_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 classifications, 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 practitioner
suggestions more easily understood; and finally, because the organic
changes are different at these various periods, which in their entirety
constitute the typhus of the bovine species.
The description of those different phases through which the organism of
cattle smitten with the contagion has to pass, 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, Röll, D'Arboval, Gellé.
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 Académie de Médecine, 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 assign 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 appetite 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
grass 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.
However, the typhic miasma absorbed at the same time by the respiratory
and digestive mucous membranes serves to modify the qualities of the
blood, and secretly reacts on the nervous system; soon after, the
animal exhibits more decidedly those changes which previously were
hardly to be detected; his want of appetite is more marked, his sadness
more obvious, and his attention fixes itself more slowly and carelessly
on the objects which surround him. When he is in the shed, his usual
food is found in excess of his wants, his thirst is much keener and more
frequent, and a continual dejection and lowness of spirits or a
transitory agitation disturb all his functions. When the farmers or
graziers notice these premonitory signs for the first time they pay but
little attention thereto; but if the contagion has found its way into
their stalls and sheds they are no longer deceived by them, but begin to
apprehend that in a day or two fresh victims will be added to the
number.
2. _Period of Initiation._--Soon the elaboration of the virulent miasma
in the organic structure changes the quality of the blood and humours,
the functions of assimilation and secretion are modified, the nervous
centres receive vitiated organic elements and are disturbed in their
physiological conditions, and the smitten animal displays that state of
latent uneasiness which he is imperfectly conscious of by a general
look of heaviness and stupor (+Typhos+), which has suggested for this
disease its name of typhus.
Indeed, the poor animal's eyes are fixed, the hearing becomes obtuse or
indifferent, as may be seen in the sinking of the ears, those organs
which are so sensitive, so contractile, and so vigilant in herbivorous
animals. With the head hanging down and motionless, the neck stretched
out, their forelegs open and spread, their buttocks drawn together and
one of them completely lax, they seem to succumb beneath the weight of
their bodies. In a word, the animal exhibits through its whole bearing a
heavy sadness, a general dejection, which bespeak a great derangement in
the whole structure. From this time, in the animals which are most
seriously affected, the appetite ceases, the rumination becomes
irregular and partial, whilst in some others the appetite and rumination
are maintained in different degrees.
But the incubation of the morbid elements pursues its course, the
alteration of the blood becomes general, and the circulation is
increased and quickened. After this the fever interposes and stops the
secretions, that of the udders is dried up, the mucous channels cease to
flow, the mucous membrane of the mouth becomes whitish, the little
glands situated on it are more permanent, especially in the
circumference of the gums; the floor of the tongue and the larynx are
inflamed, the mucous membrane of the cow's sexual organs is red and
furrowed with livid streaks, the white of the eye is parched, and the
skin feels alternately hot and cold, as well as the horns and hoofs.
Some of the sufferers have an external horripilation, transient
shiverings are felt in the front and hind quarters and at the junction
of the limbs with the trunk. Some pregnant cows near their delivery
miscarry. In a word, at this period of irritation, the whole frame is at
war with the typhic elements which besiege it, and which overcome the
preservative power of the vital forces, and from this general
disturbance arises an incandescent fever, which drains and stops all the
secretions at their source.
These general symptoms are the first signs and warnings of functional
derangements more significant, which may, however, vary according to the
predispositions of each animal, and transfer their evolutions either to
the nervous centres or to the respiratory mucous membrane, or to that of
the digestive channels, in the inflammatory and febrile form of the
contagious typhus. Such at least is what we observe in the typhus of
1865 in England.
The functional derangements, in truth, subordinate to and depending on
the predispositions exhibited by the cattle, are far from being the same
in all. In some, the nervous derangements predominate; in others, it is
those of the respiratory, and in others, it is those of the digestive
channels.
As in this period of irritation the nervous centres are more
particularly affected, the animal suffers cerebral and rickety pains, a
constant cephalalgia, which provokes vague anxiety; he is sometimes
cheerful, sometimes wild and furious; he clenches his teeth and yawns,
the muscles of his face spasmodically contract, the spine feels very
sensitive when pressed, a burning and insatiable thirst comes on, the
breathing is hurried, and the intestinal evacuations are suspended.
In this form the toxæmia appears to concentrate about the nervous
centres--as is observed elsewhere at the outset of certain violent
fevers, in the typhus and typhoid fever of man, for instance--and some
of their number may perish the victims of these nervous disorders, and
even fall as if struck with electricity. They die apparently from the
result of the typhic poison; for at this second period, we do not trace
in the nervous centres those injuries which might account for so sudden
a death.
When the respiratory apparatus concentrates upon it the febrile
congestion, the breathing becomes painful, accelerated, embarrassed,
sometimes convulsive, and a deep, oppressive cough is heard from time to
time. The animal, under the yoke of this oppressive uneasiness, turns
his head from right to left, scents, and seems to question his flanks,
where the seat of the disorder is; and then, whether the pulmonary
affection is congestive or inflammatory or emphysematous, he may die of
the consequences of obstruction to the pulmonary circulation and from
the alteration of the blood, under the influence of a slow asphyxia,
but only at the third or fourth period.
Finally, when the typhus localizes more particularly its morbid
phenomena on the digestive channels, we discern local alterations on the
floor of the tongue and the buccal mucous membrane, spots of livid red,
leaving behind them ulcerations of greater or less extent and depth on
different parts of the intestinal canal. In this form, which follows
more regularly all the periods, constipation is obstinate at the outset,
evacuation of the bowels takes place with difficulty, the fæces are hard
and the urine scanty, the belly is inflated and sensitive.
Sometimes at this period of initiation, one of these three symptomatic
forms--the nervous, the pulmonary, and the digestive--may predominate
exclusively, so far as to mask the disease as a whole, and to constitute
it a special malady. But in that case, it is only the exaggeration of
the functional derangements which in their total constitute the typhus:
for when the distemper pursues its course, these three principal centres
of life are always affected in different degrees. Thus, not one of the
cattle smitten with the typhus goes through all the phases of the
disease, without suffering at a given moment in its nervous,
respiratory, and digestive functions.
In this respect, the typhus of the ox presents an apparent analogy with
the typhoid fever in man, although it is different. Consequently, the
name of _typhus fever_ given by some veterinary surgeons, is not
altogether inapplicable to it.
3. _Period of Duration._--At this stage of the disease, which may be
said to extend from the fourth to the seventh day, the nervous
derangements are confined to symptoms of uneasiness and sensibility
along the dorsal spine; for those cases which exhibited more violent
derangement in the nervous functions have proved fatal. In this period
of the disease the breathing is more embarrassed, particularly when the
pulmonary form of the disease prevails. The pulse, which is hard and
frequent, indicates from forty to sixty pulsations; the beatings of the
heart are more violent and audible; the mucous membranes, dry at the
outbreak, recover their secretions, but these latter are endowed with
irritating properties. Thus the eyelids, swollen and tumefied at the
edges beneath the lashes, drip with a corrosive liquid, which soon marks
its furrow along the chanfrin; the bronchiæ, the trachea, the nostrils,
the salivary glands, exude a serosity which runs out of the nasal and
buccal orifices. The exanthematic eruption having discharged itself
through the digestive channels, constipation is followed by diarrhoea,
rumination is completely stopped, the beast declines all solid
nutriment, and pants for drinks,--for those especially which have a
slight taste of acidity in them.
The derangements at this period pursue a rapid course--the breathing
becomes more and more difficult, the skin is hot and dry, the hairs
stiffen more and more, gases are developed in the cellular tissues
beneath the skin, along the dorsal vertebræ, at the abdominal folds of
the posterior limbs and under the abdomen, in the form of flat, uneven,
crepitant tumours, which crackle when pressed with the hand; the
diarrhoea becomes more liquefied and irritant, for then it is no
longer a flow of droppings covered with mucus which is expelled, but
secretions already putrid, sometimes reddish in colour, and attended
with foetid gases, which induce tenesmus in the rectum, and force up
the tail. The animal grows perceptibly lean, his dejection is extreme,
and cows which are with calf miscarry.
At night, the animal seems to have an increase of fever, sometimes of a
remittent type, after which he becomes drowsy and lies down to rest
himself or to sleep, if he can; but the difficulty of breathing, the
abdominal pains, soon force him to rise again, which he cannot do
without an effort.
4. _Period of Decline and Sinking._--This stage is observed to extend
from the eighth day to the twelfth or the fourteenth. The morbid
functions pursue their course, for the disease has its regular phases
and a successive variation of phenomena. The secretions, which a few
days before were fluid and irritating, have undergone a change; they
have become thick and purulent, they flow more slowly from the ocular
mucous membranes, and also from the nasal and buccal, which are red and
inflamed, and they already emit a foetid smell. The dull tarnished
eyes become hollowed, purulent mucus lodges within their orbits, the
bronchiæ are stopped up, the breathing grows louder and more panting,
the animal instinctively stretches his neck to ease it; the wasting of
the flesh exposes the bones of the sacrum and coccyx, laying bare the
vertebræ and the ribs; the emphysematous tumours are more extensive and
crackling; the skin, less heated, wrinkles up and splits about the bony
protuberances; the udders are crusty and excoriated; detached boils,
hard and rounded at first, then soft and purulent, begin to show
themselves on the trunk and the upper parts of the limbs. The
diarrhoea, still frequent, becomes bloody and intolerably offensive.
At this final period the organic structure yields to the effects of a
general alteration of the liquids and solids. The vital force has lost
the power of reaction; a mass of blood, decomposed by the double
influence of a virulent toxæmia and the obstructions of respiration,
conveys to all the organs a principle of dissolution; the nervous system
is in a manner paralysed, as is shown in the animal's insensibility.
The secretions stop up the various channels and cavities; they lodge
within them; they undergo a putrid decomposition, and pass out with
difficulty in the form of a purulent and bloody flux, in the highest
degree infectious. Very soon the sick animal has ceased really to live;
it struggles and labours with its agony; if the lungs are clogged with
gas or fluid they rattle hurriedly and often; the animal cannot hold its
head up even when lying down, and when standing moves it to and fro as
if affected with the natural shaking of old age, and as if seeking to
ward off some indescribable evil, the occurrence of which it was
awaiting.
The animal's body is a prey given up beforehand to the laws of organic
decomposition: the internal mucous membrane of the cheeks and lips peels
off in strips when rubbed; the sores on the skin have a livid and
gangrenous look; the eggs which the flies deposit on the edge of the
eyelids and at the nasal orifices, or on the excoriations of the skin,
quickly pass into the state of larvæ. The air they expire is cold and
infectious; the native caloric, extinguished in every focus
successively, disappears; the vaginal mucous membrane is tumefied, the
anal opening gapes, and from it flows a bloody and decomposed liquid
which the rectum can no longer expel. The mouth, half open and coated
with a thick glutinous foam, vainly tries to inhale long draughts of air
which can no longer reach the lungs. Finally, if the animal is lying
down, he expires in slow agony, his head borne down by its own weight;
or, if standing, he sinks and falls down, his death having anticipated
the fall.
Such are the symptoms--the subjective signs which enable us to detect
the contagious typhus of the ox. But all animals do not exhibit these
disorders of the vital functions with the same regularity and excess.
Some of these we have seen, from first to last, sustain the internal
effects of the morbid process--in some sort passively--without revealing
any deep derangements in the nervous, respiratory, and digestive
functions. The poisonous virus had smitten them; they suffered in their
general structure; they looked stupefied; they lost, at a given moment,
their appetite and rumination; they had fever; their breathing had
become short and frequent; they had diarrhoea; they gradually lost
flesh, and the excreta passed through certain changes and
transformations. In a word, the animal had manifestly the bovine typhus;
but, thanks to a relative immunity, to a special organization, which
renders some of these beasts capable of resisting the contagion for a
long period, and sometimes altogether[O]--thanks to that variety which
we observe in different constitutions (for small-pox and typhus in man,
and the true typhoid fever in animals, do not operate with the same
violence on all alike)--thanks to this privileged organization,--we have
seen some oxen pass through every stage of the disease without
exhibiting this terrible train of morbid phenomena.
In these cases--for even this mild form of the distemper at last
produces death--the injuries fix themselves more exclusively on the
digestive channels, and we witness, in dissection, ulcerations in some,
in others mere spots of a livid red, more or less extensive.
Finally, although the typhus be one of the gravest maladies which
destroy and decimate cattle, all sick animals are not mortally affected
thereby. In the present epizootia, five per cent., as nearly as can be
ascertained, recover; and when that happens, signs of a favourable omen
are observable during the course of the attack. In these favourable
instances, indeed, the symptoms, even though they exhibit a certain
gravity, pursue a regular course; fever does not become remittent; the
fæcal discharge is copious and easy, with less foetor; the animal
loses flesh slowly and progressively; the tumours are cutaneous,
inflammatory; their character is good, depurative, and rather purulent
than gaseous and crackling. The droppings do not show that high degree
of pestilential decomposition described above; the animal in his drink
welcomes and digests a mixture of bran and flour; the secretions of
purulent mucus and the fæcal discharges dry up and stop in the early
part of the period of decline; the epidermis of the openings through
which they passed out peels off in thin scales, and afterwards in scurfs
or husks--in a word, the economy does not experience those acute
disturbances which strike one of the tripods of life--that is to say,
either the nervous centres, the lungs, or the digestive organs.
Now, in these curable cases, in which the cure is most generally due to
nature's own efforts, but which a systematic treatment might render far
more frequent, the convalescence is long, and requires great attention
and a well-regulated diet, in which the food is carefully measured and
divided. Here there must be a rigid superintendence. A laxity in the
watchfulness, or too much reliance on the reviving health, have produced
sudden relapses, and been fatal to many sick cattle, which had been
looked upon as thoroughly cured. For it may well be conceived that
convalescent animals, after sustaining such violent derangements in
their health, and having been brought down to the lowest degree of
prostration and marasmus--to a reconstitution, we may call it, of the
solids and liquids--have a devouring hunger. If, therefore, the keeper
who looks after them unhappily forgets that the principal lesions or
sores are seated in the stomach and intestines, and if he gives them too
much solid nutriment, he impedes the cure, irritates the ulcerations not
yet thoroughly covered over, and soon adds another victim to those which
had already died.
This convalescence lasts from fifteen to twenty days, and the animal
only recovers its health at last by slow degrees. Still the careful
keeper need not be afraid of a relapse when he is patient and watchful.
Such, then, is the contagious typhus of the ox. Type of the unreturnable
infectious diseases, its virulent miasms undergo within the structure a
series of transformations: they produce in the frame a general disorder
fully capable of annihilating the predisposition or aptitude of the
animal to receive the taint. A disease essentially specific, it affects
the principal centres of life; it kills its victim both by its deadly
virus and by the local derangements to which it gives rise; for how is
it possible to preserve life when the whole nervous system, that
promoter and regulator of all the functions, is upset?--when the lungs
which revivify the blood, when the digestive organs which are the very
sources of alimentation, are smitten with stagnation?--when, in fine,
not only these vital centres have ceased to operate, but when each by
itself is the cause of torturing pains and exhaustion?
The typhus, moreover, is observed in all animals of the bovine species,
whatever may be their race, their age, or their sex. The recovered
animals may live with impunity amidst diseased herds of cattle, thanks
to its non-relapsive nature. Jessen has even witnessed cows which, after
their own cure, communicated a sort of immunity to their offspring. For
the same reason it is that epizootias are less fatal in those countries
where they often occur, the constitutions of those animals which are
engendered amongst such habituated herds, preserving a prophylaxy
inherent to the blood which has been transmitted to them.
Besides, what a pregnant subject is this for the physician, and what
more meritorious task can he set himself than the treatment of such a
distemper, which reason assures him must eventually lead to the cure and
eradication of the same complaint in the human species?
From a cause which as yet has been indistinguishable and imponderable,
what important, what marvellous results loom in the future! The air
seems to us pure and wholesome, yet it conceals a typhic miasma of the
most deadly kind; it carries this pernicious principle into the richest
meadows, where we see feeding flocks and herds which to us seem
exuberant with health. Then this miasma is inhaled and absorbed, and it
meets in the frame the special and indispensable organic element which
is needed for its multiplication; there it undergoes certain latent
transformations, and a fermentation, a germination, which we call
_incubation_, in order to explain a process which we cannot understand.
Then fever is kindled, all the functions are disturbed, and the sick
animal is struck down, leaving us wondering, ignorant, and powerless
spectators in the presence of phenomena which, nevertheless, are the
eternal work of nature and have endured through all time.--But if in
the invisible typhic atom nature gives us death, it also gives us life
in the zoosperma.
II.
_Lesions found in the Bodies of Oxen after Death._
The description which we have given of the disorders produced in the
different functions by the operation of the typhus, may easily suggest
what must be the lesions exhibited by the organs of the body.
Death, we have said already, may overtake the disease at any of its
periods, and thus show every aspect and every degree of the organic
lesions. Such an animal being struck down at the period of initiation,
will not, of course, present the changes and varieties of the period of
decline, and _vice versâ_.
In general, the state of the dead bodies is that of the most decided
marasmus; the remains are intensely repulsive, as well by the stench
they emit as by the sight they afford; and, in summer especially,
decomposition sets in with great rapidity. Consequently, the utmost care
is required in conveying them from place to place; and this attention
is the more essential, because in the transit, the cavities being
deprived of their contractile power, let flow the pestilential liquids
which they contain, thereby infecting the carriages and public roads.
The urgent necessity there is to inhume at once these dead bodies, the
most active agents in diffusing the contagion, is equally the drift of
this observation.
The deceased animal, as a subject of anatomy, enables us to certify the
seat of the emphysematous tumours, and to see that they are really due
to the air which insinuates itself into the cellular tissue, and which,
receding from the pressure of the fingers between the cells, produced
the crackling sound we noticed above. This penetration of the air is,
moreover, a far more general effect than was supposed.
It is ascertained, likewise, from the examination of these subjects,
that the round, fluctuating, and smaller tumours, are indeed purulent
gatherings, which occasionally find a passage into the layers and
interstices of the muscles.
The muscular flesh is usually flabby, bloodless, unsightly, of a very
nauseous smell; and it would be difficult to imagine that the most
avaricious trickster would dare to offer even the most presentable parts
of it for sale and consumption. But when the expedients and artifices
known to the butcher's trade are had resort to, when, regardless of the
public health, the unprincipled dealer selects the most fleshy parts,
when he dresses and adorns them by colouring them over with the blood of
a healthy beast, the unwary eye of the purchaser may be deceived.
Observe, that we are now speaking of cattle that have died in the last
stage of this marasmus, so that we might suppose, even if the many
summonses before the magistrates, and the too moderate fines which have
been imposed on the guilty parties, had not shed the broadest light upon
the fact, that _a large number of sick cattle which had been slaughtered
at different stages of this frightful disease, have been dressed and
adorned, exposed for sale, sold, and eaten by a very large portion of
the inhabitants of London and of the country likewise_.
_Digestive Channels._--The mucous membrane of the buccal cavity is, for
the most part, of a livid whiteness; ecchymosed stains, and sometimes
ulcerations, differing in their form and number, are visible on the
floor of the tongue. Mr. Simonds has had an anatomical model
constructed, which presents a perfect type of these ulcerations, some of
which are of a scarlet hue, with perpendicular edges. The _stomachs_
exhibit a variety of ulcerations.
The _paunch_, or first stomach, always contains a large quantity of food
intended for rumination; sometimes these aliments are dry, and lie
sticking to its sides; at other times they are diluted with water which
had not yet been absorbed after drinking. The inner membrane of this
first reservoir may show flat spots, with livid injections of different
sizes.
The _honeycomb_, or second stomach, generally exhibits the same injuries
as the paunch.
The _manyplies_, or third stomach, contains between its laminæ hard,
pulverulent, and dry alimentary substances, which are seen sticking to
the different leaves. On removing these substances, some ecchymosed
spots are laid bare, the epithelium of which easily peels off;
sometimes ulcerations, and even perforations, are visible.
The _reed_, or fourth stomach, whose sides are thicker, more fleshy, and
more vascular, exhibits within its folds various kinds of lesions or
sores: they consist of large flat stains of a darkish red, more or less
soft, and sometimes ulcerations red on their deep surface, with clean
edges.
As for the intestines, properly so called, the _duodenum_ shows the same
injuries, but most generally large ecchymosed spots.
The _small intestine_ appears on the outside, even when it preserves its
place in the abdomen, of a reddish colour, lined with vessels distended
with blood, the signs of a general congestion of its membranes. The
examination of the mucous membrane, after it has been cut open
lengthways, shows, indeed, that this portion of the digestive tube is
the principal seat of the distemper; for, independently of this general
injection, you perceive ulcerations which have succeeded to detached
pustules or lengthy flat spots, the result of a cluster of several of
Peyer's glands, brought together by the plastic influence of
inflammation. These flat spots, or wafers, very similar to those we
observe in the typhoid fever of man, are inflamed and ulcerated in
different degrees.
The mucous membrane of the _large intestine_ exhibits lesions depending
on the period of the disease. About the third period, the injection is
sometimes general, especially near the rectum; but in the fourth and
last period we often meet with ulcerations which are smaller in the
upper part, larger and deeper about the lower or rectal part. The
membrane of the sexual parts of the cow is strongly injected, and of a
dull red colour.
As we have seen, the different organs of the digestive apparatus may, in
this typhus, offer to view extensive alterations perfectly consistent
with the gravity of the symptoms or the functional derangements. In two
cases in which disorders of the respiration had prevailed, and which had
been sacrificed on the eighth or tenth day of the disease, we only
observed partial injections of a very limited character, either on the
gastric membranes or on that of the intestine, and which might have
been detected in the case of common intestinal inflammation. Therefore,
in these two cases, the characteristic lesions of the typhus, if they
must be localized in the intestine, were, so to speak, absolutely
wanting. It was, we will not say exactly the same, on four other
animals, three oxen and one cow; but if, in two of them, the fourth
stomach was inflamed, if in the third the small intestine was congested,
and if, lastly, in the cow the large intestine showed ulcerations, we
could not in these lesions distinguish those of typhoid fever.
These facts struck us with great surprise, for we were far from
suspecting them. We hoped, on opening the intestine of these animals,
which had certainly all died of the typhus, to meet assuredly in a
determined spot some well-known lesion declared beforehand. To our great
astonishment, such has not always been the case. So that our theories,
conclusive as they seemed on the identity of the ox typhus and the
typhoid fever in man, and which more than anyone else we wished to see
confirmed, must submit to observation.
In fine, in this epizootia the intestinal lesions or sores present
different appearances. Developed to the utmost in some cases, so much so
as to exhibit ulcerations at the root of the tongue as well as in the
intestines, and to be in a manner the excess of the injuries which are
seen in typhoid fever, they are in other cases scarcely perceptible, and
sometimes entirely absent, when the animal is struck down in the third
or fourth period, that is to say, when the exanthematic or pustular
state has had time to develope itself on the digestive channels. One of
these animals seized by Mr. Tegg at the Camden Town market, was in such
a state of exhaustion that he could not be driven to the
slaughter-house, only two hundred yards distant; they were forced to
fell him on the spot midway, in order to have him conveyed to the place
of dissection. We only detected partial injections on the digestive tube
of this beast. The pulmonary emphysema which had caused this animal's
death was developed in the highest degree.--He was opened at the request
of M. Bouley, of Alfort.
_Apparatus of Respiration._--Here, again, the typhus shows us injuries
which differ from those of typhoid fever; for if the breathing is always
more or less obstructed at the outbreak of this fever, no serious
organic change in the lungs is the consequence thereof. In the ox
typhus, on the contrary, when the pulmonary form prevails, the
derangements of the respiratory organs are remarkable. Thus, the mucous
membrane of the nostrils, from which flows a purulent and fetid mucus,
is sometimes ulcerated and excoriated. The larynx and the trachea or
windpipe, choked up with frothy mucus, show the same alterations, though
less frequently. The lungs, which are rather congested than inflamed,
are emphysematous, the air having entered and distended the cellular
tissue which unites the lobes together.
In some cases, the lungs are so gorged with air that their lobes
constitute but a single heap, rendering them irrecognisable, so greatly
do their volume, their specific gravity, and their spongy aeriform
aspect differ from the natural state.
_Apparatus of Circulation._--The inner sides of the heart show
ecchymosed spots, and the same is the case with the larger vessels. The
blood, diminished in its quantity and altered in its quality, is
blackish and more fluid; but in most cases it coagulates instantaneously
and in a mass, without separating into its solid and liquid parts.
_Nervous System._--Having observed and dissected the dead bodies at the
slaughter-houses of the markets, we were not able to examine either the
brain or the spinal marrow. Besides, let us remark in this place, that
the mode of felling cattle in England would have rendered impossible
such an examination. For the animals are struck with a club, which kills
them both by cerebral concussion and by the direct alteration of the
brain; the instrument having a sharp end which perforates the skull and
injures the cerebral lobes. Nor is this all; the moment the animal is
struck down, a flexible rod is inserted into the hole made in the skull,
and driven as far as the spinal canal, so as to tear to pieces the
protuberance and the bulb, that is to say, the vital knot. This manner
of killing cattle seems to us, however, preferable to the one adopted
in France, where the animal does not sink till he has been struck
repeatedly with the club.
But be that as it may, those authors who have examined the nervous
centres of horned cattle which had perished victims of the typhus, have
usually found the meninges, or membranes that envelope the brain,
injected, whilst the brain itself was slightly dotted over with blood.
These anatomical lesions of the nervous centres being insufficient of
themselves to explain the death at the second period, we have
endeavoured to give the explanation of it in treating of the symptoms.
The other organs, the spleen, the liver, the kidneys, present
alterations of a secondary interest only.
III.
_Diagnosis--Prognosis--Use of the Flesh of Animals which have
Died of the Typhus--Danger of direct Absorption._
The typhus of the ox has such distinct and strongly marked
characteristics that it is not easily mistaken. However, to conform
ourselves to received custom, I will say some words about the principal
symptoms of some distempers affecting the ox, between which and typhus
unprofessional persons might be embarrassed, and hesitate to distinguish
them. We will transfer, however, those particulars pertaining to the
diagnosis to the part written for the special use of agriculturists,
farmers, and graziers, in order that they may readily find whatever it
may be necessary for them to know when they chance to have any sick and
tainted cattle to treat and cure.
We have likewise a few words to say on the subject of the prognosis of
the disease, as regards its propagation and its time of lasting.
Finally, we will unfold a question of very real importance in
hygiene--we mean the use and consumption of the flesh of animals as
food, and the danger which may accrue to man and other animals from
contact with their dead bodies, or fragments of the same.
The diseases of the ox, which we are accustomed to consider as
distinguished from typhus, are the contagious peripneumonia, the
apthous fever, and the "charbonneux" typhus; but, as we have just said,
we will mention by-and-by their chief characteristics.
Everyone is anxious, and natural indeed is that anxiety, to know what
this epizootia will become--what will be its course; how long it will
last; whether it will extend its ravages over the whole extent of the
three kingdoms; and if, in fine, it will invade all Europe.
To answer in a precise manner these questions would be a difficult task;
for who amongst us can assign at present any definite course to the
atmospheric variations? and yet they have a genuine influence on the
progress of the epizootia. On the other hand, the measures which have
been taken hitherto to confine the contagion to its different foci, have
unhappily proved almost ineffectual, but it may be hoped that, assisted
by experience, we shall be able to resist the evil more effectually, and
check its propagation.
If the atmospheric conditions and the preventive measures could not
modify the spread of the distemper, we should have reason to dread a
still greater extension of the contagion; for the virulent character of
the epizootia appears to be of an exceptional intensity, and we may
perhaps compare it with the famous epizootia, of the middle of the
eighteenth century, which for ten years afflicted all Europe with its
ravages, striking down six millions of horned cattle.
Let the reader cast an eye over the extracts borrowed from the
physicians of the principal faculties who have described this typhus,
and which we have reproduced in the first part of this book relating to
its history, and he will then be convinced that the disease is
absolutely the same as that which then raged so fiercely. And if that is
the case, we must anticipate that it will extend its ravages whilst
prolonging its duration. Already it has spread to Holland and Belgium;
Hungary and other provinces in the south-east of Germany--a fact much
less surprising--are likewise smitten with it; and now we hear the news
that France, though so vigilantly on her guard, has seen her frontiers
passed over. In spite of the _cordon sanitaire_ which she had prudently
established everywhere, some horned cattle have been seized with the
typhus at the town of Raubaix, in the north.
Without setting ourselves up as pessimists, let us declare that we must
expect that the contagion will continue to spread. Let us make up our
minds to this, in order to take the necessary sanitary measures, and set
ourselves seriously to work by trying the preventive treatment. But,
alas! between the Government, the municipal corporations, the
agricultural societies, the cattle proprietors, and, with regret we add,
the veterinary surgeons, there has been sadly wanting, up to the present
time, that mutual understanding; that prompt and decisive action, and
those pecuniary advances which are so necessary to encounter and contend
with this great calamity.
As for estimating with any approach to accuracy the sacrifice of
property; the pecuniary loss, which this fatal epizootic may occasion
the country, the want of exact statistics as to the number of cattle
which have already been struck down will not permit us to do it. But we
may, perhaps, already set it down approximately from 50,000 to 60,000
head of cattle for England and Scotland, until we have obtained more
precise statistical information on this significant point of inquiry.
That would represent, however, a very considerable capital; for if we
compute the loss of each animal at the average sum of 15_l._ only, the
sacrifice already incurred would not be less than from 750,000_l._ to
900,000_l._ This sacrifice in money might possibly have proved the be
all and the end all; and at this point we might, perhaps, have arrested
the contagion, had we all been able to act advisedly and harmoniously
together, in the name and for the interest of the public, from the first
appearance of the disease. But this calculation of, let us say,
900,000_l._, is made on the supposition that each cattle owner had been
willing to abide by his own loss; whereas, unfortunately, many of them
have striven to shift it on others, and large numbers of the sick and
tainted beasts having been sold and consumed, a proportionate sum thus
recovered by those avaricious men must be of course _deducted_ from this
estimate. Deducted, indeed! Considering the consequences on the public
health, is it not rather an aggravation than a mitigation of the loss?
These last assertions naturally lead us to inquire whether we are not
justified in saying that the flesh of sick and tainted cattle, thus
circulated and consumed, has not had its baleful effects on the public
health.
The butchers who sold the flesh of these sick and tainted cattle have no
doubt been careful to abstain from using it in their own families; and
the first time they speculated on the health of their fellow-citizens,
well knowing what they did, their conscience probably reproached them
with the misdemeanour. But afterwards, when no bad consequences to their
customers had been seen, their own impunity, joined to this apparent
harmlessness to their neighbours, rendered them bolder, and it became a
daily habit with them to sell this peccant offal, which poisons even the
earth by its contact.
Moreover, the graziers themselves were in league with the butchers, and
took care to slaughter the affected animals before the wasting of their
flesh by the progress of the distemper had bereft them of their greatest
value. Their private interest prompting them thus to dispose of the
sick animals as fast as they could, the majority of the tainted beasts
were sold and eaten in the second stage or period of the typhus.
Now, if the flesh of these diseased animals had been eaten raw,
accidents most terrible and appalling would certainly have been the
consequence, although dogs may have fed upon it without injury. But the
cooking of animal flesh at 100 degrees of heat has the property of
destroying for a time the septic germs, as the famous debates now being
held by the experimentalists who are studying the subject of spontaneous
generation tend to show. This poisonous meat, therefore, may at first
have been digested without producing immediate ill effects.
Our medical practice, however, authorizes us to declare that, after
making every allowance for the influences of this extraordinarily hot
summer, digestive and nervous complaints of the acutest description, and
without any special cause to account for them, have been very numerous
indeed during the last two months, and beyond all proportion greater
than they usually are in London. And we cannot but feel that, if the
cholera should reach the shores of England at this critical conjuncture,
it will find organisms most ready to receive its virus. Then, indeed, if
the typhic miasma come to mix and blend with the choleraic miasma, all
living beings will have to contend with the most deleterious causes of
alterations in their health, and we may (God send it be otherwise!)
witness one of those measureless calamities which, known in former ages
as the _Black Pestilence_, decimated cattle and men indiscriminately,
and which, when we read the sorrowful accounts of it in history, make
the flesh creep with affright.
We sincerely hope that such misfortunes may be spared us. But ought we
to abstain entirely and absolutely from consuming the flesh of cattle
smitten with typhus? It is a delicate question, but still we shall
answer it, making due allowance for every interest concerned.
We conceive that all animals which are smitten with the early effects of
the disorder, which begin to operate at the opening of its second
period, that is to say, when the first symptoms are declared, such as
stupor, loss of appetite and shiverings, may be handed over to the
butchers. But this must only be done on the _positive understanding and
condition_ that every animal, sick or not sick, in times of epizootia,
shall pass, either in the farm, the market, or the stable, under the
examination of a competent veterinary inspector, who shall mark the
beast when fit to be sold for consumption. With this precaution, which
at present is put in practice in Belgium, every interest is cared for
and guarded--those of the public health as well as those of the cattle
owners.
But there is another question of some importance which deserves to fix
our attention for a moment. People sometimes inquire whether the
ox-typhus can be communicated to other animals, and even to man, either
by contact, by direct absorption, or by inhaling the miasma floating in
the atmosphere.
Experiments of great interest might be made on this subject; but we can
already assert, on the evidence of facts publicly known, that the direct
absorption of putrid matter and purulent secretions, and likewise the
mere contact with tainted flesh, when the epidermis or scarf-skin is
cracked or peeled off, or when the least open sore exists, may give
access to the disease, and produce death, both in man and other animals.
In these cases, the absorbed virus operates, not as a specific agent,
giving birth to typhus, but as a provocative septic agent, endowed with
infectious properties, which infuse into the economy a germ of virulent
and mortal disease. So long as a sound and intact outer skin stands as a
safeguard between us and absorption, we may fearlessly touch and handle
the tainted flesh of these animals. But the slightest sore or abrasion
is an open door to let in death. A young veterinary surgeon, who had a
slight wound in one of his arms, was carried off within forty-eight
hours, as was proved at a coroner's inquest, after he had dissected an
ox which had died of the typhus.[P]
We see by this fatal example that we must be particularly careful not to
touch an ox tainted with typhus when we carry about us any open sore,
unless we take the utmost precaution in order to guard against all
direct contact or absorption. Man, as we have said and shown, breathes
with comparative impunity an atmosphere laden with the infectious miasma
of this typhus. But that which to-day is true may not be true
to-morrow; let us, therefore, be also on our guard against the too
continuous absorption of an atmosphere impregnated with these
deleterious principles.
As for herbivorous animals in general, a similar organization must, in
their cases, predispose them to receive the contagion. Whenever we visit
the markets, we cannot help fearing to see the ox typhus communicated to
the sheep and pigs which are stationed around them. It is an
unquestionable fact that, in certain epizootias, all animals without
distinction have been smitten and struck down, and the herbivorous
animals more rapidly than any other. The habit of collecting such vast
numbers of cattle in the same market, and on the same day, though
convenient for business, appears to us injudicious, especially during
the prevalence of this scourge.
This part of our treatise was in the printer's hands when Mr. Simonds
wrote a letter to the Privy Council which justifies all our
apprehensions. The typhus of the ox has been communicated to a number of
sheep, and we must all expect to see this cruel disease assume much
larger proportions than heretofore, since it has now obtained a second
focus for its maintenance and dissemination.
"Veterinary Department, 23, New-street, Spring-gardens,
Sept. 25th.
"SIR,--I beg to report that, acting on the
instructions received from you to investigate without loss
of time the statement received at your office relative to an
outbreak of the cattle plague in a remote part of the county
of Norfolk, supposed to have arisen from cattle having been
in contact with some diseased sheep, recently brought to the
premises, I have visited the district in question, and
inquired into all the circumstances of the case.
"It appears that as far back as the 17th of August Mr. C.
Temple, farmer and merchant, of Blakeney, received on his
farm 120 lambs which he had instructed a dealer to procure
for him for feeding purposes.
"The lambs were bought at Thetford-fair on the preceding
day, and were immediately sent by rail to Fakenham, from
which place they were driven to Blakeney, a distance of
about ten miles. On their arrival they appeared to be
fatigued to a greater extent than ordinary, which was,
however, attributed to the heat of the weather and the
exertion the animals had undergone.
"In addition to this, the shepherd observed that several of
them seemed unwell, and he remarked to his master that they
did not appear to be a 'very healthy lot,' and that he
thought it would be better to return them to the dealer.
Within a day or two of this time the symptoms of illness
were more marked in all the original cases, and many more of
the animals had been attacked. On the 24th two of the worst
cases were removed from the field to the farm premises, and
were placed in a shed for treatment, in which afterwards a
cow was put. On the 25th two of the lambs died, and in
consequence of this, and of the large number which were now
affected, the whole were brought, on the morning of the
27th, into the same yard where the shed previously alluded
to was situated. There is also another shed, separated from
this yard only by some old furze faggots, into which the
cows were driven night and morning for being milked. The
lambs remained in the yard till the morning of the 28th,
when having had some medicine administered to them, they
were returned to the fold and never came again near the
cows.
"While in the yard three died, two on the 27th, and one on
the 28th, and on the following day two others died in the
field. From this time the disease went on, so that by
Friday last, the 22nd of September, the day of my visit,
forty-six had either died or been killed, and twenty-seven
were in a very precarious condition.
"On the 7th of September, ten days after the last exposure
to the sheep, a cow gave evidence of being affected with the
cattle plague, this animal being the one which had been put
into the shed occupied by the diseased sheep on the 24th of
August. A second cow was attacked on the 11th of September,
and a third shortly afterwards, which was followed by
others; so that by the 16th all the cows, six in number, a
heifer, and a calf, were all dead.
"My examination of the lambs showed that they were
unmistakably the subjects of the plague. The symptoms agreed
in almost every particular with those observed in cattle
affected with the malady, and the _post-mortem_ appearances
were also identical.
"With a view to ascertain the true nature of the changes
produced in the system prior to death, I had four of the
lambs killed, and from these I took some diseased parts and
forwarded them to the Royal Veterinary College without note
or comment. These parts were examined by my colleague, Mr.
Varnell, who at once recognised the special changes of
structure which are caused by the cattle plague.
"The whole facts of the case leave not the least doubt of
sheep being liable to the disease termed the cattle plague,
and that when affected they can easily communicate the
malady to the ox tribe; and moreover, that when so conveyed
it proves equally as destructive as when propagated from ox
to ox in the ordinary manner.
"The case is also more important from having occurred in a
place no less than fourteen miles distant from any other
where the cattle plague exists, thus placing beyond a doubt
the fact of the malady being introduced among the cattle by
the sheep alone.
"I regret to add that this is not a solitary case of sheep
being affected by the cattle plague. I learned that some
sheep were supposed to be similarly affected belonging to
Mr. R. J. H. Harvey, M.P., on his estate at Crown Point,
near Norwich. This place I also visited, and found a large
flock of upwards of 2000 lambs, among which the malady was
prevailing. A large number had been separated from the
diseased, and gave no evidence of the malady. Very many,
however, had died, and the disease was making rapid
progress. I also examined many of the dead, and found the
_post-mortem_ appearances to be identical with those seen in
the other cases spoken of in this report.
"In this instance the malady was brought into the estate by
the purchase of some cattle, which afterwards died from the
disease, and which were unfortunately pastured with the
sheep at the time the disease manifested itself.
"The whole matter is one of the greatest importance, and
which I lose no time in submitting to you for the
information of the Lords of the Council.
"I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
"JAS. B. SIMONDS."
IV.
_General Considerations on the Ox-Typhus, and the
Recapitulation of the Symptoms._
We have seen the causes, the symptoms, and the cadaveric alterations of
the Bovine typhus, and we may therefore apply ourselves at present to
the consideration of its pathogenia and its nature. Only, the limits of
this book will not admit of a complete discussion of every point of this
important question of pathology; for if we desired to show in what
respect the typhus differs from, and in what respect it resembles, such
and such a morbid entity, febrile, infectious and contagious like it,
such a dissertation would require a whole volume for itself; we are
therefore obliged to keep within certain limits.
Like every watchful physician who has applied himself to the study of
comparative pathology, we entertained our own preconceived opinions as
to the nature of this _Cattle Plague_. Arguing _à priori_ from what we
knew, from the laws of the pathogenia of those exanthematic diseases
which we have alluded to in a former chapter; from the identity of
variola in various animals; from the preventive treatment to which this
identity has led; believing that animals and man have each their typhoid
fever, as they have their variola or small-pox; considering with the
Ecole de Tours, typhoid fever as a variola of the intestinal mucous
membrane, and having proposed, in 1855,[Q] to adopt inoculation as a
preventive treatment, drawing an easy comparison between the typhus we
are now observing and the typhoid fever in man; hoping, we may say,
indeed, to find in this typhus the inoculative and preventive virus
which is required for our typhoid fever, all will understand with what
eager and vivid curiosity we have examined the entrails of the victims
struck down by this epizootia. For, if this typhus had been a genuine
typhoid fever, the bovine species which has already provided the
preventive virus for small-pox, would equally have afforded us the
preventive virus for typhoid fever. In this hypothesis, our proposal to
inoculate the typhoid fever, which up to this time has been tried on
horses only, and in experiments badly conducted, by pupils of the
Veterinary School of Lyons, was perhaps on the eve of being realised.
But we regret to say, we have been forced to submit to evidence, and to
acknowledge that the present infectious typhus is not the one we require
to provide us with the anti-typhoid virus.
In the same manner as pathologists disagree as to the question, whether
the typhus and typhoid fever in man are one and the same disease, so
should we long debate, without coming to an agreement, as to that which
relates to the typhus and typhoid fever of the ox. We cannot pretend to
produce a reconciliation between these dissentient schools; all we
desire, is to sum up what observation has suggested to us, on account of
the practical and therapeutic interest belonging to the subject.
For ourselves, the typhus and the typhoid fever of the ox are two
diseases of the same order, but nevertheless distinct; and the reasons
upon which we ground our opinion are suggested to us by the nature of
the intestinal lesions, the symptoms, and causes of these distempers.
As we have already seen, the contagious typhus of the ox, at least that
of the present epizootia, is an infectious disease, which varies in the
intensity of the functional disorders and the cadaveric lesions to which
it gives rise. The typhoid fever, we mean the real one,--for there are
other intestinal exanthematic fevers which simulate it,--always localize
on the small intestines a pustulous exanthem, and in the typhus of the
ox, this pustulous exanthem and the ulcerations by which it is
succeeded, are frequently wanting.
The real typhoid fever springs up in every country under the influence
of local causes, and is not in the same degree infectious and contagious
as the typhus proper. In fine, the typhoid fever smites many species of
animals--the horse, the pig, etc., without transmitting its contagion
with the same intensity.
The contagious typhus of the ox appears to be more especially proper to
that animal; for in those latitudes where it developes itself other
animals are not affected by it.
For these reasons, then, to which we could easily add many others, we
consider the typhus of the present epizootia a special and distinct type
of typhic diseases, and differing from the typhoid fever: it is the
highest expression of its class, and occupies the first degree in the
scale of infectious typhic diseases. Next to it we should place the
typhoid fever, which we admit is not often found in the ox. But
veterinary pathology is still less understood than human pathology, and
typhoid fever may perhaps be recognised in those diseases which the
former science has described under the names of _adynamic_ and _ataxic
fevers_. Besides, a persistent research among the veterinary memorials
and reports might possibly enable us to discover some instances in which
the real typhoid fever in the ox had been traced, apart from the
epizootic conditions. Here is an instance of it:--
Gellé, in vol. i. page 245 of the _Pathologie Bovine_, quotes the
following abstract which had been forwarded to him by one of his
brethren, on the dissection of an ox, which was made on the 10th of May,
1824:--
"_Duodenum._--Uniform redness of the mucous membrane, with thickening,
softening, and petechial spots. In the middle portion were discovered
some of Peyer's glands, small round pustules, whitish at the top, with
a reddish circumference. In some parts contiguous to these pustules lay
ulcerations somewhat extensive, which seemed to be the result of the
softening of the pustules which had preceded them. A dark pus issued
from these ulcerations. The inflammation by which they were attended was
diffused in some places, whilst in others it was circumscribed. In some
parts the intestinal mucous membrane was utterly destroyed. The
mesenteric glands were red and soft."
Gellé adds:--"I have recorded this interesting narrative, as it may
perhaps serve hereafter to throw light on a point of doctrine."
The intention which Gellé nurtured at the time, is, we see, now
fulfilled conformably with his object.
The contagious typhus of the ox not being a real typhoid fever, we shall
not, consequently, be able to borrow from it the preventive virus for
that disease in man. But if these diseases differ, and if it is
difficult, in the present state of science, to assign to them such
distinct characters as to produce a perfect agreement among all medical
writers, we must, however, admit, that to designate the ox-typhus now
before us by the generic name of PLAGUE, after the Germans, who
have given it the name of RINDERPEST, would carry us too far
back.
Let us acknowledge also, that the denomination of _contagious typhus_,
adopted by the French veterinary doctors, is not, any more than the
designation of TYPHUS FEVER, applied to it by English physicians,
totally free from objection.
In truth, the various species of typhus whose characteristics we have
already given (see p. 73), are all of them febrile and contagious.
Whoever uses the word _typhus_, speaks of a contagious and febrile
malady, inasmuch as we cannot conceive typhus without its
accompaniments, fever and contagion. But as the prevailing
characteristic of this infectious disease is, above all, its
_contagion_, we have preferred to adopt the name of _contagious typhus_,
without, however, deceiving ourselves as to the value of the
denomination. The final elucidation has not yet been found for these
diseases; at some future day they will be methodically divided and
arranged, and each of them will then receive a special title, which will
remove from the mind that vague uncertainty which at present we regret.
But if some faults of doctrine are open to debate, no doubt whatever can
exist in the mind as to the morbid individuality of ox-typhus, or the
general conditions of its pathogenia; and we are able to deduce from the
preceding explanation, the following conclusions as so many propositions
definitively settled:--
1st. The typhus of the ox is a disease essentially infectious, which is
produced by the absorption of the morbigenous miasma in the air.
2nd. This typhic miasma is absorbed and engendered by the ox, under the
influence of a number of special deleterious causes.
3rd. When the miasma has been absorbed and incubation produced, the
disease itself is but a supreme effort of nature--a struggle between the
vital forces and the morbid evolution of the poison, in order to guard
and defend life against the danger which threatens it.
4th. A malady essentially general, _totius substantiæ_, it directs its
action, in different degrees, over the whole structure, but chiefly on
the nervous centres, on the organs of respiration, and on the digestive
apparatus.
5th. Its progress is regular; to the latest period of incubation it
succeeds that of the general poisoning of the blood--that of the pyrexia
of general fever--which for a time stops up all the secretions. Then,
the morbid flux is localized according to particular predispositions:
either on the nervous centres, when the animal is struck down at the
outbreak; or on the lungs, when the respiratory derangements become the
leading symptoms; or on the digestive channels, when the train of
typhoid phenomena is observable.
6th. The period of acute inflammation, which had dried up the sources of
secretion, gives place to that of the depurative and critical
exhalations or secretions; from every mucous membrane, from every
outlet, there issues a mucous discharge, which at first is thin and
clear, but afterwards becomes thick and purulent, and endowed with the
most infectious properties. The intestinal mucous membrane, smitten with
a particular lesion, becomes the seat of a flux extremely copious and
intolerably fetid. Gases, and occasionally purulent deposits, are
developed in the cellular tissue beneath the skin.
7th. The organism or physical frame, disturbed in the very centres of
life, undergoes a general transformation, a kind of organic
decomposition beforehand, and all the symptoms of reaction are followed
by a period of wasting atony and adynamia, which usher in dissolution or
life's extinction.
8th. Finally, throughout the whole course of the distemper, one special
functional derangement--_stupor_--has been witnessed as the predominant
symptom, the nervous system being in a manner annihilated in its
functions in consequence of the general infection.
Such are, in a brief outline, the principal symptoms of this typhus,
which, when once engrafted on the economy, pursues its fatal march, and
no treatment can then arrest its evolution. As in small-pox, so in
typhoid fever and in most general disorders, Nature for a time must be
allowed to exercise her new functions, which succeed each other in due
course, and which the physician must not stop; for if he did, he would
accelerate death; but he must watch with a vigilant eye, in order to
assist the vital powers.
The medical man, satisfied with these facts, will therefore abandon the
chimerical hope of finding a specific remedy for such a disease. The
virus once absorbed, the frame will endure, and fatally endure, all the
morbid phenomena which must produce and succeed each other. _Against
such a poison no other antidote exists than the poison itself._ And this
will be easily understood. What necessity have we for a specific remedy
to resist a distemper, which carries within itself its preventive
treatment? If it germinates and is propagated, let us not accuse Nature
and render her responsible; our own blindness, the lack of a community
of interests among the people, our social institutions, the still
imperfect state of the exact sciences, &c., amply explain how it is
that we have not yet employed the effectual means we possess, not of
curing it, but preventing it. If we could have our choice between
prevention and cure, should we not naturally take the former?
Indeed, the sources, the causes which generate the typhic miasma, are
thoroughly well known to us, and these we can avoid. The developed
miasms hang suspended in the air; we may, perhaps, one day destroy them,
if not in the outer atmosphere, at least in the stalls and sheds where
the animals inhale and absorb them. In fine, if we are powerless to
arrest the fell disease when its periods revolve, we may hope at some
future time to act with greater efficiency upon it during its period of
incubation.
On the other hand, if this formidable disease cannot be stopped in its
progress, does it follow that we should not treat it at all? Certainly
not! Far be such a heresy from our thoughts. What would be the
consequence, if we left to their fate the sufferers from the small-pox,
from typhoid fever, and from typhus itself, instead of watching over
them with the utmost solicitude? If the physician, the enlightened
interpreter of morbid phenomena, did not direct them with a bold and
fearless hand, but abandoned Nature to her helpless course, why,
necessarily, every patient would die, whereas a large number are now
saved.
That which is true in the case of man, is likewise true in the case of
animals: we are bound to treat them when they are ill. If to-day we
think it more expeditious and more profitable to exterminate them, we
certainly neglect our duty. We are the sovereign masters of animals;
they are the companions of our toils and pleasures, their lives must be
given to preserve our own; but on their well-being and their happiness
our own well-being and happiness also depend. They will return to us the
sufferings and diseases of which they die a hundred times over. Like
ourselves, they die of consumptive, tubercular, cancerous, eruptive,
typhoid, and parasitical diseases. And who can tell whether they have
not communicated these disorders to man, who was, perhaps, originally
exempt from them; and whether they do not continually communicate them
to him?
What noble pages might be written on the close connexion which exists
between all organized beings, both physically and morally! Let us love
these animals, let us treat them with kindness, and all our other
qualities will be raised by so doing.
But as a man must belong to the time he lives in, we will take up for a
moment with the doctrines of the economists; we will tolerate the
extermination of diseased animals, as a painful necessity. Our duty is
to seek in the study of the diseases of animals _and in their cure_, the
cure of the disorders which afflict the human species. We shall,
therefore, now proceed to consider the subject of the treatment of
horned cattle, both as relates to preventive and curative medication.
FOOTNOTES:
[O] Mr. Simonds has for three months had under his observation a cow
which has lived with impunity among animals sick and dying of the
typhus. And a young calf did not contract the disease for more than
three weeks.
[P] Another instance of the fatal effects of the terrible disease now
ravaging our flocks and herds of cattle, and resulting in the death of a
veterinary surgeon, has just occurred in the town of Sudbury, Suffolk.
Last week the epidemic made its appearance in the stock-yard of Mr.
Ruffell, farmer, Melford, and the cases were attended by Mr. Robert John
Plumbly, veterinary surgeon, Sudbury. On Thursday a cow, which was
evidently suffering from the disease, was brought out and shot by Mr.
Plumbly, who afterwards made a partial _post-mortem_ examination of the
carcase. In doing so with a small scalpel his shirt-sleeves became
saturated with blood, &c. from the animal. He returned home, and the
same day was attacked with sickness and acute pains in the head and
chest, accompanied with a soreness in the bones generally. On the
following day he appeared somewhat better, and was able to attend to his
duties, but became worse towards evening, and was confined to his house
on the following day. He considered that he was merely suffering from
the effects of a severe cold, and did not call in medical assistance
till Saturday night. He slept well that night, and seemed somewhat
better on Sunday morning. About two o'clock in the afternoon he got out
of his bed to have it made, when he appeared comparatively strong and in
good spirits; but almost immediately afterwards he was taken in what
seemed to be a fit, and expired in a few minutes, before the surgeon,
who only lived next door, could come to his assistance. It was thought
that death had resulted from apoplexy, and a medical certificate to that
effect was given. Rumours, however, soon becoming current that Mr.
Plumbly's death was caused by the cattle plague, the borough coroner (R.
Ransom, Esq.) directed a _post-mortem_ examination to be made. But, by
this time, so rapid was the spread of the virus through the system that
the body appeared perfectly plague-stricken, and by Tuesday morning,
when the surgeons arrived to examine it, and it was taken out of the
coffin, the corpse scarcely retained the semblance of a human being, the
head and trunk being much swollen and black in colour, the features
quite undistinguishable, and all the flesh converted into a putrid
jelly-like mass. The tissues were completely disintegrated, so that it
was utterly impossible to make any examination.
An inquest was held on Tuesday afternoon, at the court room, Town Hall,
before the coroner, R. Ransom, Esq., and a jury; Mr. Joseph Barker,
chemist, being chosen foreman. The mayor (S. Higgs, Esq.) and other
gentlemen were present during the whole of the inquiry, which lasted
four hours.
The jury went and viewed the body, which lay in an outhouse, but were so
overcome with the fearful spectacle that they were permitted by the
coroner to retire to partake of stimulants before they could further
proceed with the inquiry.
The first witness called was Mr. William Brown, veterinary surgeon, and
partner with the deceased, who deposed to having gone with him to Mr.
Ruffell's farm at Long Melford, on Thursday last, to examine several
cows down with the cattle plague. One was brought out and shot by the
deceased, who proceeded to examine the intestines and viscera, which did
not present the appearances usually observable in advanced stages of the
disease, there being but slight ulceration of the coats of the stomach
and bowels. The lungs were not examined, as the deceased had only a
small scalpel with him. In making incisions in the body the
shirt-sleeves of the deceased became covered with blood, but he did not
prick or cut himself.
Henrietta Dansie, nurse, was examined, and said that deceased had been
suffering from boils on his right arm, one of which she had poulticed on
Wednesday, the day before he had examined the diseased animal. He
removed the poultice himself, but declined to put on a plaster as the
place was a small one, although not healed. He changed his linen on his
return from Melford; but the same afternoon he was taken with sickness
and vomiting, and complained of acute pains in his head and bones. On
Sunday afternoon, shortly before he died, he wished to have his bed
made, and got out and stood whilst it was being done. He then complained
of faintness, and got into bed again, and witness to revive him washed
his face and hands; in doing so she observed that the nails of one of
the hands which had lain in the bed were turning black. She was about to
give him some pills when she noticed a sudden change come over him; and
thinking he was going to faint or have a fit, she rang for assistance
and went herself for the doctor, who, being from home, another surgeon
residing next door was called in, but by this time the unfortunate
gentleman was quite dead.
Mr. Maurice Mason, surgeon, said he was called in to see the deceased
the night before he died, and visited him again on Sunday morning, and
ordered him a lotion and leeches for his head and effervescing drinks
(the leeches were not applied). From the appearance of the body and the
evidence which had been adduced, witness was of opinion that the death
of the deceased was caused by the absorption of poisonous virus from the
dead beast.
Mr. W. B. Smith, surgeon, gave similar evidence, and added that the
tissues of the body were so disintegrated that it would have been
utterly impossible to have made a _post-mortem_ examination.
After half an hour's consultation the jury returned a verdict, "that
deceased died from the effects of the absorption of virus or poison into
his system upon the occasion of his making a _post-mortem_ examination
of a cow which had died from a certain disease called the cattle
plague."
The sad occurrence has caused much sensation in the town, the deceased,
who was only 23 years of age, being well known and much respected.
[Q] "Appel à des Expériences dans le but d'établir le Traitement
Préservatif de la Fièvre Typhoide et des Maladies infectieuses
inrécidivables, par l'inoculation de leurs produits morbides." Memoire
lu à l'Institut, le 8 Octobre, 1855. Inséré dans la Gazette Hebdomadaire
de Médecine. Paris.