On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment

The popular saying, when the beast is dead the poison is dead, being generally true, the virulence of the contagion, in the above instances, possessed venomous properties of an exceptional character, for if every sick animal slaughtered by the butchers and sold to the consumers, or those which had been flayed for the sake of the skin, had contained so murderous a virus in their tissues, the number of victims to the contagion among the human species would have been appalling. And in that case, too, similar sacrifices would be witnessed at present, for it cannot be doubted that, in the actual state of the meat market in London, the people are now in the daily habit of eating the flesh of cattle which are diseased.

IV

Physicians of different countries have naturally bestowed much time and care in considering and discussing the nature of this epizootia, because they have felt that a satisfactory theory and appreciation of its principal phenomena, might afford the medical faculty a rational basis for some special treatment.

Layard and the physicians of Geneva have considered this cattle disease to be a malignant fever with an eruptive tendency.

In the estimation of the faculties of Paris and Montpellier, this cattle disease, considered in its symptoms, was nothing more than a malignant fever essentially contagious, the action of which appeared to tend exclusively towards the skin, and therefore it was rational to provoke external eruptions and deposits which, as they matured, diverted from the centre the greatest part of the morbific matter.

The treatment, to which, above all, we invite the reader's attention (more particularly that of medical men), necessarily varied according to the period of the disease. It was sometimes preservative, sometimes curative, as the case might be.

The Preventive Treatment.– The farmers and cattle-breeders, whose herds were still exempt from the contagion, mindful of the advice which they received through the public press, took very particular care of their cattle during this season of epizootia: they rubbed them over with a brush, and washed them at least once a day; they sheltered them from the inclemency of wind and rain; they took their milch cows, which until then they had kept shut up in unhealthy cow-houses, into the open air of the fields; they washed and fumigated the stables; they examined the quality of the fodder and of the other articles of food; they added marine salt to their drinking water, or poured salt water over their forage; and above all, they took care that no foreign animal commingled with their flocks and herds.

Some physicians, on their side conscious of the duty which devolves upon them in such seasons of calamity, instead of resting satisfied with recommending remedies, betook themselves boldly to the work, and studied the disease experimentally in respect to its propagation and prevention.

Thus, for instance, certain Dutch physicians, in 1754, wishing to know whether the morbid matter would transmit the disease by inoculation, made incisions in the necks of some oxen, cows and calves, inserting in the wound a little tow saturated with the morbid secretions discharged from the eyes and nostrils. This direct inoculation having been practised on seventeen animals, transmitted the disease to them all in the course of a few days.

The English physicians having been made acquainted with these experiments, applied them to a more practical purpose, no longer to discover whether the disease could thus be transmitted (for that had been proved), but to find out (what was far more important) whether this fearful distemper could be prevented and kept off.

Malcolm Flemming, in 1755, merely suggested the idea of inoculation as a preventive means, without proceeding to a course of experiments to ratify his opinion. He intimates his notion in the following terms: —

"I apprehend that inoculation will stand the better chance of bringing on the distemper, if the subject it is performed on is as young as safety will permit, the vessels being then most absorbent, and the animal economy most easily put into disorder.

"But even in case the inoculation of calves should be found so successful as universally to prevail, the method I recommend will not be altogether useless; for, by being properly modelled and adapted to circumstances, it may, I am persuaded, prevent contagion, and likewise act as a preparative in any epidemical affection of the inflammatory kind, not only in horned cattle, but likewise in all other quadrupeds that civil society may think worthy of preservation, and even in the human species."

Layard, in 1757, devotes the seventh chapter of his work, "The Means to prevent the Infection," to the consideration of the preventive treatment, in which he says: —

"No one will think of bringing the infection into any place free from it, merely for the sake of inoculating their cattle; but if the contagious distemper be in the neighbourhood of a herd, or break out so as to endanger the stock, the grazier or farmer may, by inoculating his cattle, with proper precautions, at least secure his stock, since he can house them before they fall sick, prepare them, and have due care taken, knowing the course of the distemper.

"Sir William St. Quintin, the Rev. Dr. Fountayne, Dean of York, and other gentlemen have succeeded in inoculation: in Holland it has both failed and succeeded. These gentlemen all inoculated with matter taken from the running of the mouth, nose, or eyes. Professor Swenke mentions that the beast from which he took the matter was recovering from the distemper. A circumstance to be attended to is this: – had matter been taken after the crisis, from a tumour, boil, pimple, or scab, either on the back near the spine, or on the legs, the pus would have proved much more elaborated, subtle, and infecting than that which, flowing with the mucus of the nose, must necessarily be, in some degree, sheathed by this glutinous excretion, though I am well aware how putrid and acrid it is rendered by the disease.

"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 may 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 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 basilicum 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 cut 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."

Such are the recommendations which Layard has prescribed for those who have to practise inoculation as a preventive treatment; it would be difficult to offer an example of greater prudence or precision.

A certain number of oxen were, by means of this inoculation, protected against the attack of the cattle disease; and this mode of treatment was, as we shall afterwards explain, adopted in Russia. Unfortunately, this rational and preventive treatment was discovered only at the end of the epizootia, when already upwards of six millions of horned cattle had fallen a sacrifice to the contagious fever.

Curative Means.– When the first course of the disease had left no doubt of the attack, the sick animal was subjected to an appropriate diet, and restricted to liquids either as medicinal decoctions, or as alimentary beverages. The decoctions consisted of whey mixed with a little vinegar, and nitred hay. The broths, or alimentary beverages, consisted of a decoction of bread, and of water mixed with bran and meal, whether of barley, oats, or wheat.

At this stage of the curative process, the majority of physicians recommended one or two bleedings, in order to abate the violence of the fever, and of the congestions near the nervous centres and the lungs; and as constipation prevailed at the time, they strove with the same object to empty the digestive passages, the intestines, and the stomachs, notwithstanding the difficulty that exists to produce this result in ruminating animals.

The purgatives employed consisted of a decoction of senna, mixed with prune juice, with a little rhubarb or fresh linseed oil, infused in their drink, or applied as a clyster in warm water slightly salted. Those who practised polypharmacy administered at night a mixture of nitre, camphor, red-lead, and rhubarb, in half a pailful of warm water; and greatly did they boast of the active influence of this beverage.

Some practitioners even endeavoured, in the first stage of the malady, to accelerate its action on the skin by giving for that purpose warm drinks, and by covering the cattle with woollen cloths, to promote perspiration; but it was generally admitted that the sick animals preferred cold drinks, and that they were particularly fond of acidulated whey.

In the second period of the distemper, the same drinks were continued, adding thereto some theriac or Jesuit's bark, in order to lessen the frequency of the diarrhœtic evacuations. They also provoked the depurating secretions from the mouth, nose, and eyes, by repeated washings; and as those animals, in which the running was most easy and copious, seemed to be less seriously affected with the disease, they strove to increase that which flowed from the glands of the mouth by fixing a gag in the jaws, and keeping it there for several hours. This measure seemed so efficacious that a decree from the Parlement de Rouen, issued on the 13th of March, 1745, ordered the application of a gag, or bit, for three hours every day, to the cattle under treatment.

In the third period, they sought to overcome the wasting of strength in the system by means of tonic and nutritious drinks, decoctions of centaury, Jesuit's bark, juniper berries, &c. They likewise administered emollient clysters if the evacuations were bloody.

Moreover, they placed two or three setons, principally in the dewlap, in order to obey the signs and indications of nature —quo natura vergit, eo ducendum; as a salutary and critical eruption of the skin was at that period forcing its way. These setons were kept open with a mixture of turpentine and yolks of egg, for the purpose of encouraging the secretion. The purulent or emphysematous tumours were cut.

But whatever means might be employed, almost all the cattle perished, and the few and rare recoveries only afforded the pessimists the satisfaction of claiming the merit of them for themselves. It was remarked, besides, that the fattest beasts were the least able to resist the effects of the distemper.

It is hardly necessary to say, that during the whole course of the treatment, great care was taken to keep both the stables and the cattle in a perfect state of cleanliness.

The convalescence of those animals which were cured was invariably long, and required great attention as to their food and hygienic treatment. Solid substances, roots, and forage were withheld until rumination revived; and it was only after several days of encouraging trials that the recovered animal was suffered at last to feed all day in the field, according to his pleasure.

Such, then, was that formidable epizootia which, in the middle of the eighteenth century, swept away upwards of six millions of horned cattle, and which occasioned a loss to Europe exceeding fifty millions sterling – perhaps we might say a hundred millions – for other domestic animals, sheep, horses, &c. (as generally happens in cases of epizootia), had likewise suffered, in different degrees, from the various complaints arising from inclement seasons.

It was certainly necessary to our purpose that we should have taken this retrospective view of the cattle disease, and it will afford us a valuable guide for the future. We may now content ourselves with bringing together the different annals in the chain of time which elapsed between Layard's treatise, which was published in 1757, and the present day. This chain of time amounts to 108 years.

V

The typhus of Horned Cattle, which had shown itself in a manner permanent, sometimes raging at one part of the globe, sometimes at another, could not, under the unaltered conditions by which it had been generated, suspend its ravages; and though, thanks to her isolated position, England may be less exposed to it than other countries, it is, however, necessary to take note of what may serve for our instruction in the several epizootics which will pass under our view.

Medical writers relate that contagious typhus broke out several times in Holland during the years 1768, 1769, and 1770; it also appeared in French Flanders in 1771, in Hainault in 1773. In France one particular spot was, at this period, completely rendered intact by drawing a sanitary fence about its limits, and bestowing on the cattle particular hygienic attention as a safeguard. The stables of these animals were washed, cleansed, and fumigated; spring water was given them to drink, their food was chosen with care, and a certain quantity of salt was mixed with it.

In 1774, Holland, a cold and damp country, was once more invaded by the scourge; and the Government offered in vain a reward of 80,000 florins to any one who should discover the preventive or specific remedy for the disease.

The typhus which, at that epoch, had likewise broken out again in the south of France, threatened to become an abiding peril to the wealth of nations. Two French authors, Vicq d'Azyr and Paulet, betook themselves earnestly to the task of collecting every document which up to that time had been published on the successive visitations of the malady, and of offering the means of preventing it. Their intention was unquestionably laudable, but the time for obtaining such a result had not yet arrived; besides which, these two writers, whatever may have been their desert, were not equal to an achievement of this character. They belonged, indeed, to that order of men who look upon the cultivation of science solely as a step to personal distinction.

Vicq d'Azyr himself was but twenty-five years old when he issued, in 1775, his work, entitled, "Exposé des Moyens curatifs et preservatifs qui peuvent être employés contre les Maladies des Bêtes à Cornes." We should deceive ourselves if we expected to find in this exposition anything but an interesting compilation of the works already published.

Paulet's treatise appeared likewise in 1775, under the title, "Recherches historiques et physiques sur les Maladies epizootiques, avec les Moyens d'y rémédier dans tous les Cas, publiées par ordre du Roi." Paris. Two volumes.

After reading and reflecting on this title, as servile as it is arrogant, I might have dispensed with all examination of the work. A scientific man, whilst in the pursuit of truth, takes orders from nobody, not even from kings. Paulet, therefore, writing by order, could only produce a work of mediocrity, and such is incontestably the degree of value of his two volumes, forming, as they do, a fastidious dissertation of epizootics in general, and of those relating to cattle in particular.

The works of Paulet and Vicq d'Azyr, written at the same time, not being the labour of men practising the medical art, are on a level as to the notions which they have handed down to us; but that of Vicq d'Azyr being the better of the two, we shall extract therefrom what may chiefly interest us.

Vicq d'Azyr relates the history of the epizootics, and expatiates on the original cause of the typhus in horned cattle, and on its nature. The passages in which he treats of its mode of propagation and its treatment, are the most deserving of our notice.