CHAPTER IV.

_Treatment and Cure of the Ox-Typhus._

In now addressing ourselves to the treatment, and, as far as human

agency can effect it, to the cure, of this insidious distemper, we

cannot conceal from ourselves, that this is the most difficult, the most

delicate, and, at the same time, the most important division of our

work; for it is to this part, above all, that attention will be

directed. This portion of our task, therefore, will prove especially

arduous; and nothing can give a better notion of the difficulties we

shall have to encounter than the many fruitless attempts which, for

several months past, have been made to overcome them by many ardent

inquirers, stimulated by the best possible intentions.

This, then, is the moment--if we may be allowed the metaphor--to take

the bull by the horns; and we do so without hesitation. If, like so many

others, we are baffled and overcome in this unequal struggle--if our

strength is not on a level with our desires--we trust we shall be

pardoned.

Several paths leading to the same end may be followed in this exposition

of the treatment of ox-typhus. After mature reflection, we shall adopt

the one, which will allow us to take the disease at its birth, _ab ovo_;

to study it in all its phases, in its first and second causes, and then

in the successive periods of its development.

In this manner, we shall be able to give an account of each fact of real

importance mentioned in the foregoing pages, and to comprise within the

treatment whatever is connected either directly or indirectly with the

disease.

Thus we will relate in so many separate articles,--

1st. The means and measures to be employed to meet and resist the first

local causes which may generate the typhus, then the secondary causes

which serve to propagate it.

2nd. The means of preventing the spread of the disease to animals still

in good health.

3rd. The means of treating it at its different periods, from the period

of incubation to that of its decline.

4th. Finally, we shall insert the laws and sanitary regulations which

have been published in England relative to this disease.

As will be seen, by adopting this method, the whole matter will be

considered consecutively and in regular order; and the reader will

understand that when such a phase of the malady is developed it is

because the preceding one, which is the cause of it, has not been

effectually contended with.

I.

_Means and Measures to be employed to resist the Causes of

the Contagious Typhus of the Bovine Species._

We have shown fully and explicitly in what countries of the globe, and

in what particular conditions, the typhus is generated among oxen. We

know that this dire disease has its focus on the banks of great rivers

or lakes, which are periodically overflowed, and on which is deposited a

slime teeming with organic matter; in marshy plains, where the same

natural impurities are fostered; and that these first hotbeds of the

evil are found in China, in India, in America, in Africa, as well as on

the shores of the Black Sea. A spirit of observation which delights in

measuring the phenomena of nature with the contracted compass of its own

short views and conceptions, could alone have imagined that the

ox-typhus was only to be found originally in the steppes of Hungary and

Russia, and that the bovine species of those countries, thanks to a

special organization, was alone capable of generating the typhus.

Since we know, then, in what conditions this disease is developed, and

especially in what manner it is propagated in Europe, it is not

impossible now, when nations are united by the means of quick and easy

communication, by commercial treaties, and by the mutual relations of

science, to examine what measures might be taken to modify and control

these conditions. A commission formed for this purpose, a scientific

congress, would be able to make on the spot a study of all the

circumstances which favour the development of typhus, and the result of

their reports would enlighten the peoples as to the causes which produce

it and from which they are first to suffer. They would be recommended to

choose as pastures the healthiest places, to withdraw their cattle at

certain seasons from those plots of ground which are baleful to them;

new systems of agriculture would be planned and tried, &c. These

questions being carefully examined, might lead to important results; nor

can we understand how, in the age in which we live, the same

indifference and apathy as prevailed in the past should be maintained in

presence of the positive and permanent causes of this infectious

disease, whose contagion, as we now see by many proofs, may extend at

once to so large a portion of Europe. There is now something to be done

in this matter; it is the duty of the governments to deal with it

effectually, and to take serious measures to destroy the evil radically,

if radically it can be destroyed, and, if not, to alleviate its

pernicious effects as much as possible.

Moreover, many breeders of cattle have not waited until now to guard

against some of the first causes of the typhus: already they give the

animals rock salt, ferruginous and arsenical preparations, but all this

is done without method, and according to each man's will and pleasure.

It would, therefore, be necessary to institute regulations, and to see

them carried out and practised under the superintendence of public

functionaries, armed with sufficient power and authority.

These measures having been taken, others no less indispensable ought to

follow. They should determine for the herds of cattle intended for

exportation, the ways and channels they must travel by to go to any

central part or to any railway station; and there the inspectors on duty

should mark every animal that passes out of the district he is leaving.

Heavy penalties should be inflicted on all who might infringe these

rules.

These precautions would contribute in part to arrest the propagation of

the complaint; but there is another measure more radical and effectual,

which should be taken in order to prevent its extension--we mean

inoculation, which has met with complete success in some of the

governments of Russia.

Thus we see, there are powerful means of withstanding the production of

the disease in its focus, or generative bed, and likewise its extension

among the herds of neighbouring countries; and these latter might render

them in some sort obligatory, by refusing most rigidly to admit to their

markets, as in Italy has sometimes been done, every head of cattle which

was not marked as inoculated or which was not furnished with a permit of

health.

It is easy to conceive that those countries wherein the ox-typhus has

its birth, and for which the breeding of cattle and their exportation

are a great source of wealth, would soon feel that they are more

interested than any other in stifling the contagion in its focus, and in

affording to those countries that receive their herds, every security

and guarantee which they have a right to expect. Interest in this case

coming to the help of common sense, very satisfactory results would in

course of time be obtained.

Moreover, we are conscious that we are here dealing with very

complicated questions; for, though in a book they may seem simple and

easy, their application is a matter of extreme difficulty. We know too

well that these preventive measures for protecting animals will meet

with many obstacles, and only be adopted at last with tardy reluctance,

since man himself continues in some respect indifferent to the causes

which spread about the fearful epidemics to which he falls a victim in

consequence of his neglect.

In truth, it is well known that the cholera of the present day--that

much more serious _plague_--had its origin on the banks of the Red Sea,

amidst the infectious miasmata developed near Mecca, where thousands of

pilgrims who had died of fatigue and privation, and hundreds of

thousands of sheep butchered and religiously offered up in sacrifice,

have, beneath a torrid heat, generated the choleraic miasma, which

formerly was supposed to be produced exclusively on the banks of the

Ganges. This fact duly ascertained and proved, we might suppose that the

governments of the different nations among which the cholera is about to

extend its ravages, were indignant and had complained at thus being

smitten with a scourge, due to the careless ignorance and sordid avidity

of some official of the Turkish Government. But we should be mistaken.

No! every one hoped at first that he, at least, would be spared by the

contagion, and the authorities did nothing to resist the evil but adopt

the old course of _quarantine_--a remedy more illusory now than ever,

since the nations are in constant communication, either in their own

persons or by the exchange of their commodities; and consequently, the

epidemic is pursuing its invading course from week to week.

That which is being done for the cholera gives us a scale by which we

may estimate the efforts which will be made to arrest the generation and

the contagion of the cattle typhus.[R]

We are certainly bound to resist the introduction of horned cattle

tainted with typhus; but in the conditions amidst which they live, some

of them may bear the seeds of the distemper, even whilst they appear in

perfect health, and therefore able to endure the fatigue of a long

journey.

Now, in order to avoid exciting the incubation of the typhus during

their transit either to Finland, Holland, France, or England, it must

never be forgotten that these animals are gifted with a nervous

sensibility of wonderful acuteness, joined to the weakest vital

resistance. Care must be taken to husband their strength, to give them a

choice distribution of food easy of assimilation; barley-meal, or other

grains, must be mixed up with their drink; they must be protected from

the changes of weather; they must have room enough and air enough in the

locomotive stalls on the railway trains and on board ship.

We pass over in silence the hygienic measures to be taken in order to

keep these vehicles of transit in a proper sanitary state: the sanitary

police regulations inserted further on will make them sufficiently

known.

All these measures having been taken to meet and withstand distant

causes and dangers, let us now direct our attention to those local

causes which strike our eyes, and which likewise have their share of

influence in propagating the disease. Thus, whenever an inclement season

comes to deprive the herbivorous animals of sufficient pasture, or to

deteriorate its natural qualities, we are bound to remedy this change,

and to increase the cares we devote to them; for these frail and

helpless creatures, immediately feel and suffer from the effects of a

sustenance less than usually restorative. Under such circumstances, we

must make exceptional sacrifices; when they return from feeding on the

grass, we should give them some additional fodder, or roots of a

generous quality. We must imitate the regimen used in the country of the

steppes, by adding to their forage a solution of marine salt, or a

solution of sulphate of iron. Day by day we must give to the weakest and

least fed cattle, a ration consisting of bruised oats, pounded juniper

berries, gentian, sulphate of iron, and carbonate of soda.

For, if we neglect to take those measures which are required to prevent

among herbivorous animals the development of those ordinary epizootias,

which every year are generated on our own soil, they will certainly

afford a favourable seat to the typhic miasma transmitted by foreign

animals, or exceptionally generated by themselves. These cares and

attentions must be greatly increased, when the foreign epizootia, has

spread itself, as in the present instance, among our flocks and herds.

Then, indeed, we must be careful not to load these creatures with

pampering food for the purpose of fattening them. For it may be

profitable, and the breeder may plume himself, on having produced an

adipose monstrosity to such a degree as to bury, for instance, a pig's

head in the fleshy exuberance of his thorax; but such a derogation from

the laws of nature borders closely on disease, and assuredly such an

unnatural accumulation, predisposes the glutted animals to epizootic

diseases in general.

The water given them to drink must be attended to with particular

solicitude. It should never be drawn up from ponds or stagnant rivers.

The animals kept in the pasture grounds should always find at their

disposal, in receptacles intended for their use, a supply of pure fresh

water.

After these precautions with respect to their food and sustenance,

attention must next be directed to the hygienic conditions required by

the animal. Every morning he should be cleaned, washed, brushed, and

dried; what is every day done for the horse must now be done for the ox.

These unusual cares will be most salutary to him, and greatly increase

his vital resistance.

The animal thus protected in his food and particular necessities,

attention must next be directed to the stalls and sheds. Over-crowding

must be carefully avoided; the proper cube of air for breathing must be

measured out for each head of cattle; every day the latter must be

carried out into the open air; the floor of the stall or shed must first

be thoroughly cleansed and washed out, after which it must be sprinkled

with a solution of chloride of lime. If the stall is not well aired, a

little straw should be burned on the ground, to improve the atmosphere,

or else branches of resinous trees, or juniper berries may be used. In

some cases aromatic fumigations of sage, rosemary, or mint, boiled in

water, are employed, the balsamic vapours which arise therefrom being at

once tonic and purifying. During the night a tub, containing pitch and

tar, should be left in the stall, or a large piece of camphor should be

suspended from the ceiling. Vinegar may be spilt on a piece of red-hot

iron, or powder of sulphur may be burned into sulphuric gas and diffuse

its vapours through the stall or shed. This excellent parasiticide may

perhaps be equally endowed with anti-typhic properties.

Finally, when this fatal epizootia is ravaging the country, every farmer

and agriculturist must carefully abstain from mixing with his herds any

cattle which have been bought either at fairs or markets; he must take

care, conformably with the directions issued by the Privy Council, (to

which we refer the reader for more ample details,) to avoid all contact

both direct and indirect with horned cattle tainted with the typhus, as

he might himself become an instrument of the contagion.--Let him never

forget that to take as the guide for his actions in these times of

calamity his private and personal interest, is the greatest crime a man

can commit. Let him strive, therefore, to assist the authorities in the

measures which they have taken for the interest of all.

II.

Now that we have examined the measures which prudence directs us to take

to defend ourselves against the causes which produce and propagate

typhus, let us think of the means of preventing it, when the contagion

threatens to diffuse itself over a whole kingdom, as at present it is

doing in England.

When, on the 19th of last June, it was believed that the typhus or

Cattle Plague, as they continue to call it, had effected its invasion in

England, the Government, informed by professional men of the serious

danger to which the interests of the country would be exposed, if the

disease should spread, might have considered this distemper not as a

question of private interest, but as one of public and national concern.

It might at the outset have given to this epizootia all the significancy

of a public calamity, have looked upon it as the invasion of an enemy

threatening to destroy its territory, and have employed every possible

means to stifle it at its birth.

We well know that the English Government, derived as it is rather from

political than from religious and social changes, is at once

monarchical, aristocratic, and partially democratic, and for that reason

embarrassed in its working by so many wheels. Its authority is scattered

and divided, whilst the respect ascribed to the prerogatives of each

distinct public power is the safeguard of the State. In the absence of

both Houses during the recess, it could take no resolution as to ways

and means; for the difficulties on this unhappy occasion, we cannot too

often repeat it, are reduced to a question of money. Deprived of the

requisite authority, it was unable to do more than exhume the old laws

on the matter and ordain new ones. And yet, the impotence of the

Government was not perhaps so great as is imagined; for whilst it

suffered the typhus almost unmolested to devastate the country, it very

justly, and in the name of the public interest, took vigorous and

effectual measures to stamp out another epidemic--the rash and insane

conspiracy of the Fenians. It stood still and would not authorize

domiciliary visits in stables and stalls, nor the seizure of sick

animals, but it did not falter a moment at the domiciliary visits and

incarceration of insurgent citizens meditating mischief, so that in

this instance, the privilege of immunity has been given to the brute

creation. Everybody, both in England and out of England, admires their

vigour and despatch in stifling the insurrection in its bud. But why not

act with equal promptitude in the case of an epizootia?

Arming itself, in this manner, in the public interest, and with

sufficient power, the Government might have appointed an executive

commission, with the Lord Mayor as president. Such a commission would

have applied itself at once to the consideration and studious

examination of the subject in all its bearings, and would have proposed

prompt and energetic measures, which the Government, with equal

despatch, would have confirmed by giving to them the authority of law,

as they have since tardily done. A fund, which, for the wealth of

England, would not have been considerable, 250,000_l._--the cost of a

few Armstrong guns--might have been placed at the disposal of this

Board, to enable its directors to meet and provide for, without delay,

every just claim and want arising from the scourge.

An auxiliary commission, exclusively medical, and consisting of medical

and veterinary doctors, might have been formed conjointly with the

former, and every preventive measure, considered by them as necessary to

stamp out the complaint at the outbreak, after it had been proposed by

the medical board, and submitted to the executive commission, and by

them to the Home Secretary, might have been acted upon by law within

twenty-four hours.

Taken unawares, and the mode of treating the sick animals not being

known at first, they would have been reduced to the cruel necessity of

exterminating at once all tainted cattle, as well as those belonging to

tainted herds, but not without compensating the owners of those

cattle.[S]

They would have sent two physicians to Russia and Hungary, to observe

and study the preventive and curative medication, especially their mode

of inoculation, and thanks to the rapid locomotion of these times,

twenty days would have been sufficient for this foreign exploration.

The physicians constituting the medical board should have been

authorized to seize any beast tainted with the typhus; a company should

have been charged to collect and keep ready for the public service, at

the four quarters of London, an ample retinue of horses, closed

carriages, and working men, to convey at all hours of the day and night

the carcases of the slaughtered animals to the respective spots, where

long and deep trenches had been dug to receive them. Each carcase before

burial to have been well sprinkled with chloride of lime.

By taking this course, every one's interest would have been respected,

as much as can be desired when a great calamity threatens a country;

besides, in doing so, the present ministers would but have followed the

example of the Government (with regard to compensation), during the

epizootia of the eighteenth century. The proprietors who had thus

received, not the full and absolute price, but a sum sufficiently

remunerative for their sacrificed cattle, would have assisted the

authorities, and thereby would have served the common interest, because

their sick cattle, perishing every hour within their stalls and sheds,

were no longer a real source of embarrassment and ruin. They would not

have been obliged to drive them to market to get what they could out of

them and disencumber themselves. The most active cause of the contagion

would by this means have been prevented.

This allowance having been made for the most pressing dangers, attention

should next have been directed to a matter no less important--we mean

the treatment and cure of this distemper; for we will never admit that

England can have fallen back a century, and that whilst those

enlightened men--Malcolm Flemming and Layard--proposed and tried to cure

and prevent ox-typhus in 1757, we, in 1865, shall have been reduced to

the horrible alternative, the repugnant barbarity, of the general and

indiscriminate extermination of the tainted cattle.

Whilst, therefore, the treatment of the typhus would have been studied

on the spot, and the most urgent measures would have been taken to

withstand the propagation of the evil, they would have established, a

few miles from London and on the northern side, in the direction of the

great cattle market, a number of hospitals or sanitariums, and, as far

as possible, within a park. These hospitals, constructed of wood,

containing, besides stables and sheds, a slaughter-house, a

dwelling-house for the staff of employés, a laboratory stocked with all

the physical and chemical instruments required, &c., would in two or

three weeks have been sufficiently prepared to receive a certain number

of cattle.

Provided with these advantages and opportunities, a permanent stage of

operation would have been raised on which trials and experiments might

have been made with every chance of fruitful results. In these

sanitariums, for instance, the most practical physicians and

veterinarians might have entered upon a systematic course of treatment,

dividing the bovine patients into classes, according to their periods of

disease, their age, &c.; and trying some particular mode of treatment,

some remedy considered as effectual, alternately, upon each of these

classes of tainted cattle. These experiments, having been made under

circumstances so favourable, would have enabled the faculty to

establish a medical basis, which, if not infallible, would have been

relatively efficacious, and might have saved a large number of the

infected animals.

Whilst thus fixing their attention on the cure of the sick animals,

these experimentalists would have carefully studied and practised the

preventive treatment by inoculation, availing themselves both of

Layard's hints and recommendations and of the practical knowledge

acquired by the medical expedition to the steppes, which would by that

time have returned from their mission. They would have selected animals

smitten with the genuine typhus, of the typhoid and intestinal form, in

_the third period_, whilst the depurative and critical secretions are

running from the mucous membranes; they would have gathered the virus

from its springs of infection or from its purulent subcutaneous deposits

or from the serum of the blood.

On the other hand, they might have chosen four heifers, of good

constitutions and healthy, and these they might have prepared, according

to Layard's advice, for inoculation, by a special treatment, and by

hygienic and medical cares. On some of these the inoculation would have

been made near the tail, according to the subcutaneous process, with a

lancet charged with typhic virus; on others, a crucial incision, or

cross-cut, would have been made on the crupper. But, to speak truth, we

cannot do better than Layard, whose ingenious treatment, with all due

deference to a certain veterinarian of our day, deserves a very

different epithet than that of being amusing.[T] Layard says:--

"That nothing may be omitted which in any shape can

contribute to the success of inoculation, due attention

should be paid to the constitution and state of the beast,

no less in this practice on the cattle than on the human

species. Undoubtedly the young, healthy, and strong bid

fairer for a good issue than the old, sickly, and feeble;

each of these different constitutions demand a particular

treatment, even in the method of preparation; and however

trifling it may seem to many--the urging a necessity of

preparation--I will venture to affirm that I have seen

excellent effects arising from a rational preparation, and

fatal events from want of preparation. I have likewise been

witness of unfavourable turns, merely from an injudicious

preparation.

"The beasts which are sanguine require moderate bleeding;

those that have but a small share of blood must have none

drawn. The strong must, besides moderate bleeding and

purging, be kept on light diet and their body kept open.

Thus, scalded bran, mixed with their hay and chaff; will

cool them. The weakly, and such as are inclined to scour,

must be kept on dry fodder, and have peas and beans given

them to strengthen them. A mess of malt, or a quart of warm

ale, with a few spices, will be very suitable for them.

"Whatever diseases the cattle be affected with, if time will

permit, they are first to be removed.

"The cattle to be inoculated are first to be well washed,

rubbed dry, and then curried, to remove all the filth from

the hair and skin. Then they are to be placed in a spacious

barn or stable, where the air is temperate and no cold can

come to them. There they are to be prepared according to the

direction already given, foddered with good sweet hay, and

watered with clear spring water; and if the distemper be not

near they may be turned out into the air, near the barn or

stable, and may stay there a few hours in the middle of the

day.

"When it appears that the cattle are in perfect health, free

from any infection or other disease, brisk and lively,

neither costive nor scouring, and chewing their cud, then

the operation may be safely undertaken, and henceforth they

must be confined to the barn.

"Since there is observed to follow the greatest flow of the

contagious and putrid particles separated from the blood,

wherever the infectious matter makes an impression at first,

particular care must be taken not to inoculate near such

vital parts as the heart and lungs, nor near the womb, if a

cow with calf be inoculated; for, though rowels are properly

applied in the dewlaps, to draw off the pestilential humour

from the breast, and in other cases beasts are frequently

rowelled in the flanks,--yet in this operation, as matter is

inserted by these channels into the neighbouring vessels,

those vital parts, or the womb, might become the chief seat

of the disease, and the event prove fatal.

"To prevent such accidents, human beings have been

inoculated on the arms and legs, and now-a-days the arms are

found sufficient. I would recommend that the cattle should

be inoculated about the middle of the shoulders or buttocks,

on both sides, to have the benefit of two drains. The skin

is to be cut lengthways two inches, deep enough for the

blood to start, but not to bleed much. In this incision is

to be put a dossil or pledget of tow, dipped in the matter

of a boil full ripe, opened in the back of a young calf

recovering from the distemper. It may not be amiss to stitch

up the wound, to keep the tow in, and let it remain

forty-eight hours. Then the stitches are to be cut, the tow

taken out, and the wound dressed with yellow basilicon

ointment, or one made with turpentine and yolk of egg,

spread on pledgets of tow. These dressings are to be

continued during the whole illness, and till after the

recovery of the beast, to promote the discharge; and then

the wound may be healed with the cerate of lapis

calaminaris, or any other.

"On the third day after inoculation, the discolouring of the

wound, whose lips appear grey and swollen, will be a sign

that the inoculation has succeeded; but the beasts, as

Professor Swenke informs us, did not fall ill till the sixth

day, which answers exactly to the observations daily made in

the inoculating of children. Yet the Professor adds that on

the third day a costiveness came on, which was removed by

giving each calf three ounces of Epsom salts.

"No sooner do the symptoms of heaviness and stupidity appear

than the beasts must have a light covering thrown over them,

and at night fastened loosely. They must be rubbed morning

and evening, and curried, till the boils begin to rise; warm

hay-water and vinegar-whey must be given plentifully. Should

the beasts require more nourishment, dry meat, such as hay,

with a little bran, may be offered. I should be very

cautious in giving milk-pottage, even after the boils and

pimples had all come out, for fear of bringing on a

scouring. However, this caution is proper, that whenever

milk-pottage be given the vinegar-whey is to be omitted for

obvious reasons. In cases of accident, the same attention is

to be observed in the disease by inoculation as in the

natural way, and the medicines recommended are the same I

would use; but by inoculation there seldom is a call for

any, so favourably does the distemper proceed through its

several stages.

"The crisis being over, it will be proper to purge the

cattle, to air them by degrees, and to have the same regard

in the management of them as is laid down in the chapter on

the method of cure."

The typhic virus is so highly infectious and poisonous that the first

animals inoculated would have all died; it would have been necessary to

inoculate successively a number of animals with the virus derived from

the first inoculation, and transmitted from an inoculated animal to a

healthy one, by which means they would have acquired a virus of the

first, second, third generation, and so on. These inoculations having

always been made on four animals at a time; on two of them, the disease

would have been left to take its own course, in order that the

experimentalists might watch its progress and development, and the two

others would have supplied the virus for inoculation.

At the third or fourth generation, the virus, modified and attenuated in

its infectious principles, would no longer have been mortal in its

effects, as experience has proved in Russia. Then the inoculated

animals, placed under the control of hygienic cares and a few purgative

and tonic medications, would have passed from convalescence to health.

The virus thus attenuated would have supplied the means of a practical

inoculation on a large scale to all healthy animals.

Proceeding thus, they would, moreover, but have followed the method

adopted in those times of epidemic and epizootia when the small-pox is

raging. On those occasions, we subject our sick patients to vaccination

or revaccination; we inoculate the variola in our sheep threatened with

the contagion; we pursue the same course in cases of epizootia, of

peripneumonia. And truly, that which it is reasonable to do in one case

may be generalized and applied to a greater number.

The experiment we have suggested might, perhaps, have been long and

difficult, nay, even costly, but we should have established, after a

certain time, the rational method of this preventive treatment, and have

distributed the same throughout the country. Veterinarians would have

formed in particular districts their centre of operation, in which the

preventive virus might have been produced, and they might have gone from

farm-house to farm-house to inoculate all the cattle within them.

From these facts and observations made by the physicians, precious

documents would have been derived; and if, contrary to all expectation,

success had not justified every hope, we should have bequeathed to

future generations facts and experiences which would have been of the

most useful character to them and full of instruction. Thus it is that

science advances and progress is accomplished.

If all that we have just indicated as a realizable matter had been done,

in effect, England would have afforded in this, as she has so often done

in other cases, a noble example to be followed, and would have acquired

a new title to the admiration of other nations.

But, unfortunately it has not been so: silence has succeeded to

eloquence at Guildhall, and the meetings at the Mansion-house have

flickered away. That which was held on the 27th of September, seems

likely to be the last of them.[U]

The subscriptions which, in spite of all the praiseworthy efforts and

earnestness of the Lord Mayor, did not reach 2000_l._, were returned to

the subscribers, so that all the attempts which have been made to

centralize the direction to be given to the various measures have proved

abortive. The plan of forming sanitariums, as well as that of

compensating the owners of cattle, have both fallen to the ground.

What can we think of such a state of things when we see the ox-typhus

extending its ravages to sheep, and have to fear that the disease will

spread to other animal species? What serious reflections it creates in

our minds, and what awful consequences we might deduce therefrom! But

what would be the use of them?

Let us add, however, that France, save on the recognised principle of

indemnification, and a more speedy extermination of her tainted cattle,

has shown the same deficiency as to the means of treatment as England;

whilst we have the consolation of attributing this impotence on the part

of this country to the fact that the outbreak of the epizootia has

occurred during the Parliamentary recess.

It is, therefore, to institutions rather than to individuals that we

must ascribe the impossibility of conquering the difficulties which have

been met, and which at any other time might not have obstructed the

course of things. Far be it from us therefore to accuse of indifference

a great people renowned for their zealous promotion of public interests,

for their charity and inexhaustible philanthropy, whose innumerable

asylums have been opened to every misfortune, who support so many

hospitals and public charities by their voluntary contributions, and

who, in so many calamities, have seen some devoted heroine issue from

her retirement to assuage them. For if the Crimean war produced its lady

beneficent in the person of Florence Nightingale, all of us must allow

that if others had followed the example of Miss Burdett Coutts, who, in

a manner, has stood alone against the storm, by the facilities she has

afforded for treating and experimentalizing on the cattle smitten with

typhus, the formidable scourge might have been arrested in its focus.

III.

_Curative Medication._

We might acquire the means of resisting the general causes which develop

the typhus; we might stop its diffusion, we might even prevent it, by

inoculating the sound and healthy animals, and yet it would be

necessary, none the less, to search for the means of curing it; for, as

in the small-pox, the preventive treatment of which we know, certain

circumstances would arise in the disease which would oblige us to treat

it. And as we are far from being able to resist the generation and

dissemination of this scourge, which reckons almost as many victims as

sufferers, it is important to make known what treatment we can oppose to

the functional derangements to which it gives rise.

As we have already said, this typhus, when the organism has absorbed its

peccant and infectious miasma, produces a succession of disorders which

become in a manner temporary functions; it pursues its phases, its

periods; and as the functional derangements differ at these several

epochs from the development of the morbid phenomena, the course of

medicine which is employed to check them cannot always be the same.

Starting, therefore, from practical data, we will attend the disease in

its gradual advance--that is to say, in its distinct periods--and will

afterwards explain certain predominant symptoms, which, owing to their

importance, must likewise fix the attention of the careful therapeutist.

It will be remembered that we have recognised four periods in the

regular course of typhus:--

1st, a period of incubation;

2nd, a period of initiation;

3rd, a period of duration;

4th, a period of decline.

But, in the first place, before beginning the treatment, every farmer or

grazier, or cattle-owner, who keeps a certain number of cattle, should

divide his herd into several classes, in order to regulate and methodize

the cares to be given to the sick.

Thus, he will form a first class, comprising the animals in a sound and

healthy state, having had no intercourse, either direct or indirect,

with the tainted cattle, and which he will be careful immediately to

isolate and keep apart.

A second class must be formed of those beasts, which, though as yet

unaffected with the distemper, have, nevertheless, been exposed more or

less directly to its contagion, by living and consorting with them, or

by their contact with other animals, either at fairs or markets, or in

the ships and cattle-trucks on the railway during their transit from one

place to another. The horned cattle composing this latter class must be

carefully watched, and be made the subject of the preventive treatment,

the moment the first sign appears of the working of the incubation.

A third class must be formed, consisting of cattle actually smitten with

the distemper.

These divisions of animals being thus settled and separated, will

diminish the labour and the cost of treatment and the liability to

diffuse the complaint, especially when the epizootia begins to lose its

virulence.

_First Period--of Incubation._

We have said that infectious diseases, when once the frame had suffered

the effects of the poisonous miasma, pursued their fatal course, and

that, generally speaking, it was impossible after such infection to

arrest its development. We say generally, for the typhus at the outbreak

of its appearance on a virgin soil sometimes manifests itself in a

benignant manner, then it becomes more destructive, by-and-bye its

pernicious properties decline, and it in some sort goes out of itself.

One would say that the epizootia, like those it smites, has likewise its

peculiarities, its period of initiation, of duration, and of decline.

There are in consequence fixed times or epochs during which the

sufferers afford better scope for our means of action; at a given moment

the attenuated virus, having lost much of its deadly effects, ceases to

produce death, which decline is the real source of the marvellous

successes obtained by certain remedies against the epizootia.

If it be true that the distemper at its period of duration, and at its

most critical moment, cannot be fettered, we should not be justified in

asserting positively the same, as respects the period of incubation.

Indeed, we are convinced ourselves, that if ever this disease shall be

clogged in the wheel, _if ever its specific remedy shall be discovered,

it will be within the period of incubation_, when the economy begins to

struggle with the first phenomena of the poisoning. Be that as it may,

we cannot, in epizootic times, too earnestly enjoin the owners of cattle

to submit their animals to a strict and close inspection, in order that,

when the first signs of incubation appear, they may modify the animal's

usual diet, and attack the disease at its birth, so as to render it

abortive, if the thing can be done.

At this period we must endeavour to come to Nature's assistance, we must

shake and stir up the economy, we must unseat the morbid functions which

seek to master us, and then the vital force, thus solicited and

stimulated, may sometimes struggle with advantage. To do this

effectually, if the animal is atonic and predisposed to adynamia, if his

internal organs are relaxed, we will strengthen him by administering

every day a stimulating beverage. If he is confined to the stall we

will give him the open air, and let him graze the fields; which is a

treatment by itself for the invalid animal, so vivifying is the pure air

of the common, and so thoroughly different from the atmosphere which is

pent up within his stall. If the animal is strong, lusty, exuberant with

health, let him be purged once or twice, the purgative to be given at

intervals of twenty-four hours. (We shall give the medical formula in

the chapter addressed to farmers, graziers, &c.)

This purgation, moreover, will correspond with the theory of those

authors who consider the evacuations as the proper means of delivering

the economy from the infectious miasms which have been absorbed.

If the beast is plethoric, recourse should sometimes be had to bleeding,

especially in hot and dry seasons, like the one we have recently passed

through.

These stimulative and depletive medications cannot but be favourable to

the animal, since it will anticipate the treatment to which he must be

submitted a few days later, when the disease shall have declared

itself.

To this treatment, in some sort preventive, must be annexed an

_antimiasmatic_ beverage, either a _permanganate of potash_, or a

solution of _chlorate of potash_, or of _arsenic acid_ in powder, mixed

with some aromatized beverage, or solution of _arseniate of soda_. These

anti-typhic drinks must be discontinued on those days when the sick

cattle are purged.

It need hardly be said, that during this period of incubation the

feeding of the cattle must be strictly attended to, and that the animal

must receive unusual hygienic care.

_Second Period, or that of Initiation._

At this period the constitution and temperament of the sick cattle must

first of all be deliberately studied, so as to ascertain fully which are

_lymphatic_, which are _nervous_, and which are _sanguine_. We must

notice the age, the sex, the state of gestation, and make allowance for

any prior complaints to which any of the sick cattle may have been

subject. For if, like certain system-mongers, we reduced the treatment

of all tainted cattle to the same mathematical formula of medication,

that is, either to bleeding or to purging exclusively, we should

certainly increase the number of victims.

In this stage of the disease we have to contend with the derangements of

the circulation and secretions. The fever is generally intense, the

blood is inflamed or vitiated, the mucous membranes are dried up;

shiverings, alternations of cold and heat, &c., occur. We must then

mitigate these morbid phenomena either by bleeding or purging. The

bleeding must be more or less copious, according to the strength of the

animal. For, it must not be forgotten that we have several critical

phases to pass through, and if we exhaust the animal by too largely

draining him of blood, we may forfeit the success of the treatment. If

bleeding is considered unnecessary, let the sufferer be purged at once,

by administering either _sulphate of magnesia_ (_Epsom salts_), _or

sulphate of soda_ (_Glauber's salt_). These purges to be taken daily,

for two or three days, according to the way they operate. Linseed oil,

mixed in some warm beverage, may be given instead of these, or else a

mixture of rhubarb and calomel, or even a decoction of senna. Preference

should be given to saline or laxative purges, as, drastic purgatives,

such as aloes or jalap, sometimes concentrate the inflammation on the

narrow parts of the digestive channels.

In this second stage--the period of initiation--the appetite is

generally gone, the thirst excessive; so that nutritive or solid feeding

must of course be suppressed.

As for the drinks, they must be cold, consisting of water with

sufficient flour mixed in it to whiten it, and a little vinegar or

sulphuric acid, to acidulate it. A decoction of good hay with some

marine salt, or nitrate of potash; a decoction of pellitory or

wall-wort, of ground-ivy, or whey, or buttermilk, likewise acidulated,

and which the cattle are very partial to, will in every way be suitable

for their use. If the heat of the skin diminishes, and if congestion

appears to settle on the lungs, the drinks must be given warm,

consisting of a decoction of borage leaves, mallows, marsh-mallow, and

pellitory. In these cases, the body must be protected from chills by

overlaying it with blankets, so as to keep the mass of the blood as much

as possible on the surface, and check the tendency it has to load the

internal organs.

By following these prescriptions, we shall answer all the conditions of

the treatment during the second period. In truth, by the process of

bleeding, we shall have reduced the heat of the fever, and prevented too

great a flow towards the nervous, pulmonary, or digestive centres. The

purgings will have acted with similar effects; and, what is more, they

will have cleared the _primæ viæ_, and rendered the circulation of the

abdominal apparatus more easy. In fine, the drinks will have contributed

to assuage the violence of the fever. The washing, which must be

effected with a wet sponge passed over the nose, mouth, and eyes, and

then over the skin, which must afterwards be rubbed dry, will be both

useful and pleasant to the sick animal. This cleansing will maintain the

important functions of the skin in due order.

Some persons have advocated as most efficacious at this period

hydro-therapia, or the Water-cure, in the form of warm and cold

ablutions, vapour baths, &c. This treatment, so bracing by its revulsive

action, and the powerful influence of which we witnessed for several

years in the establishment which we superintended at Belle Vue, near

Paris, might prove of some service in ox-typhus, especially in the form

of the vapour bath; but it requires so much practice, and so incessant

and watchful a care, that it is needful to have the process attended by

an experienced practitioner.

We must remark, in addition, that the general state of the animal, and

his desire for food, will show the degree of strictness and restraint

which must be observed in regulating his diet. His instinct must be

taken by us as a guide; and if the drinks rendered nutritive by the

addition of bran, oatmeal, barley flour, or even seed of grass pounded,

are relished by him, we must indulge his desires to some extent, in

order to keep up his strength.

_Third Period, or that of Duration._

At this stage of the distemper we must watch and follow step by step the

symptoms which attend it, and come to their relief.

All the secretions have now resumed their course; from the mucous

membranes there occurs a copious discharge, first of all serous, then

thick and muco-purulent; the breathing may be obstructed, the

diarrhoea frequent; the air infiltrates beneath the integument. The

fever is sometimes continuous, sometimes intermittent. We must satisfy

the cravings of the vital powers by administering the same beverages as

in the preceding period. Far from checking the diarrhoea, as some

advise, we must regulate the evacuations by means of laxatives, such as

tartrate of potash, sulphate of magnesia, or sulphate of soda. It is

very essential, indeed, that the mucous membranes of the digestive

channels should be free, and not irritated by the contact of solid

alimentary substances or bilious secretions.

If the diarrhoea be too frequent or irritating, we must give the

sufferer night and morning a clyster, consisting of bran water.

At this period we will follow the advice given over and over again by

all the physicians of the last century, and apply cauteries with red-hot

iron, or fix one or two setons either on the dewlap, the neck, or the

thighs, and these issues must be kept open by means of basilicon

ointment. It is unquestionably of the highest importance to promote all

the depurative secretions in animals whose cellular tissue is choked up

with grease and lymph. Those only have got well in which the running has

been regular and copious, and the wasting of the flesh progressive.

If the fever is not regular, two pills of sulphate of quinine must be

given, each pill containing one gramme, one pill in the morning, the

other during the day, in order to prevent the fit, which usually takes

place in the evening. If the state of atony, of adynamia, comes on at

this period, _acetate of ammonia_ must be given, from one to six ounces,

in a pint of water, the same to be administered in two doses; only the

acidulous or alkaline drinks must be discontinued, otherwise the acetate

of ammonia would be decomposed in its passage into the digestive

channels. Finally, the eyes, the nostrils, and the mouth must be

frequently washed with an infusion of camomile, or some other aromatic

plant.

The setons must be kept up very carefully. If the sick animal relishes

the nutritive beverages, let him have a decoction of bread, rice,

barley, or oats.

_Fourth Period, or that of Decline._

At this stage of the disease, in which adynamia predominates, everything

must tend to support the organism. The drinks must be bitter and

stimulating; beer, with plenty of hops in it, with an addition of

powdered Peruvian bark or sulphate of iron, may be given; or a decoction

of this bark, with gentian roots, centaury leaves, and hops; or again, a

beverage may be administered night and morning, made of veterinary

theriacum, of extract of juniper and alcohol; or finally, an infusion of

aromatic plants.

If the diarrhoea be bloody and fetid, give the animal night and

morning a clyster, consisting of a decoction of Jesuit's bark, adding

thereto a spoonful of powdered wood charcoal, pounded to the finest

powder, and passed carefully through a sieve. If the running ceases, its

return must be excited by injecting in the nostrils a spoonful of

sternutatory vinegar or smelling salts. Finally, the purulent boils must

be opened, and dressed with stimulating ointment.

At this closing period, which determines the fate of the disease, as we

say, there is a tendency to despair of the cure. Seeing the fatal course

of most attacks, we lose heart, death seems inevitable, and we yield its

prey to its fangs. But let us not despair; let us remember that, in

these febrile infectious diseases, above all, the phenomena must almost

always proceed to the last stage of exhaustion of the vital powers to

render the cure attainable. Some patients, smitten with typhoid fever or

cholera, have owed their lives to the indefatigable tenacity of the

contest _in extremis_ between life and death.

I still see before me a choleraic patient, whom, during the epidemic of

1849, I had left in the morning at ten o'clock, passing into the cold

period. At five o'clock I returned to see him; the whole family was in

tears, and the sheet had been thrown over the patient's head, as if he

had already breathed his last. Time was precious to me at that fell

season, and I was about to retire, when I applied my finger to the wrist

of the sufferer, and felt a faint pulsation at long intervals. I threw

my coat off directly, called for flannel and essential oil of mustard,

which I had prescribed that morning. I set the example, and instantly

the whole family helped me to rub the patient in every direction. In a

quarter of an hour the heart quickened and revived, and in less than

half an hour more the circulation resumed its course; at the end of an

hour of this obstinate struggle the vital heat began to show itself--in

a word, the patient was saved.

We must not, therefore, give up the contest until the death of the

sufferer is fully ascertained; and the same persistency should be

practised in the case of animals smitten with the typhus. If the

circulation slackens, if the skin turns cold, take a piece of wool, coat

it with rubefacient liniment, and rub the animal therewith, more

particularly along the spine. Then give him a cordial drink, and pass

_raies de feu_ over the loins. All these appliances will help to

stimulate the nervous system, and resuscitate the exhausted powers of

life.

If, at last, we are so fortunate as to overcome the profound adynamia

which has utterly prostrated the frame, we next shall have to sustain

the sick animal by giving him decoctions of meat with sea-salt, or

sulphate of iron added to it, or a light broth, made with meat and

bread.

Herbivorous animals, put upon a carnivorous diet, would not generally

endure it, of course; but some of them rather incline to unctuous

beverages, and even to cooked or raw meat. All men know that certain

horse trainers give race-horses a small portion of meat, especially when

the races are coming on, in order to increase their mettle and strength.

We remember a sheep, which we saw at the Ecole d'Alfort, during our

studies of comparative pathology and the cutaneous diseases of domestic

animals, which manifested a great liking for meat, and even ate it

ravenously like a glutton.

In convalescence, the animal must be sent into the open air, in some

fold enclosed with bars; he must be taken every day to pasture, each day

increasing the time he is allowed to feed, and gradually he will be left

to return to his usual regimen. But still it must be observed, that in

this distemper convalescence is long and slow, and very deceitful. A too

substantial course of feeding often revives the inflammation of the

intestines by irritating ulcerations not yet healed, and more than one

animal which had been looked upon as cured has perished in its

convalescence through a lack of watchful attention.

Herbivorous beasts, therefore, incline to and digest animal food;

consequently, we must give sick oxen meat broths, pure milk, or milk and

water. With these must be mixed wheat straw chopped small, for hay or

even oat straw would swell and distend the stomachs.

The typhus in this epizootia is not regular in its progress and

development. Frequently the nervous or pulmonary phenomena predominate,

when the treatment, such as we have just explained, must be modified. We

must also bear in mind that nature does not divide a disease into

periods, like those we have adopted to render our exposition of the

symptoms more intelligible and the treatment itself more methodical.

If the nervous form of the disease prevails--if the animal shows

alternations of dulness and restlessness--if, pressure on the spine is

very painful--above all, if, in bulls, for instance, there is plethora,

let the bleedings and purgings be increased in order to abate the

nervous erethismus. In this form, the violence of the attack usually

carries off the beast. Should there, however, be any chance of saving

him it will be by employing this medication, which is at once revulsive

and depletive, notwithstanding the well-known fact that bleedings, far

from relieving the nervous system, sometimes aggravate its irritability.

A general ablution with cold water may be tried in _desperate cases_.

The animal must then be immediately well rubbed, and covered with wool,

in order to excite a thorough reaction.

In the pulmonary form of the typhus, but only during the acute stage,

the drinks must be warm and emollient, composed of a decoction of

soothing substances, with mallows, &c.; or one of linseed, to which must

be added some oxymel of squills and opium. The purgatives must be

non-stimulating; and emetics, freely diluted, for instance, will be

very serviceable.

At the third and fourth period in this pulmonary form of the disease,

adopt the treatment prescribed for intestinal typhus.

We might have greatly enlarged the list of the pharmaceutic agents, but

the richer a treatment is in remedies the poorer it is in cures. We have

made choice of the simplest and safest among all the remedies advised by

experienced men, making allowance for the difficulties inherent to the

number of animals, the mode of application, the cost, &c., always

keeping in view the life of the animal to be saved and the interest of

the cattle owners.

We think that the treatment by inoculation might have prevented the

typhus in a very large proportion, and that the curative medication

might have saved many of the infected cattle at the worst period of the

epizootia.

Such, then, are the results which will one day be obtained, when we

shall be able to supersede the barbarous process of general

extermination, by the adoption of a rational treatment, founded at once

on science and practical experience.

IV.

_Hygienic Measures to be taken against the Extension of the

Contagion--Acts and Orders concerning Sanitary Police

Regulations._

I have purposely neglected, in discussing the various plans of

treatment, certain measures to be adopted with the object of opposing

the spread of the contagion. The memorandum published on this subject by

the Privy Council, and drawn up by Dr. Thudichum, is so complete and so

clear, that we can find nothing better to say. I recommend its perusal

to all who possess horned cattle, and who have occasion to send them to

any distance. It is of the highest importance to follow this judicious

advice, as the general interest will constitute here the safeguard of

the pecuniary interests of each in particular. I add to this memorandum

upon hygienic measures, the consolidated and amended acts and orders

published under the head of "Sanitary Police." In this way those

interested will have beneath their eyes all which it is important for

them to know, both in a medical and legal point of view.

MEMORANDUM _on the Principles and Practice of

Disinfection, as applicable to the present Epidemic of

Cattle Disease_. By J. L. W. THUDICHUM, M.D.

[Sidenote: I.--Principles of disinfection.]

I.--PRINCIPLES OF DISINFECTION.

[Sidenote: 1. Definition of disinfection.]

1. The term disinfection signifies the removal and

destruction, or destruction and subsequent removal of the

products of destruction, of all matters actually being or

containing products of disease capable of reproducing

disease in other animals.

[Sidenote: 2. May include special purification and

deodorization.]

2. If the same processes and means, as used for this

purpose, are applied to the purification and deodorization

of places and things not actually infected, but capable or

suspected of being infected, then these preventive measures

are practically and properly included under the definition

of disinfection.

[Sidenote: 3. Reproducers and primary carriers of

infection.]

[Sidenote: Infectious parts of dead animals.]

3. The reproducers of the infectious matter or contagion are

all kinds of cattle of the ox tribe, which also are at

present in this country the only animals liable to its

specific effects. It is probable that the contagion adheres

with particular pertinacity to all secretions and discharges

from sick animals. For this reason, fæces or droppings,

urine, ruminated food, all secretions from the mouth, nose,

and eyes, and any sore parts of the surface of the diseased

animals must be considered as the principal and primary

carriers of the infectious matter or plague poison. It is

also probable that many parts of animals which have died

from the cattle plague, or have been killed during advanced

stages of the disease, are infectious, some because they are

primarily imbued with the contagion, others because they

have been in contact with it after the death of the animal.

Skins, hides, hair, horns, and hoofs, must therefore always

be treated with precaution. The chances of infection by

flesh, fat, cleaned guts, and blood, are perhaps more

remote, but cannot be lost sight of.

[Sidenote: 4. Particular danger of droppings, or fæces.]

4. The cattle plague, although affecting every part of the

animal, shows its visible effects most extensively in the

intestinal canal. It is believed, and apparently upon good

grounds, that the intestinal discharges are the principal

agents, upon the distribution of which mainly depends the

spread of the disorder.

[Sidenote: 5. Enumeration of infected things and places.]

5. It follows from the above, that all articles which have

been in contact with a diseased animal, or any of its

discharges, particularly its fæces, are capable of carrying

the infection for an indefinite time, and must be looked

upon as being actually infectious to other healthy animals.

Such are racks of wood or iron; cribs or mangers of wood,

iron, or stone; articles used for fastening animals; leather

collars and straps, ropes and chains; all harness of any

animals used for drawing, and all carts, waggons, and

carriages which they have actually been drawing; the stalls

or sheds in which animals have been standing; the whole

lengths of the gutters and drains through which their urine

has been flowing; the entire surface over which their manure

has been drawn, and all implements with which the removal

has been effected; the entire dung-heap upon which infected

manure has been put, and the fluid contents of the manure

pit, or of the special receptacle for the urine; yards or

sheds in which cattle have been kept to tread down long

straw, and the whole of such straw and manure, as also the

ground beneath them; paths and roads upon which diseased

cattle have walked or been carried; fields and meadows upon

which they have been grazing; all carts, carriages, trucks

and railway trucks in which diseased cattle have been

conveyed, and all the platforms, railings, bridges, and

boards upon which they have been moved thereto; as also all

apparatus which has been used to pen, tie, lift, haul,

lower, and fix them; the clothes, and particularly shoes and

boots, and iron-pointed sticks of drivers and their dogs;

the apparel of all cattle-herds or attendants, particularly

their shoes and boots; the shoes and boots of all persons

visiting places where diseased cattle are or have been

standing; and, in general, the clothes of all persons

visiting infected places, ships, and all parts of the

platforms, stages, stairs and bridges, hoists and cranes

used for embarking and landing the animals; markets, and all

sheds, and pens, and implements used in contact with cattle;

slaughter-houses, and all persons and implements in them

which have been employed upon sick cattle, as also sundry

parts or organs which come from sick animals killed in

slaughter-houses; knackers' yards, trucks or carts, horses,

men, and implements which have been employed in the disposal

of sick or dead animals; wells and ponds from which diseased

cattle have been drinking, or into which any portion of

their excreta has had any opportunity of flowing, directly

or indirectly; all fodder, grass, hay, straw, clover, &c.,

and particularly remnants of fodder upon which diseased

cattle have been feeding; and, in general, all persons,

animals, places, buildings, and movable things which have

been in contact with matters proceeding from diseased

cattle, or with such diseased cattle themselves. To the

above-mentioned places and things any of the processes and

agents enumerated and described in the following may have

to be applied.

[Sidenote: II. Practice of disinfection.]

II.--PRACTICE OF DISINFECTION.

[Sidenote: A. Disinfection by earth.]

[Sidenote: 1. Burying of animals, &c.]

A. _Disinfection by Earth._ 1. _Burying._--All matters that

can be buried, so as to remain covered with a thick layer of

ground or earth are innocuous. The ground chosen for such

interment should be dry. The quickest, and cheapest, and

most certain way of disinfecting an animal dead from the

plague is to bury it entire.

[Sidenote: 2. Burying of dung.]

2. The droppings, and all straw and other matters

contaminated therewith, may also be buried into ground where

they are not likely to be disturbed for a long time. The

places from which such droppings have been removed to be

cleaned and disinfected as will be described below.

[Sidenote: 3. Infected manure and compost heaps.]

3. Manure heaps and the down-trodden manure of cattle yards,

if they have become infected by even a small quantity of the

droppings of a diseased animal, should be carefully shifted

to a suitable piece of ground, and there be transformed into

compost heaps. A layer of manure one or two feet in

thickness should be covered all over with six inches of dry

earth, ashes, and mineral rubbish; upon this another layer

of manure may be placed, and then again a layer of earth,

and so forth, until the whole of the manure is stacked; it

should be covered all over with a continuous layer of earth

of from six inches to one foot in thickness. If the manure

heap or yard manure cannot be shifted, it may be covered on

the spot with a layer of dry earth, after which all animals

are to be kept away from it.

[Sidenote: 4. Removal of boil infected by soakage.]

4. If the floor of any shed or stable in which diseased

cattle has been standing is not constructed with special

water-tight and impenetrable material, it must be assumed to

be infected to the depth of at least six inches. This ground

should therefore be removed, together with any stones,

pavements, or wood work which may have been in contact with

it, carted to a piece of dry land and buried. Half-rotten

wood is a particularly favourable carrier of infection.

Mortar, bricks, loam, or any other lining of the sides of a

pen in which a diseased animal has been standing, should be

broken out and buried.

[Sidenote: B. Disinfection by fire.]

[Sidenote: 1. Burning.]

B. _Disinfection by Fire._ 1. _Burning._--All infected

articles of a minor value, or made of incombustible

materials, can be disinfected by exposing them to a heat

which will char organic matter. To this class of articles

may be reckoned racks of wood or iron; cribs or mangers of

wood, iron or stone; leather collars and straps, ropes and

chains; dry manure, residues of fodder from which diseased

cattle have eaten; and all such small articles of little

value which can easily be replaced by new ones. Chains may

be exposed to a dull red heat; all other articles may be

heated over a fire of coal, brushwood, or straw until well

scorched. All new articles of ironware should be bought in a

galvanised state, to prevent the formation of rust, the

accumulations of which form convenient seats for infectious

matter, and for the same purpose it is desirable that iron

articles which have been disinfected by heat as above should

afterwards be either galvanised, or, at least, while hot be

treated with resin, to cover them with a durable varnish, or

should be varnished or painted.

[Sidenote: C. Disinfection by chloride of lime. General

remarks.]

C. _Disinfection by Chloride of Lime._--Chloride of lime, or

bleaching powder, is the most powerful, the cheapest and

most easily managed of all artificial disinfectants. It can

be had everywhere, and at any time, and in quantities

sufficient for every purpose. It should as much as possible

he applied in solution, of a strength varying somewhat with

the particular purpose for which it is to be employed; and

after it has been allowed to act upon the surface or matter

to be disinfected a reasonable time, should be washed off,

together with all products of decomposition. As chloride of

lime does not destroy only the infectious matter in a

mixture, but destroys all organic matter without

distinction, it is not applicable to large quantities of

matter, such as the manure of cattle, dung-heaps, &c.,

inasmuch as twice or three times the weight of these matters

of chloride of lime would be required for their effectual

destruction and disinfection. It is further inapplicable to

all matters rich in ammonia, particularly putrid urine, as

it destroys the ammonia and evolves a large amount of gases,

some of which have a repugnant odour, and are perhaps not

quite innocuous. But for the disinfection of surfaces of

things and places no better or more suitable agent than

chloride of lime is at present known to science.

[Sidenote: D. Special directions for disinfection of

stables, sheds, &c., trucks, and ships, &c.]

[Sidenote: 1. Special directions.]

[Sidenote: Washing.]

[Sidenote: Scrubbing.]

[Sidenote: All washing water to be disinfected.]

D. _Special Directions for the Disinfection of Stables,

Sheds, Vans, Railway Trucks, and Cattle Ships,[V] and of

Persons and Things connected with them._--1. After such a

place has been cleaned by mechanical means, scraping, &c.,

as much as possible, and all manure and dirt has been

carefully buried, the entire surface which has been

contaminated, or is likely to have been contaminated, should

be covered with a layer of chloride of lime in powder. The

powder should be worked about with a broom until equally

distributed. It is intended to disinfect the water to be

used in the washing process which is now to commence. Clean

water, from a hose in which it flows under pressure, or from

a force-pump, garden-engine, or from large watering-pots or

water-cans, or poured freely from buckets, should now be

applied to the entire surface by one person, while another

at the same time scrubs the entire surface; and particularly

all crevices, joints, and irregularities. The washing water

and chloride of lime are then to be worked down the gutters,

into the sinks, cesses, or natural watercourses. No washing

water from any infected place or thing should ever be

allowed to flow into any cesspool, urine-hold, dung-heap,

pond, sewer, or natural watercourse, without having

previously been mixed and stirred with a liberal amount of

chloride of lime. When the place has thus been scrubbed

until the water flows off clean, it is ready for effectual

disinfection.

[Sidenote: 2. Actual disinfection.]

[Sidenote: Solution of chloride of lime.]

[Sidenote: How applied.]

[Sidenote: How long to be left on.]

2. For this purpose a solution of chloride of lime in water,

in the proportion of one pound of the powder to one gallon

of water, is made. For the lair of one animal from six to

ten gallons of such fluid should be prepared. This fluid is

now distributed over the whole surface to be disinfected,

gradually, by squirting from a syringe, or by pumping

through a force-pump, garden-engine, or by watering from a

watering-pot or can with a finely pierced rose. All

woodwork, stones, bricks, cement, mortar, all fixtures of

whatever material, should be well wetted with the solution,

and immediately be scrubbed with a hard brush. Floor and

ceiling are also scrubbed, and the whole is left in this wet

state covered with the chloride of lime solution for at

least one hour, during which time care is taken that no

parts become dry.

[Sidenote: 3. To be washed off after disinfection.]

[Sidenote: Flushing.]

[Sidenote: Precautions as to direction of clean water.]

3. As the chloride of lime and the products of its

decomposing action upon infectious matters may be hurtful to

cattle, these matters have to be carefully washed off by a

second and final flushing. For this too much water and too

much scrubbing cannot be employed. Care should be taken to

apply the clean water always to the highest parts, so as to

cause it to flow thence to the lower parts, and to wash away

the waste from the lower parts before applying any fresh

water to the upper parts.

[Sidenote: 4. Care not to carry back dirt by brooms, boots,

&c.]

4. Care should also be taken to rinse and flush every broom

which has worked away sediment and waste from the lower

parts into and through the gutters and drains before

applying it again to the clean upper parts. Care should also

be taken that the working persons should not step from the

dirty or partially cleansed places on to the clean ones, as

this may suffice to bring infection back to the disinfected

place.

[Sidenote: 5. Disinfection of workmen and tools.]

5. Lastly, all persons employed in this work, having swept

and flushed the gutters with the same care as the lairs, are

collected, together with all engines and tools which they

have used, as near as possible to the sink or place of final

egress of water from the premises, and there disinfected as

will be described.

[Sidenote: Tools.]

The tools, such as hooks, forks, spades, hoes, barrows, &c.,

are scrubbed with the above solution of chloride of lime,

and subsequently water until clean; they are then

repeatedly wetted with the solution, and after it has had

time to disinfect the entire surfaces of them, they are

washed clean and laid up, or hung up to dry.

[Sidenote: Workmen.]

[Sidenote: Disinfection of boots.]

[Sidenote: Disinfection of workpeople's bodies, hands, &c.]

[Sidenote: Changing and disinfecting clothes.]

[Sidenote: Burning of articles of little value.]

The workmen, then, having finished the disinfection and

flushing of all objects and surfaces, effect their own

disinfection in the following manner:--They wash their boots

most carefully with chloride of lime and water, scraping the

soles and scrubbing the seams where the soles join the upper

leather. They wash their hands and arms, and by means of

clean rags or sponges they remove any splashes from their

clothes. After this they go indoors, remove all clothes from

head to foot, wash their bodies, and particularly their

hands, faces, hair and feet, with plenty of soap and water,

and put on fresh clothes and linen. The clothes and linen

which they have taken off should be treated as infected, set

to soak immediately in boiling water and afterwards

disinfected, or in water containing two ounces of chloride

of lime to the gallon in solution, or containing four ounces

of Condy's red permanganate of potash fluid in solution; or

the clothes and linen should be put in a copper and boiled

and subsequently washed. All articles of little value which

are much soiled should be burned on a bright fire.

[Sidenote: E. Disinfection of live stock.]

[Sidenote: 1. Stock may carry infection in two modes.]

E. _Disinfection of Live Stock._--1. Live cattle may carry

infection in two ways: first, by being themselves infected

with the plague and reproducing the poison; and secondly, by

accidentally carrying the poison from other animals in a

dormant state upon some part of their surface, their hair,

and particularly their feet. These latter animals may

therefore infect others without being or becoming themselves

subjects of the plague. All persons therefore buying new

animals, should disinfect them before allowing them to enter

their premises. In a similar manner, if in a stable there

has been a case of plague, the healthy or apparently healthy

animals should all be disinfected.

[Sidenote: 2. Mode and means of disinfecting live stock.]

[Sidenote: Warming and refreshing drink.]

[Sidenote: Penned in the quarantine shed.]

2. The mode in which live animals may be disinfected,

consists in washing them with disinfectant solutions of such

strength as will destroy the contagion without injuring the

surface of the animal. A solution of two ounces of chloride

of lime in a gallon of water, is a proper solution for

washing the coat of animals. A mixture of four ounces of

Condy's red permanganate of potash fluid, with one gallon of

water, is also a proper disinfectant solution. For

full-sized cows and bullocks, &c., several gallons of either

of these solutions should be used. Great care should be

taken to keep the solution away from the eyes, nostrils,

mouth, and tender parts. When the entire surface is washed

and disinfected, all disinfectant is removed by the

application of great quantities of clean tepid water to all

parts. The animal is given a warming and refreshing drink,

and is conducted by a clean attendant to the clean

quarantine shed. There it should receive fodder both dry and

green, and sop, and plenty of pure cold water, and be rubbed

dry with whisks of straw and hay.

[Sidenote: F. The quarantine shed.]

[Sidenote: 1. Objects.]

[Sidenote: Both quarantine and surface disinfection are

required.]

F. _The Quarantine Shed._--1. The quarantine shed is

intended to keep the new and suspected cattle separate for a

period of at least ten days, in order to afford the

security, to be obtained by observation alone, that it is

not actually infected with plague. While, therefore,

disinfection of the surface of cattle removes one kind of

danger, another, which cannot be removed, can only be kept

circumscribed or penned in, and this is done by the

quarantine shed. But the keeping of cattle in the quarantine

shed would not disinfect its surface with certainty even

during a much longer period than ten days; disinfection of

the surface therefore cannot supply the precaution of the

quarantine shed, and a rigorous quarantine cannot supply the

effect of surface disinfection. Both precautions are

necessary for perfect security, although either of them,

without the other, obviates a particular kind and a certain

amount of danger.

[Sidenote: 2. Management of the quarantine shed.]

2. The quarantine shed should be situated in an isolated

part of the premises. All manure and urine from it should

flow and be carried to a particular place separate and

distinct from the common dung-heap, and be buried daily.

[Sidenote: Cleanliness.]

[Sidenote: Persons attending healthy stock not to attend

quarantine shed, and vice versâ.]

The utmost cleanliness should be observed in the shed. All

tools, pails, currycombs, etc., used in this shed should be

used in it exclusively and nowhere else. The person

attending the quarantine shed should not be allowed to go

into the shed where healthy stock is kept, or permitted to

approach healthy stock. No person attending healthy stock

should be permitted to approach quarantine cattle, or to go

near or into the quarantine shed. But should unfortunately

only one person be available for both duties, that person

should be allowed to approach quarantine cattle only when

clothed in the safety dress to be immediately described.

[Sidenote: G. The safety dress.]

[Sidenote: 1. Description.]

G. _The Safety Dress._--1. This consists of strong

water-boots reaching up to the knees, well greased all over;

of a waterproof coat, buttoned close all the way up in

front, and closing tightly round the neck and wrists. The

head is to be covered with a cap which takes the hair well

in.

[Sidenote: 2. Persons who should use the safety dress.]

[Sidenote: To disinfect before leaving suspected or infected

premises.]

2. Every person having occasion to visit sheds in which

there is diseased cattle, or suspected cattle, or quarantine

cattle, should be provided with the above dress, put it on

when entering the place, take it off when leaving the place,

and have it disinfected immediately. This precaution should

be strictly observed by all inspectors, all veterinarians,

or others called in to attend sick cattle, by all dealers

and butchers entering sheds, yards, or meadows, for the

purpose of sale or purchase, and by all other persons coming

on the premises on business in connexion with cattle.

[Sidenote: 3. Strangers not to enter sheds except in

disinfected safety dresses.]

[Sidenote: Proprietors of cattle to keep safety dresses.]

3. The owners of stock should not allow any strangers to

enter their sheds, yards, or meadows, except in disinfected

safety-dresses; and in case this should give rise to

difficulties, they will do well to have themselves one or

two such safety-dresses at hand, and to cause all persons

whose business compels them to enter their sheds, to leave

their own boots behind, and to put on the long boots,

waterproof-coat, and special cap. Only thus can they hope to

exclude all ordinary and obvious chances of infection from

their previously healthy sheds, yards, and meadows.

[Sidenote: H. Measures to be taken where plague has

appeared.]

[Sidenote: Killing and burying diseased animals.]

[Sidenote: Disinfecting the living and the stables.]

H. _Measures to be taken on Premises where Plague has

actually appeared._--1. When the plague has actually

appeared in any shed, yard, or place, the sick animal should

at once be removed with all due precautions. It is certainly

the safest and best to pole-axe the animal at once, and to

bury it entire, and then to disinfect the particular lair as

above described, clear out the stable or shed, disinfect

the whole of it and all apparatus, also all the animals, and

only to let the animals enter the shed, &c. again, after it

is completely sweet and dry.

[Sidenote: 2. Hospital shed.]

[Sidenote: Situation of.]

2. If, however, a proprietor is desirous of keeping a sick

animal because its illness does not appear severe or fatal,

he should place it in a separate shed, which must not be the

same as or near to the quarantine shed, and be distant from

all healthy animals, and so situated that the prevailing

wind does not blow from this hospital shed towards the

healthy or quarantine shed. The water should also not flow

from this hospital shed towards the others, or the yard, or

any meadow, but should be carefully drained away and sent

off the premises by a special sink.

[Sidenote: 3. Preventing of diffusion of fæces.]

3. To prevent the scattering of fæces by infected animals

(and also by suspected animals and all animals suffering

from diarrhoea), their tails should be so tied to one or

other of their horns as to protect them against being soiled

by the intestinal discharges, and to prevent them from

distributing such discharges by the ceaseless motions

peculiar to these organs. The spattering of fæces should be

prevented by a copious supply of rough straw, with some

sand, sawdust, or ashes placed behind and underneath the

animal. The straw and fæces should be dealt with as has been

described. Animals affected with plague or diarrhoea should

not be led along streets, highroads, and paths, as they

would be certain to drop infectious fæces, which would then

be distributed over the entire length of these roads by the

feet of men and animals, and the wheels of vehicles.

[Sidenote: 4. Special management of hospital shed.]

[Sidenote: Persons to be employed.]

4. The sick animals should be disinfected repeatedly; their

pens should be cleaned and disinfected repeatedly, during

the course of the illness. This should be done by persons

either guarded by the safety dress, or--and this is

safest--by such as may not come into contact with healthy

cattle, or have to enter healthy sheds. All tools, pails,

fodder, &c., to be used in the hospital shed to be kept for

that purpose only, and never to be used with healthy, or

quarantine, or only suspected cattle.

[Sidenote: 5. Disinfection of parts of dead or killed

animals.]

5. If the proprietor of any dead piece of cattle, whether it

has died naturally or been killed, should decide upon

dismembering it instead of burying it entire, and upon

utilising the hide, horns, hoofs, tallow, and bones, he

should disinfect the skin, horns, and hoofs, by steeping

them for one hour in a strong solution of chloride of lime,

containing one pound of the powder in each gallon of water,

and afterwards washing them. The tallow should be thickly

powdered with chloride of lime all over, and be sent

directly to the boilers. It should not be boiled in any

vessel employed on the farm. Under all circumstances, it is

advisable to let this dismemberment of dead and fallen

cattle he performed at the knacker's yard.

[Sidenote: 6. Flesh, &c., to be buried.]

6. Flesh, blood, guts, lungs, and the bones of the head of

infected animals should not be trafficked with, as they

cannot easily be disinfected. They should always be buried.

[Sidenote: I. Disinfection of meadows, fields, roads, &c.]

[Sidenote: 1. Meadows.]

I. _Disinfection of Meadows, Fields, Roads, &c._--1. Meadows

infected by diseased cattle should be carefully cleaned of

all dung, by burying each dropping on the spot where it

lies, cutting out the round piece of turf with the dropping

on it, and turning it upside down. The grass on the entire

meadow should then be cut and burned. It should then be left

without any cattle for at least a month, including at least

two wet days.

[Sidenote: 2. Of roads, &c.]

2. All roads, paths, streets of towns, or villages should be

carefully and frequently scavenged. All carts, vans, or

waggons used for carrying manure, should be water-tight,

caulked and painted, and should not be permitted to ooze and

drop their fluid or semi-fluid contents on the road over

which they are drawn. They should be kept clean and

disinfected, as a precautionary measure, by the proceedings

above described.

[Sidenote: III. General recommendations.]

III. GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS.

In conclusion it must be pointed out to farmers, dairymen,

and all persons having charge of cattle,

_That the same great measures which are known to maintain

and restore the health of human beings, will also maintain

and restore the health of cattle._

Pure air; dry, spacious, well-ventilated and well-drained

clean sheds; clean and dry meadows; plenty of pure water;

frequent currying and washing; the prevention of the

development, by the destruction of the germs, of internal

and external parasites, particularly entozoa; proper food in

suitable quantities, and at proper times; protection from

inclement weather; the utmost cleanliness in the removal of

manure; the storing of the manure at a great distance from

the cattle-shed, and, in addition, the most conscientious

observance of the precautionary and disinfecting measures

above described--all these measures and agents together

will secure the utmost possible health of stock and the

prosperity of the agriculturist and dairyman. But the

neglect of any one of them will make the stock liable to

become infected, and the more so the more several or all

collateral conditions of the healthy existence of animals

are neglected. The negligent man is therefore certain to

lose, to injure his neighbour by defeating his precautions,

and to damage society; but the watchful and painstaking man

will be rewarded not only by the preservation of his

property, but particularly by the consciousness that it has

been preserved by his own care and attention, and that

thereby he has also benefited the state.

* * * * *

This consolidates and amends the former Orders.

(_Copy._)

At the _Council Chamber, Whitehall_, the 22nd day of

_September_, 1865.

By the Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.

PRESENT.

Lord President.

Duke of Somerset.

Earl of Clarendon.

Earl de Grey and Ripon.

Mr. Secretary Cardwell.

Mr. H. A. Bruce.

WHEREAS by an Act passed in the session of the eleventh and

twelfth years of Her present Majesty's reign, chapter one

hundred and seven, intituled "An Act to prevent until the

1st day of September, 1850, and to the end of the then next

session of Parliament, the spreading of contagious or

infectious disorders amongst sheep, cattle, and other

animals," and which has since been from time to time

continued by divers subsequent Acts, and lastly by an Act

passed in the session of the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth

years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter one

hundred and nineteen, it is (amongst other things) enacted

that it shall be lawful for the Lords and others of Her

Majesty's Privy Council, or any two or more of them, from

time to time, to make such Orders and Regulations as to them

may seem necessary for the purpose of prohibiting or

regulating the removal to or from such parts or places as

they may designate in such Order or Orders, of sheep,

cattle, horses, swine, or other animals, or of meat, skins,

hides, horns, hoofs, or other part of any animals, or of

hay, straw, fodder, or other articles likely to propagate

infection; and also for the purpose of purifying any yard,

stable, outhouse, or other place, or any waggons, carts,

carriages, or other vehicles; and also for the purpose of

directing how any animals dying in a diseased state, or any

animals, parts of animals, or other things seized under the

provisions of the said Act, are to be disposed of; and also

for the purpose of causing notices to be given of the

appearance of any disorder among sheep, cattle, or other

animals, and to make any other Orders or Regulations for the

purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the said Act,

and again to revoke, alter, or vary any such Orders or

Regulations; and that all provisions for any of the purposes

aforesaid in any such Order or Orders contained shall have

the like force and effect as if the same had been inserted

in the said Act; and that all persons offending against the

said Act shall for each and every offence forfeit and pay

any sum not exceeding twenty pounds, or such smaller sum as

the said Lords or others of Her Majesty's Privy Council may

in any case by such Order direct:--

And whereas a contagious or infectious disorder now prevails

among the cattle of Great Britain, which is generally

designated the "cattle plague," and may be recognised by the

following symptoms:--

"Great depression of the vital powers, frequent shivering,

staggering gait, cold extremities, quick and short

breathing, drooping head, reddened eyes, with a discharge

from them, and also from the nostrils, of a mucous nature;

raw-looking places on the inner side of the lips and roof of

the mouth, diarrhoea or dysenteric purging:"

And whereas several Orders, dated respectively the 24th of

July, the 11th, 18th, and 26th of August, 1865, have been

made under the authority of the said Acts by the Lords of

Her Majesty's Privy Council, with a view to check the

spreading of the said disorder:

And whereas it is expedient to consolidate and amend the

said Orders:

Now, therefore, the Lords of Her Majesty's Privy Council do

hereby, by virtue of, and in exercise of the powers given

by, the said Act, so continued as aforesaid, order as

follows:--

1. This Order shall extend to all parts of Great Britain.

2. The said Orders dated respectively the 24th of July, the

11th, 18th, and 26th of August, 1865, are revoked, with the

exception of so much of the said Order of the 24th of July,

1865, as empowers the Clerk of Her Majesty's Privy Council

to appoint Inspectors within the limits of the Metropolitan

Police District, provided that such revocation shall not

affect any appointment made, or any act done, or penalty

recoverable, under any Order hereby revoked.

3. In this Order the word "animal" shall mean any cow,

heifer, bull, bullock, ox, calf, sheep, lamb, goat, or

swine; and the word "Inspector" shall include any Inspector

appointed under this Order, or under any of the said revoked

Orders.

4. Whenever the Local Authority, as hereinafter defined,

shall be satisfied of the existence of the said disorder in,

or have reason to apprehend its approach to, the district

over which his or their jurisdiction extends, it shall be

lawful for such Local Authority, if he or they shall think

fit, from time to time to appoint one or more Veterinary

Surgeon or Surgeons, or other duly qualified person or

persons, to be an Inspector or Inspectors, for the purpose

of carrying into effect the rules and regulations made by

this Order, within the district for which he or they shall

have been appointed. And the same authority may, from time

to time, revoke such appointment.

5. Subject to the powers herein reserved to the Clerk of Her

Majesty's Privy Council, the Local Authority within the City

of London, and the liberties thereof, shall be the Lord

Mayor; in any municipal borough in England or Wales, the

Mayor; in any Petty Sessional Division in England or Wales

(exclusive so far as relates to the jurisdiction of the

Inspector of so much of the said division as lies, within

the limits of a municipal borough for which an Inspector has

been appointed), the Justices acting in and for such Petty

Sessional Division. The Local Authority in any burgh or town

in Scotland which is subject to the jurisdiction of a

Provost or other Principal Magistrate, shall be the Provost

or such Principal Magistrate; and in any other place in

Scotland not within the jurisdiction of such Provost or

other Principal Magistrate, the Justices of the County in

Sessions assembled.

6. Every Inspector shall from time to time report to the

Local Authority by which he is appointed, the steps taken by

him for carrying into effect the regulations prescribed by

this Order; and the Local Authority shall certify, in such

manner as may be directed by one of Her Majesty's Principal

Secretaries of State, the number of days that such Inspector

has actually been engaged in the performance of his duty,

and the number of miles travelled by him while thus engaged.

7. Every Inspector shall furnish the Lords of the Council

with such information in regard to the said disorder, as

their Lordships may, from time to time, require.

8. Every person having in his possession, or under his

custody, any animal labouring under the said disorder, shall

forthwith give notice thereof to the Inspector of the

district within which such person resides, or if no

Inspector shall have been appointed for the district within

which such person resides, then to the Officers hereinafter

named, according to the place of residence of the person

obliged to give notice; that is to say: within the

Metropolitan Police District, to the said Clerk of the Privy

Council; within the City of London, and the liberties

thereof, to the Lord Mayor; within any other borough, burgh,

or town subject to the jurisdiction of a Mayor, Provost, or

other Principal Magistrate, to such Mayor, Provost, or other

Principal Magistrate; elsewhere in England, to the Clerk of

the Justices acting in and for the Petty Sessional Division;

and elsewhere in Scotland, to the Clerk of the Peace of the

county.

9. Every Inspector shalt have power to enter upon and

inspect any premises or place in which any animal or animals

may be found within the district for which he is appointed,

and to examine and inspect, whenever and wherever he may

deem it necessary, any animal within such district.

10. Every Inspector shall have power within his district to

seize and slaughter, or cause to be seized and slaughtered,

and to be buried, as hereinafter directed, in any convenient

place, any animal labouring under the said disorder.

11. Every Inspector shall have power within his district to

cause to be cleansed and disinfected, in any manner which he

may think proper, any premises in which animals labouring

under the said disorder have been, or may be, and to cause

to be disinfected, and if necessary destroyed, any fodder,

manure, or refuse matter, which he may deem likely to

propagate the said disorder. And every owner or occupier of

such premises shall obey any order given by such Inspector

for that purpose.

12. Every Inspector shall have power within his district to

direct that any animal which he suspects to be labouring

under the said disorder, shall be kept separate from animals

free from the said disorder. And every person having in his

possession, or under his custody, such animal, shall obey

any order given by such Inspector for that purpose.

13. Every person having in his possession, or under his

custody, any animal labouring under the said disorder,

shall, as far as practicable, keep such animal separate from

all other animals, and shall not, if the animal be within a

district for which an Inspector has been appointed, remove

the same from his land or premises, without the licence of

the Inspector.

14. No person shall send or bring to any fair or market, or

expose for sale, or send or carry by any railway, or by any

ship or vessel coastwise, or place upon, or drive along, any

highway or the sides thereof; any animal labouring under the

said disorder.

15. No person in any district for which an Inspector has

been appointed shall, without the licence of the Inspector,

send or bring to or from market, or remove from his land or

premises, any animal which has been in the same shed or

stable, or has been in the same herd or flock, or has been

in contact, with any animal labouring under the said

disorder.

16. No person shall place, or keep, any animal labouring

under the said disorder in any common or unenclosed land,

or, if the animal be in a district for which an Inspector

has been appointed, in any field or pasture, where, in the

judgment of the Inspector, such animal may be likely to

propagate the said disorder.

17. All animals having died of the said disorder, or having

been slaughtered on account thereof; shall be buried with

their skins, and with a sufficient quantity of quick-lime,

or other disinfectant, as soon as practicable, and shall be

covered with at least five feet of earth, or shall, in

districts for which an Inspector has been appointed, with

the consent of the owner, be otherwise disposed of; in

manner directed by the Inspector.

18. During the continuance of the "cattle plague" within

the said City of London, or that part of the Metropolitan

Police District which is under the jurisdiction of the

Metropolitan Board of Works, no animal shall be brought or

sent to the Metropolitan Cattle Market, or any other market

within the said City or the said part of the Metropolitan

Police District, except for the purpose of being there sold

for immediate slaughtering; and every such animal, as soon

as sold, shall be marked for slaughter, in the manner in

which cattle are ordinarily marked for slaughter in the

Metropolitan Cattle Market.

19. Whenever any Local Authority, as hereinbefore defined,

declares, by notice published in any newspaper circulating

within his or their jurisdiction, that it is expedient that

animals, as hereinbefore defined, or some specified

description thereof, shall be excluded from any specified

market or fair within that jurisdiction, for a time to be

specified in such notice, it is hereby ordered, that after

the publication of such notice, it shall not be lawful for

any person to bring or send such animals or description

thereof into such market or fair: provided always, that this

clause of this Order shall not, unless renewed by a further

Order, be in force after the expiration of three calendar

months from the date of this Order.

20. Every person offending against this Order shall, in

pursuance of the said Act, for every such offence forfeit

any sum not exceeding twenty pounds which the Justices

before whom he or she shall be convicted of such offence may

think fit to impose.

(Signed) ARTHUR HELPS.

FOOTNOTES:

[R] Since these lines were put into the printer's hands, the French

Government have proposed to other nations to take measures collectively

to prevent the pilgrimage to Mecca continuing to be a cause of the

spread of cholera. We hasten to render justice to this prudent

initiative. But why not take the same measures against typhus which are

judged necessary against cholera?

[S] The typhus which broke out fifteen days ago near Roubaix, in France,

bordering upon Belgium, where the epizootia rages, appears to have been

stifled in its focus by the instantaneous extermination of the whole

herd in which it declared itself.

[T] "It is amusing to read authors of the last century on the treatment

of this disease. They were far more confident in their powers than we

helpless creatures pretend to be. The directions given are full and

distinct, and in chapters boldly headed 'The Cure.' The beast is to be

bled, washed, and hot vinegar and water, with aromatic herbs, may be

placed in the stable to revive the cattle. The animal must be rubbed a

quarter of an hour, both morning and evening, and the bags of a milch

cow should be anointed morning and evening with warm oil. A rowel is to

be made in the dewlap by taking a skein of hemp, tow, or twisted

packthread, a foot long, and as thick as a man's thumb. _The

prescriptions are most amusing._ They may serve to entertain those who

want the cure at present, and for this reason I reproduce one or

two."--_Gamgee, Letter on 21st August._

[U] Dr. Letheby reported that 12,916 lbs., or more than five tons of

meat, had been condemned in the City markets during the past week as

unfit for human food. It consisted of 64 sheep, 4 calves, 7 pigs, 142

quarters of beef, and 361 joints and pieces of meat; 5377 lbs. were

diseased or from animals that had died of disease, and the rest was

putrid. All of it was destroyed. Yesterday, a sub-committee of the

Metropolitan Plague Committee, at a meeting at the Mansion House, passed

an unanimous resolution, on the motion of Mr. Brewster, recommending

that, as unexpected and insuperable difficulties had arisen in carrying

out the purposes for which they were appointed, the money already

subscribed should be returned to the subscribers, after deducting, _pro

ratâ_, the expenses already incurred.

[V] For the disinfection of railway trucks and cattle ships, see Special

Memorandum.

THIRD PART.

_To Farmers and Graziers._

You would have had just cause to reproach me with a want of common sense

if I had obliged you to read a book of two hundred pages, and to lose

your time in looking for the advice you will require, if the cattle

plague should visit your stalls and herds, instead of being able to turn

at once to the matter which concerns you. I have taken up my pen on

purpose to be of service to you; this is my principal duty, which I am

now going to fulfil by summing up in a few pages the most important

facts which have been described in the two first parts of this work.

The cattle plague, which has lately fallen upon horned beasts, is a

plague, no doubt: but there are different species of plagues, and it is

necessary that you should know that this disease is one arising from

the absorption of seeds and germs with which the air is impregnated, and

which is drawn by the animals into their bodies when breathing the air

around them. When these germs, these infectious poisons, have penetrated

into the lungs and blood of the animals, these seeds of infection remain

there from eight to twelve days without producing any very perceptible

effects; but after that time the tainted animal becomes dejected, loses

his appetite, is seized with fever, laborious breathing, and

diarrhoea, to which sum of disorders in the health of oxen, cows, &c.,

the name of _typhus_ has been given; or, as this distemper is contagious

in the highest degree, it has also been called the _contagious typhus_.

You may compare this disease, in order to form a more precise idea of

it, to the small-pox, which sometimes afflicts your children, or to

typhoid fever. These complaints, which are familiar to most of you, have

some resemblance to the typhus of the ox. Only in the small-pox, which

is caught by contagion, and which seldom attacks more than once, like

typhus, the disease is localized on the skin; whilst in the cattle

plague the internal organs are the principal seat of the evil.

This comparison will show you at once that the cattle plague, or rather

the cattle typhus, can only be cured when the disease has run its full

course, as you have observed in a person tainted with small-pox; so that

your task must be to help the sick animal to endure his complaint until

the end, or until he is cured; and you must not attempt to check it by

violent means, for if you did you would hasten the death which you

desire to prevent. You will likewise understand that if the disease--as

is certainly the case--does not attack the same animal twice, it would

be very beneficial to inoculate the animal whilst he is sound and

healthy, whenever this scourge threatens--as in the present time--to

attack all cattle. Perhaps you may be told that inoculation, which

prevents small-pox in man, cannot be applicable to cattle; that animals

inoculated with the virus of the typhus have all died of the

consequences of the operation, and so on. To all these objections you

will answer, with that downright good sense which belongs to your class,

_that Nature cannot have two weights and two measures_; and that if the

inoculation of the typhus kills animals, whilst the inoculation of the

small-pox saves men, both maladies being governed by the same laws, it

is the inexperience of physicians, and not the operation itself, which

must be made to account for it.

In a word, to sow virus is to reap it; but there are many ways of sowing

it, and one man will reap a rich harvest, whilst another shall gather

nothing but tares. Let those unbelievers say what they like, and take my

word for it, that we shall one day cure typhus as frequently as we do

small-pox, by inoculating it, and when it appears in spite of that

course, by treating it medicinally.

This contagious disease is very frequent in certain countries,

principally in Russia and Hungary, on the banks of the great rivers

which empty themselves into the Black Sea. In those remote countries,

when the seasons are either too rainy or too hot--and you know what a

summer that of 1865 has been--the pastures generate the pestilential

poisons of the typhus, the cattle absorb these destructive principles,

and die of them.

But as the herds of cattle in those countries are bred for sale, and are

sent for that purpose to other countries, to France, Italy, England,

&c., the animals which have had the germ of the disease transport it

with them wherever they go. Thus, it is certain that some oxen conveyed

from Russia and Hungary, where the typhus frequently rages, brought the

disease with them into Great Britain in the month of last June; and as

the complaint is communicated from one animal to another, and afterwards

at great distances, it spread with great rapidity over England and

Scotland. So great are its powers of contagion, that some of the cattle

sent back from England have transmitted the disease to Holland, in the

first place, and afterwards to Belgium; and it was feared at one time

that all Europe would be invaded by it.

The first belief was--and everything tends to make good the

opinion--that the typhus originally came from abroad; but many

respectable authorities, seeing the foul and nauseous state of the

stalls and cowsheds both in London and elsewhere, the overcrowding of

the animals, and the general neglect to which they are exposed, have

asserted that the disease had its origin in London. This, we repeat, is

not likely to have been the case, but it is not absolutely impossible;

at all events, there can be no question that the grievous conditions in

which some of your brethren keep their cattle have contributed to spread

the distemper, independently of other causes.