the disease within its one and
only focus.
The supporters of this theory, concerning the first circumscribed origin
of the typhus, maintain that all the epizootics whose deplorable history
we have given in the first part of this work, have had no other
generative causes than the propagation of the complaint, born and
begotten on the banks of the Wolga and the Danube, and subsequently
conveyed to the different parts of the earth by the emigration of the
cattle. And in this manner, too, they have accounted for the appearance
of the typhus in South America, in Africa, and in Asia.
Since this doctrine on the origin of the typhus has been conceived and
maintained by men of a high order of understanding, we must suppose that
they had been struck and convinced by important facts and serious
reasons; and as it would be unfair to oppose a plain denial to an
opinion now so generally adopted, we are bound to say in what manner
these authors justify their views, after which we shall endeavour to
refute them.
The partisans of the circumscribed origin, who make it depend
exclusively on the peculiar organization of the race of the steppes,
have based their argument, peremptory and unanswerable as they imagine,
on the prime fact, that it has always been possible to trace the
diffusion of the typhus in a given country, to some sick animal of the
steppes conveyed to that kingdom. In this manner it is, that they
explain the generation of the epizootics which have so frequently wasted
the continent of Europe. On whatever point of the globe they may appear,
this, and only this, is the source of their existence. The isolated
position of Great Britain is made to support their arguments. "Behold,"
they exclaim, "Great Britain, which, thanks to its surrounding seas, has
escaped most of the epizootics which have desolated France and Germany
during the early part of the nineteenth century." Nay, more, the present
visitation of the distemper is also seized upon to sustain their theory,
since certain oxen, natives of the steppes, appear to have imported it
into London.
We must add, that nothing is wanting in order to prove this assertion;
for they relate with perfect regularity, and step by step, the course
taken by the contagion; they specify the time occupied on its passage,
and even the names of the infected vessels which have thus imported the
principle of the typhus.
It must be admitted that all the facts thus stated are indisputable; we
acknowledge as true, that the bovine race of the steppes has conveyed
into other countries the contagious germs of the disease; we admit that
its dissemination may be thus accounted for.
But to admit this fact, and to draw from it the conclusion that the
bovine race of the steppes alone is capable, by some particular and
distinct organization, of developing the original typhus of the ox, and
that this typhus has no other focus on the earth than the banks of the
Dnieper and the Don, does not appear to us a sound logical deduction.
And as, if this conclusion were positively recognised, we might see but
one side of the evil, and deduce very serious consequences therefrom, it
is necessary to receive these facts for what they are worth, and no
more.
Let us first observe, that those writers who ascribe the contagious
typhus to the race of Southern Russia, do not take into consideration
the epizootics of this typhus, the account of which has been handed down
to us by the ancient authors of Greece and Rome; and that they refer
just as little to those which are quite as frequent in the republics of
South America as on the banks of the Dnieper. For even if we allow that
once, and only once, one of these epizootics may be traced to the
arrival of a ship containing oxen brought from the steppes, how, on the
other hand, can we believe that all other epizootics have had such a
fortuitous cause to generate it; consequently, the typhus, in these
cases, must have been locally developed and diffused among American
cattle?
Moreover, we seek in vain for the reasons which would authorize us to
assign to the bovine race of the steppes a particular organization,
rendering it alone fit to engender the typhus. But let us grant for a
moment, that the Russian and Hungarian oxen constitute a peculiar race,
as their framework and the length of their horns would seem to imply;
this much being conceded, it still remains to be shown in what respect
their anatomical and physiological structure differs from that of other
animals to such an extent as to render them alone liable to originate
this fatal typhus.
Oh! if it were true that the bovine race of the steppes alone could
engender the typhus! we would hail the fact with joy, and would show
without much exertion of reasoning that, in that case, we possessed not
only the means of preventing the disease by inoculating sound and
healthy cattle, but the far more important means of sweeping it for ever
from the earth, by at once exterminating that cursed race, smitten with
the original predisposition of this plague; and as, after all, the
murderous scourge of the typhus of the steppes has already cost, and may
perhaps continue to cost the various nations of the Old World millions
upon millions, they would feel that their most urgent interest would be
to come to an understanding (nor would the sacrifice be too much for
their resources) so as to destroy and extirpate the evil at its original
source. There would then be no difficulty in raising up a new breed of
cattle in those countries, by transporting to it those of other nations
free from the infection.
But who does not understand that this heroic sacrifice would be
illusory, and that the foreign races, modified in time in this new
medium, would regenerate the typhus; so that the double sacrifice of
extermination and indemnity would have been made to no purpose?
We wish we could adopt this hypothesis, so simple and so consolatory, of
the circumscribed origin of the typhus, and its exclusive propagation
through the race of the steppes; but our mind is altogether opposed to
that view, and for the following reasons, amongst others:--
If the bovine race of the steppes alone could produce the typhic virus,
by reason of a particular organization which is the prime condition of
its existence, _this race alone would of necessity be fit to receive its
taint_ by the influence of contagion. But if the other animals of the
same species, as unfortunately too surely happens, can receive the
principle of the disorder, develop the ailment, and die of its effects,
then the reasoning of our opponents is faulty from its source; and it
must be admitted that all horned cattle are apt to generate the typhic
virus in those countries which afford the conditions of its production,
and that this exclusive predisposition as it is called, attributed to
the race inhabiting the steppes, is simply a chimera.
But arguments are seldom exhausted even to defend a bad cause, and it is
objected that the fact that all oxen may contract the typhus transmitted
by the contact of animals from one to another, does not prove that the
original predisposition is the same in every race; and they persist in
maintaining--1st, that the typhus of the steppes is alone able
originally to beget the disease; 2nd, that having thus begotten and
produced it, it becomes, after this organic conception, apt to be
transmitted to every animal, and fit to be assimilated with them.
To these subtleties and argumentative refinements it would be as easy
for me to oppose abstract reasonings equally strong, as it would have
been for the Jansenists and Mollinists, had it so chanced that they had
been drawn into a debate on the origin and nature of the virus of the
plague which carried off Jansenius. But let us confine ourselves to
serious facts and conclude--
1st. That we have no proof of any anatomical and physiological
difference in the humours or in the blood--that is to say, in the
organic, intimate, and biological elements of the individuals which
collectively constitute the bovine species.
2nd. That we have a right to believe, that all horned cattle are apt to
develop the typhic virus when they are placed within the conditions
required for that effect--that is to say, when they are exposed to the
special morbific causes which form its condition _sine quâ non_, and
which are met with on the banks of those great rivers which water
Southern Russia and Hungary, in Africa, on the banks of the Nile, in
South America, on the margins of the lakes, and in what are called hot
climates, &c.
II.
But if the origin of the typhus cannot exclusively depend on the
peculiar organization of certain individuals of the bovine species, we
must inquire after and search for the real causes which produce it.
We have explained already, in the First Part, what alterations organic
matter undergoes in general, when accidental causes happen to modify its
organic elements; and we have pointed out the fact, that of all living
creatures herbivorous animals were those that offered the least vital
resistance to the causes of disease and destruction.
This unquestionable fact being taken for granted, let us now consider
under what conditions live the multitudinous herds of horned cattle
which in Russia and in South America are reared and supported solely for
the produce of their flesh, and sometimes, too, for that of their hides.
The great breeders and proprietors fix the number of their heads of
cattle according and in proportion to the quantity of the pastures, but
like other men, they mortgage the future for their benefit without
making due allowance for accidents or extreme changes of weather, as
when years of unusual drought succeed those of heavy rain; so that these
herds, by the single fact of these extreme fluctuations in the degrees
of temperature, are exposed to a multiplicity of causes productive of
disease. The same nature which generates life and health generates
disease and dissolution, and when the former are neglected the latter
will prevail.
In the prosperous and favoured countries of the temperate zone, such as
England and France, these extreme variations in the seasons, which are
always the cause of a deficiency or alteration in the production of
fodder, are equally the cause of the numerous epizootics which attack
all the herbivorous species, and particularly those to which oxen fall
victims, such as the tumourous typhus (_le typhus charbonneux_), the
so-called aphthous fever, the contagious peripneumonia (which is not
liable to return and is prevented by inoculation), parasitical cutaneous
disease.
But in less favoured countries, in those which are damp, argillaceous,
swampy, inundated by the overflows of their lakes and rivers, or by the
reflux of the sea, there is deposited a slimy or brackish water, which a
temporary torrid heat afterwards causes to ferment; and then a
superabundance of life, a teeming vegetation, springs up in all
directions. In the midst of this swarming vitality live and thrive an
infinity of worms, maggots, animalculæ, insects, mollusca, fish,
reptiles, birds, &c.; and here, too, all these creatures die and decay,
when this slime, the prolific source of generations which we might look
upon as spontaneous, begins to dry up and disintegrate. Then from these
organic vegetable and animal matters, in a state of decomposition,
escape those deleterious gases, such as hydrogen, carbonic oxide,
nitrogen, carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and even phosphoretted
hydrogen.
Often to all these causes of infection are added myriads of
grasshoppers, which cover the ground, where they die, aggravating the
mass of pestiferous vapour which fills the atmosphere. Finally, the
water which slakes the thirst of the herds of cattle is corrupted; the
plants on which they feed distil poisons; the air, the water, and the
plants, carry within them a principle of venom and death. After this,
how can we be surprised if this flood of putrid emanations is
transformed into a contagious typhic virus, whose subtle and
pestilential effluvia are conveyed by the ox to considerable distances?
In fine, let us recapitulate in our minds all the causes of destruction
to which these passive creatures are exposed, and we shall acknowledge
that there is no necessity to attribute to them a peculiar organization
in order to understand the development of the typhus, which, at a given
moment, cuts them all off; and that in the deltas of the different
countries, as well in Asia, Africa, and America, as in Europe, are to be
found those conditions of infectious disease which we have described. In
these causes, and only in these causes, or in those which resemble them,
will rational men seek for the principle of the contagious typhus in the
bovine race.
Moreover, who is there who does not understand that what is true with
regard to cholera is likewise applicable to this contagious typhus? The
cholera, for causes analogous to these, subject to the particular state
of the soil, is generated, not exclusively, it is true, but most
frequently, on the banks of the Ganges, in the same manner as the
contagious typhus is developed in certain countries where its natural
focus is found.
The race of animals which exists on this deadly and destructive soil is
an instrument of incubation for typhus, not in consequence of their
peculiar structure, but because the conditions under which they live
condemn them to this fate.
III.
Now the breeding of cattle, and the feeding and fattening of them for
the market, constitute a branch of industry--a great interest. They all
have to be removed, conveyed to various distances, and sold; so that
this traffic becomes a new cause to be added to all those which foster,
develop and propagate the distemper.
In prosperous times, when the seasons, conformably with our wishes, have
pursued a course which we call regular (for we are fain to believe that
the planets turn on their axes on our account), and when the cattle find
the ground covered with rich pastures, and limpid streams--conditions
which are eminently favourable in themselves, though in Hungary it is
necessary to add gum, salt, mineral water, and arsenic acid, before the
health of these animals is satisfactory,--then the cattle breeders make
their sordid calculations, and select the heads of cattle intended for
sale.
With animals, as with man, health is but relative, not absolute; the
healthiest in appearance often bearing within its frame the fatal
principle of no distant death. Fatness not being by any means a sure
sign of vital strength, many of these cumbersome beasts, though
seemingly in good and sound condition, contain in their systems, in
various stages of incubation, the tainted leaven of contagious
affections, such as peripneumonia, or even the typhus itself.
But, regardless of this liability, their sale and migration are resolved
upon at length. Hitherto these harmless creatures have lived in the most
perfect stillness and retirement. Their calm, monotonous life has been
as regular as the course of time; never by a single pulsation have their
hearts exceeded the wonted number per minute; they are all gifted with a
nervous sensibility of which the vulgar have no notion. Some favoured
few have felt the sympathy of friendship for the herdsman who tended
them, and for the companions with which they fed. They have been leaders
of their own herd, they have marched at their head; they have given the
signal when to seek shelter beneath the trees, or when to repair to the
brook. They have loved the fields amidst which they have grown and
thriven. Some of them, reared and fed beneath the domestic thatch, were
grateful for the care they had received; their master was endeared to
them, they would run to meet his coming, answer to their name, and lick
his hand with fondness.
And it is the course of this tranquil, this happy existence, that is
about to be broken abruptly. It is this creature, the pattern of
gentleness and goodness, that we are going to treat like a heap of
insensible and inert matter--which we are going to subject to
unutterable torture!
And now, indeed, these creatures are all at once handed over to the
savage guidance, to the thongs and cudgels, of a hind, whose cruelty
keeps pace with his stolid ignorance, and who abets his dogs to quicken
their course to the neighbouring market. From this moment, half-fed and
athirst, these poor animals are forced to make long journeys afoot; or
since the construction of railways, to be heaped together confusedly in
a locomotive pen. There, the shaking, the sudden starts, the friction of
five hundred wheels on the rails, the horrid snorting of the engines,
alarm and terrify them to such a degree as to turn the whole mass of
their blood.
In such a state of vital prostration or feverish excitement, entire
herds are carried to the public markets or to annual fairs with other
animals, and nearly all sent to the shambles. But some amongst them are
reserved for another fate. The females, for instance, are set apart to
serve as milch cows; and in this manner they carry with them into the
cowsheds, wherein they are received, the taint of those contagious
distempers, the germs of which lay concealed in their frames, or which
they have contracted from the companions of their journey.
Some of these heads of cattle, starting from the steppes of Russia, have
to travel five hundred miles in an open cage, less cared for and
protected than bales of merchandise, exposed to the rain, to the heat
of the sun, to sudden changes of temperature, to cold and cutting
draughts, increased by the rapid motion of the train;--these animals,
foundered, prostrate, panting with fever and torturing pains, still have
to undergo new trials, if they cross the sea. In this case, the wretched
victims are violently expelled from the locomotive, rocking sheds of the
railway; a leathern strap hanging from a crane lifts them into the air,
and lets them down into the mid-deck of a ship, where they are crowded
as closely together as possible, for here, too, space is very costly.
Finally, the vessel gets under way and ploughs the ocean; contrary winds
beat it about in every direction, and these poor creatures have to
endure a new kind of torture, accompanied by the intolerable pangs of
sea-sickness; and in this state it is that they alight on the British
soil, and are driven off to the different markets.
It is useless to expatiate at length on the state of general derangement
and disease in which these oxen reach their final destination. Some
amongst them have endured for eight or nine days these unspeakable
tortures, without being sustained by nourishment--for no animal, when
his spirits forsake him, can assimilate his food amidst all this
physical suffering and so great a shock to his nervous system.
Let us here declare that these animals, though removed from their
meadows with all the signs and appearances of sound health, at a time
when a fine season had been productive of abundance, and when no
epizootia was raging in the country which they have left, may
nevertheless bear within them the taint of contagious typhus; and let us
ask ourselves what must come to pass in those disastrous years when this
typhus prevails under the influence of those destructive causes which
were passed in review just now, and when the Russian and Hungarian
proprietors, eager to forestall an inevitable general calamity, hasten
to send off to Italy, France, Holland, Finland, or to the ports of
England, many animals already seized with typhus, and whose virus must
have acquired infectious properties still more intense and deadly under
the influence of the deep disquiet and commotion which the removal and
conveyance of these animals, under conditions so deplorable, must have
produced in their frames.
Such are indeed the pernicious conditions in which oxen may be, and
often are, dispatched to England; and such appears to be the real cause
of the outbreak of the spreading epizootia which we witness at this
moment, and which has created so much alarm in so many counties of
England.[B]
IV.
Let us now consider this contagious typhus in its destructive extension
over the British soil; let us study and examine the causes of its
diffusion as they pass under our notice.
The mooted question of determining whether the cattle typhus was
originally imported from abroad, or whether it broke out spontaneously
in England, has been, and still is, a subject of dubious debate amongst
some professional men, amongst the leading writers of the public
journals, and also amongst agriculturists and farmers.[C]
And, in truth, the propagation of the distemper is occasionally
witnessed under conditions so singular and striking, that it seems to
warrant and supply arguments for every conceivable opinion.
When the disease was recognised and identified for the first time on the
24th of June, 1865, public opinion ascribed its appearance to contagion
arising from some diseased cows imported from Finland, and which, after
being exposed in the Islington Market on the 19th, were sold and removed
to the cowsheds of a breeder or dairyman.
We may observe that, on hearing the intelligence of this sudden
invasion, the public mind, which is so excitable in England, did not
disguise the indignation it felt against foreign countries which had
been capable of contaminating an island so advantageously situated and
so well protected, and infecting her magnificent herds, exuberant with
health. But after a closer examination of the facts, and possibly
alarmed, at the serious consequences of a Continental blockade which
would deprive the United Kingdom, not of the entire twenty or thirty
thousand live stock, such as oxen, sheep, pigs, &c., which they receive
every week, but only of the eight or ten thousand head of cattle which
are landed weekly on their coasts to supply their markets, public
opinion was appeased. But, unfortunately, this national susceptibility
now took the opposite extreme; and the only causes it now saw were the
dirt and want of adequate ventilation in the metropolitan stables and
sheds; and to these causes it attributed, first the generation, and then
the propagation or diffusion of the malady; an opinion which appeared
all the more natural and reasonable, in that the oxen and cows of the
graziers were the first victims of the typhus.
We all know how liable, among all nations, the public mind is to waver
and fluctuate, and how susceptible and open it is to new impressions
during fatal visitations and general calamities; nor can we feel the
least surprise at the uncertainty which has so long prevailed, and still
continues, as to the real causes of the introduction of the bovine
typhus in England.
Let us therefore examine this question of etiology, and try to discover
what opinion ought to prevail.
It is important to establish at once two material facts which seem to us
indisputable:
1st. That the contagious typhus in cattle which is known to be permanent
in the southeast of Europe, actually existed there during the month of
June, 1865; 2nd, That some of the horned cattle, fed and reared in that
part of Europe, were transported to England, after having crossed
through Russia from south to north, in order to avoid passing through
Germany.
As for the first of these facts, it is admitted and received, as might
easily be proved by reproducing the speeches and addresses delivered by
the veterinary doctors at the Congress now being held at Vienna, and at
which were present the men whose experience of this cattle distemper
gives them the highest authority--Hertwig, Jessen, Röll, Siegmund,
Gerlach, &c.
The contagious typhus of horned cattle is so fully in the epizootic
state in those countries which are washed by the Black Sea, that it was
enough for the veterinarians present at the Congress to manifest a
desire to see cattle afflicted with this disease, for the opportunity so
to do to be immediately afforded them.[D]
Thus, then, the fact is undeniable, the contagious typhus was raging, in
June, 1865, in Hungary and Russia, as it rages there at all times.
As for the conveyance of cattle from those countries into England, the
fact is no less certain and assured. It is well known that a convoy of
300 heads of cattle, proceeding from the pasture-grounds of Hungary and
Austria, was transported into Finland by rail, and afterwards shipped at
Revel for England. Thanks to the rapid locomotion by steam, the
migration of these cattle had lasted but ten days--two days for the
transport by land, and eight days for the passage by sea, through the
tortuous line of the Baltic; but this was sufficient length of time for
the incubation to be produced, even supposing the animals to have looked
sound when their transit began.
Moreover, it is indubitable that the markets of this immeasurable London
have for many years been supplied with horned cattle from every country:
from France, Holland, Belgium, Podolia, Poland, Prussia, Austria,
Hungary, and Russia.
Thus, the Islington Market (the fact is assured) had received horned
cattle imported from the countries where typhus is known to be
permanent. Were these cattle thus imported affected with the typhus?
This fact likewise is as certain as the other, since two of the foreign
cows thus imported, were the first to fall sick, and to die of this
typhus.
But if the contagious typhus of horned cattle rages permanently on the
banks of the streams which discharge themselves into the Black Sea, and
if the beasts reared in those countries have long been transported to
England and other countries, how, it will be asked, is it that the
disease has not broken out more frequently, for it has never been seen
in Great Britain, at least, during the former part of the nineteenth
century?
This question is not devoid of a certain degree of importance, and
deserves to fix our attention for a moment.
Now the conditions in which the animals were exhibited in 1863 and 1864
were precisely the same as those of 1865, before the outbreak of the
disease; and yet the contagion has been possible in 1865, whilst it was
not so in 1863.
We do not presume to explain the mysterious phenomena which govern the
development of epidemics and epizootics; but it seems to us not
altogether impossible to give a rational and satisfactory elucidation of
the facts.
In general, in _epizootics_, and I might even say in some particular
epidemics--in that of the typhus, for instance--three connected and
inseparable facts form the condition _sine quâ non_, of the generation
of the disease. First, a focus for producing the virus; secondly, for
the most part a favourable soil, and a special predisposition amongst
animals to receive and propagate it; thirdly, what is called an epidemic
or epizootic genius--that is to say, a particular state of the
atmospheric elements, or the air, which hitherto has escaped our
analyses, and whose morbific properties vary in their degrees of
intensity. Thus the epizootic genius of 1711, the terrible one of 1750,
and the one which now diffuses its contagious miasma, have differed in
some of their virulent conditions.
However that may be, it will be sufficient to glance back at the past to
assure ourselves that, in general, epizootics have been coincident with
some violent change of season, such as extreme droughts, or
superabundant rains; that is to say, when the cattle, disturbed in the
physiological conditions of their health, have become favourable to the
incubation of the miasmatic leaven scattered through the air, or else
when these animals were living under irregular conditions, and had to
endure unwonted fatigues and privations, as in the folds of campaigning
armies, for instance.
These epizootics have appeared to depend not only on the state of the
soil and of the health of the cattle, but also (we repeat it designedly)
on an element no less indispensable to the propagation of the disease--a
special state of the air, which favours the development and preservation
of typhic miasma: for sometimes a sudden change of temperature has
proved sufficient to stop the rampant progress of the contagion, the
other conditions remaining unaltered.
These relations of cause and effect between the contagious principle,
the predisposition of the animals, and the state of the atmosphere,
evidently are subject to some exceptions; but we must allow that in the
present epizootic they are absolutely and completely applicable. For, in
truth, the years 1864 and 1865 have been distinguished, if not by the
persistency of a high rate of temperature not often witnessed, at least
by an excessive drought during the months which are both hot and rainy;
and this has happened in the various countries of Europe, thereby
producing a falling off in the pasture and fodder both as respects their
quantity and quality.
As to England, a country usually cold and damp, but renowned for its
spacious green fields and meadows, it has suffered more than any other
country from these unfavourable conditions, and their destructive
influence on the grass and corn; the herds having found a great
reduction of food where formerly they met with abundance. Everybody has
seen, as we have ourselves, large herds of cattle, wandering in
amazement from field to field, and seeking for something to browse on a
parched and arid soil. A supplementary provision of corn, roots, malt,
and the grounds of the beer vat or spirit barrel, no doubt served to
mitigate the sad effects of these privations on the health of cattle;
but in spite of all that could be done, their blood became impoverished,
their strength and vital resistance sank, and (like the animals which we
transferred at will into a soil more favourable to the spread of
parasitic diseases), they afforded last June, as they do now, an unusual
predisposition to suffer and transform the morbific principles of
typhus, which in all probability they would have been proof against at
any other time. We may very fairly infer this much, for we must of
necessity believe that the regular importation of cattle from those
countries which are considered as the permanent focus of typhus, has
from time to time transported the miasmatic germs of this malady into
England, although the virus did not take effect on British cattle at
those periods, for want of one or other of the conditions necessary to
its generation and development.
We may likewise infer, and a watchful appreciation of the facts
contained in the veterinary medical journals would show that this
opinion is not unfounded, that the special disease which constitutes
this typhus (similar in that respect to epidemic diseases), may develop
itself in one beast by accident, spontaneously, sporadically--that is to
say, without immediate contagion; in a word, _apart from those epizootic
conditions which alone render its propagation possible_. To be brief, we
think that an isolated case of cattle typhus may by chance be detected,
when there is no epizootia prevailing to account for it, just as we
occasionally meet with cases of typhus or cholera among men during
seasons absolutely free from these epidemics. It would not, therefore,
appear to us altogether impossible, that under the influence of very
special conditions, the contagious typhus of the ox might have its birth
in England; and this would favour the theory of those reasoners who
maintain that this typhus met with the first causes, and the origin of
its development, in the stalls and cowsheds of London. But such has not
been the cause of cattle typhus in the epizootia which we see at
present.
No doubt some animals suffered great privations, but, whatever
alteration their health may have sustained, all this is nothing to be
compared to the sufferings endured by the cattle in the steppes under
the influence of deleterious conditions of the most exceptional
character, which do, indeed, give birth to this typhus, and which we
have already described.
No, certainly not! _Nothing authorizes us to believe that the typhus now
under our observation was bred and born, at first, within the stalls and
cowsheds of London._ It was most assuredly imported. But it is true,
nevertheless, that this cruel scourge found the horned cattle of England
predisposed to receive it, and it likewise met with atmospheric
conditions favourable to its subsequent diffusion; in a word, it met
with the epizootic genius proper for the generation and propagation of
the typhus miasma.
It is thus that we may account for and reconcile the two contending
theories, one of which refers the cause of this typhus to foreign
importation, whilst the other insists that it originated in the filthy
and half-ventilated cowsheds of the metropolis.
But if this typhus could not spring up spontaneously out of the bovine
race of England, it must be confessed that, independently of the general
predisposition due to a great and protracted drought, it found in the
sickening sheds of the metropolitan and country cattle the most
favourable conditions for its incubation and subsequent diffusion.
It would, indeed, be difficult to conceive of anything more directly
adverse to the hygienic laws of health in cattle than the stalls and
sheds dotted over the densely populated districts of London. Most of
these pent-up cribs are situated in narrow lanes and yards, in filthy
streets and blind alleys; and within these close, hot, and steaming
receptacles the miserable cows, pressed against each other, without
ever moving a limb, waste away and become phthisical in a very short
space of time. We may readily imagine what a prey to the contagion must
be afforded by these animals, already more or less ailing, some of which
are fed in a great measure on malt, so sour and acrid that the very
smell of it is intolerable. The milk from these cows is, moreover, of so
wretched a quality, that in a cowhouse containing 48 of these poor
creatures, at Kensington, I found only one, the milk of which exhibited
the taste and quality fit for a sick child, for whom I ordered a milk
diet.
It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the present epizootia,
during this late tropical season[E] especially, should have met with all
the conditions most conducive to its development and propagation.
When the cattle distemper first broke out, the graziers, not suspecting
its gravity, attempted to treat the animals themselves, but soon
afterwards perceiving the fruitlessness of all their remedial measures,
they felt that the best thing they could do was to turn their sick
beasts to whatever account they could, by driving them to market or to
the slaughter-houses, an expedient which they were the more disposed to
adopt, inasmuch as the diseased cows had ceased to give milk. And then,
the removal of these animals, in various stages of the disorder, became
the most rapid means of disseminating the contagion, which, had it been
concentrated and pent-up at first within its narrow focus, would
otherwise have spread with less fearful havoc.[F]
In the meanwhile the sick cows being commingled with thousands of heads
of cattle exposed for sale at the different markets, communicated far
and wide the principle of the disease; and as a certain number of these
animals remaining unsold were driven back to the farms, into stalls
until then removed from every cause of contagion, they introduced among
their sound companions the fatal germs of the distemper; and as, again,
this effectual means of propagating the evil was repeated several times
in the same week, the consequence was that, by the end of July--a little
more than a month after the outbreak--the whole of the south of England
was in some sort contaminated. Thence the contagion extended to the
north of the kingdom, and passed into Scotland; so that, at present, the
cattle-typhus has spread its ramifications over a great number of the
counties of Great Britain.[G]
In the first instance, the contagion spread from animal to animal by
means of an infecting influence in some degree direct, among cattle
sheltered beneath the same roof, or collected in swarms within the same
markets. But very soon the air itself was impregnated and polluted by
the vaporization and diffusion of the typhic miasma; and herds of cattle
which had no contact, either direct or indirect, with infected animals,
were seen to be tainted with the distemper. Whether this contamination
was produced by the passage of attainted cattle along the public roads
(having fields on the right and left), or otherwise, nothing but an
absolute isolation, an utter impossibility of contact, appeared to offer
a perfect immunity against the spread of the evil.
The miasma, condensed by the fogs and transported in all directions by
the winds, now began to overleap every natural or artificial barrier,
and the favoured herds, ruminating at their ease in the manorial farms
of the wealthy patricians, in their well-kept parks and amid every
luxury, were suddenly smitten with an evil which in their case seemed an
anomaly. In such peaceful homes these innocent creatures were tended by
intelligent and benevolent hands, which understood and felt for their
frail constitutions; food of the best quality was lavishly supplied to
them, and whatever they could wish for lay around them in abundance;
richly reared, they had themselves become so many ornaments within these
scenes of beauty, and all men thought that here, at least, were plots of
rural ground which the genius of epizootia would not invade, and in
which the healthy herds were invulnerable to contagion.
It was under these circumstances that the fine farms of Earl Granville,
at Golder's Green, skirting the Finchley Road,[H] containing as many as
130 milch cows, were suddenly and fiercely attacked amidst their
seeming immunity, and struck down in great numbers.
"When I left England a month ago," said the noble lord, "there were
about 130 milch cows in four sheds; in the two largest and best managed
I found only one cow yesterday, September 4th."
The park of Holly Lodge,[I] which is partly bounded by the main road
along which pass and repass files of cattle going to and coming from the
markets, was visited by the same unsparing scourge. Now certainly, the
noble and beneficent lady of the manor, who secured to her cattle every
attention, and who, confiding in the resources of medical science,
attempted every means to save these stricken creatures doomed to an
inevitable death; she whose enlightened mind, equally open to the claims
of science as to those of misfortune, desired that experiments should be
made which might tend to throw any light on this devastating malady;
she, at any rate, one would think, might have escaped the common lot
without exciting wonder or envy at the privilege which she enjoyed. But
this fell and sweeping epizootia, inexorable in its latitudinarian
march, entered those shady bounds, and decimated those orderly sheds
with the same impartiality as it did that of the poor man, Cutting,
whose whole fortune was stored up in the two milch cows whose death he
had to deplore.
This epizootia threatens to invade, one by one, all the European States,
like the awful scourge of 1750, to which we have already drawn
attention. For even now Holland and Belgium[J] have been smitten; and
the alarm it has excited has for a time superseded the panic which the
stealthy advance of the cholera to the west had kindled. Some imagine
that it might have been kept out of Great Britain, or have been checked
in its outbreak. But, in spite of all the safest precautions and the
soundest measures of preparation, it would most likely have baffled
human skill, and neither been held aloof nor stifled in its focus. But
how painful it is, to have to write and to think that ignorance,
carelessness, revolting cupidity, and the most wanton violation of the
laws, have all contributed to extend the evil, with the foulest
premeditation and the blindest disregard!
To feel one's self a stranger in a country, and to be able to rejoice at
one's connexions with it, and at the same time to be obliged to give
publicity to certain truths distasteful to those to whom they are told,
is a most painful task. But, as it would be to swerve from that duty and
loyalty which the national interests as well as those of science impose
upon a writer, not to speak out with impartial justice in a matter of so
vital an importance, we beg permission to consider, without reserve,
this delicate question:--the causes which have contributed to propagate
the complaint.
V.
England, so long spared by that wasting scourge, which had so often
extended its ravages over France and other kingdoms during the last
sixty years, was taken by surprise; and the regulations and laws
necessary to stifle without delay the distemper in its focus--that is to
say, in the metropolis--not being in readiness, the outbreak of the
disease found her helpless and unarmed.
On the other hand, the organic forms of the English Government and
municipal bodies, the reserve of the Cabinet during the vacation, the
limited power of the Lord Mayor and his civic counsellors, the
subdivision of London into parishes and vestries, as in the good times
of the middle ages, the loose scattering of the shambles and meat
markets through the many streets of the huge town, the right asserted by
each man to be absolutely independent and free, the sanctity of the
Englishman's home, &c., &c., all concurred to let loose and propagate
the contagion, instead of keeping it within bounds.
Indeed, whilst the competent authorities, with all the energy which
could be expected of them on so grave a matter, were meeting and
discussing the best measures to be taken, and the interesting debates at
the Mansion-house were throwing the first light upon the question, the
insidious malady pursued its destructive progress, diffusing new terror
and alarm. When at length the Privy Council issued their orders,
prescribing the public declaration of sick cattle, and that no affected
beast was to be conveyed either by rail or by ship, whilst all the
necessary means of purification and disinfection were to be employed,
&c., it was unfortunately too late, the dreadful calamity having taken
root and multiplied its stem like the upas-tree.
What a field for reflection there is in these cases, which originating
with the imperfect state of the laws and institutions, have fostered and
encouraged the disease! But this is a subject which it would not behove
us to discuss, and we prefer to show by the notes which will be found
appended to the end of this work, and which are produced as attesting
documents, that cattle proprietors, by their own confession, too often
sacrifice the interests of the public to their own private advantage.[K]
Nor have we been able to participate in the thoughts and reflections of
so many sensible and judicious persons, on the impotence and
dilatoriness of the public authorities, and also, let us say, on the
inadequate pecuniary means proposed by a people so lavish of its wealth
when useful and great undertakings are designed, without paying a
natural tribute of regret, to the memory of a Prince who took so deep an
interest in the progress of agriculture, and who, had he still been
living, would have known how to direct with a firm and steady hand, the
right measures to be taken amidst so many intricacies and
embarrassments.
Sometimes allusion has been made to France in the speeches delivered at
these meetings, presided over by that active magistrate, the Lord Mayor.
In the course of these remarks the speakers have praised and held up to
admiration the advantages of her system of centralization, the decrees
of her sanitary police, and the promptness with which she executes the
measures which the public interests require. That is true. France is
certainly in a state to resist the scourge with very effectual means to
arrest its progress; but if in this matter, as in some others, she have
acquired a superiority, it has only been by an experience dearly
purchased, these epizootics having returned more than once to destroy
her flocks and herds. Politically, the same might be said of her
revolutions, those great moral epidemics.
An orator, a writer, went so far as to say, in one of his numerous
letters, the one dated the 24th of August: "I regret to say some of our
neighbours laugh at our expense."[L]
No, your neighbours will not laugh at your misfortunes. They sympathize
at present both in your joys and sorrows, and if I have taken up my pen
on this occasion, it has only been because I could not look with
indifference on your too just anxieties, when I flattered myself that I
might write some useful pages to mitigate and relieve them.
As most newspaper readers are aware,[M] and as everybody may easily
ascertain, the diseased cattle, in spite of reiterated orders to destroy
them immediately, were, nevertheless, driven to the markets to be sold
for what could be got for them; or when their tainted condition was too
glaring they were at once sent off to the private shambles, the owners
of which, in order to disguise the accusatory proof of the misdemeanor,
hastened to sell the body of the animal. It would be quite impossible to
mention all the violations of the law, which every day continue to fill
the columns of the public journals. One graceless wretch, who deserved
to be hanged for it, if his ignorance do not excuse him, was so infamous
as to introduce a sick cow into a shed not yet attainted, in his
criminal desire of propagating the disease there.[N]
Thus, then, independently of the causes inherent to the typhus itself,
which served of necessity to diffuse it, other causes proceeding from
the defective state of the law, and the perfidy of individuals, have
contributed to its dissemination. And yet the Government circulars, the
newspapers, and the reports of veterinary doctors have made known that
the slightest omissions and inattentions were serious--that the want of
ventilation and cleanliness in the stables, the overcrowding of the
cattle, and their abiding near their own droppings, or dung-heaps--that
the keeping of dead bodies close to farms, cowsheds, enclosed grounds,
and fields--that the hasty and imperfect burial of cattle--that the
collection and transit of their fragments, bones, horns, and skins--that
the driving on the public roads of any animal either tainted itself, or
having lived among those that were sick--that the clothes of persons and
stable utensils, soiled with putrid liquids--that all these, and similar
causes, were capable of propagating or aggravating the disease.
But whilst we must loudly condemn the voluntary misdeeds of those who
drove their sick cattle to market, it must likewise be allowed that, to
conform one's self rigidly to the given injunctions, was sometimes
attended with serious embarrassments. How great, indeed, must have been
the perplexity of any grazier who, being the owner, for instance, of
forty head of cattle, and having seen ten of them perish under his eyes,
without knowing where to dispose of them, was threatened with the loss
of the remaining thirty within a few days! How could he calmly and
patiently resign himself to suffer so large a quantity of animal matter
to accumulate and putrefy around him, when, suddenly ruined, and
destitute of every resource, the authorities held back instead of coming
to his assistance.
The prime cause of all the transgressions committed in despite of the
Privy Council's orders, may therefore be referred in part to the want
of compensation to be granted to the owners of infected cattle. It all
might be almost reduced to a question of money. For let us suppose for a
moment, that inspectors entrusted with adequate powers, had been
authorized, after a close examination, to point out the tainted cattle;
to fix a moderate price on them by way of compensation; to have them
slaughtered, carried away, and immediately buried, would not such a
course have diminished the generation of contagious miasma in a
considerable proportion?
Moreover, some cattle-breeders and farmers exposed themselves to the
imposition of fines and penalties without any evil designs; for when
they drove their beasts to market they were only in the stage of
incubation, at the preliminary period, when it is really no easy task to
distinguish the distemper. The following fact will exemplify this.
At each market, in spite of continual warnings, the inspectors pick out
and despatch to the slaughter-houses a certain number of sick cattle,
not only those affected with typhus, but with other disorders. One
cannot help wondering, on seeing the poor, lean, sickly condition of
some of these creatures, how their owners could have been so mad as to
expose them for sale; but in their number there are a few which,
although sick, appear in good health to the common observer.
About a fortnight ago, during one of our visits to the great
Metropolitan Market, Mr. Tegg, the veterinary inspector, whose
intelligence and earnestness are quite equal to the very difficult
charge with which he is entrusted, ordered to be seized and removed to a
secluded fold near the slaughter-houses, a dozen diseased animals. When
once these cattle had been thus collected in a body, it was easy to
submit them to a still closer examination. Most of these beasts, adult
cows and oxen, were lean, panting, feverish, dispirited, and remained
motionless where they stood. But among them was a cow, with a brisk and
lively look, a quick open eye, which watched us with anxiety, and fled
at our approach every time we passed by her. The turn came for this cow
to be examined. Mr. Tegg, strong and handy--as every good veterinary
doctor should be--seized hold of one of her horns, but he was quickly
shaken off; other persons came up to assist him; the fiery animal was
suddenly seized by both horns, by the nostrils, and the tail; but so
strong and spirited was the animal, that she defended herself with
advantage against all her adversaries, and once more shook herself free.
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. Assuredly 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 vaginal 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
compassion and good feeling even in that bloody 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 asserted 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 passed 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 anticipate,
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 circumstances, analogous 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 circumstances 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
documents 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.