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

Now, in these curable cases, in which the cure is most generally due to nature's own efforts, but which a systematic treatment might render far more frequent, the convalescence is long, and requires great attention and a well-regulated diet, in which the food is carefully measured and divided. Here there must be a rigid superintendence. A laxity in the watchfulness, or too much reliance on the reviving health, have produced sudden relapses, and been fatal to many sick cattle, which had been looked upon as thoroughly cured. For it may well be conceived that convalescent animals, after sustaining such violent derangements in their health, and having been brought down to the lowest degree of prostration and marasmus – to a reconstitution, we may call it, of the solids and liquids – have a devouring hunger. If, therefore, the keeper who looks after them unhappily forgets that the principal lesions or sores are seated in the stomach and intestines, and if he gives them too much solid nutriment, he impedes the cure, irritates the ulcerations not yet thoroughly covered over, and soon adds another victim to those which had already died.

This convalescence lasts from fifteen to twenty days, and the animal only recovers its health at last by slow degrees. Still the careful keeper need not be afraid of a relapse when he is patient and watchful.

Such, then, is the contagious typhus of the ox. Type of the unreturnable infectious diseases, its virulent miasms undergo within the structure a series of transformations: they produce in the frame a general disorder fully capable of annihilating the predisposition or aptitude of the animal to receive the taint. A disease essentially specific, it affects the principal centres of life; it kills its victim both by its deadly virus and by the local derangements to which it gives rise; for how is it possible to preserve life when the whole nervous system, that promoter and regulator of all the functions, is upset? – when the lungs which revivify the blood, when the digestive organs which are the very sources of alimentation, are smitten with stagnation? – when, in fine, not only these vital centres have ceased to operate, but when each by itself is the cause of torturing pains and exhaustion?

The typhus, moreover, is observed in all animals of the bovine species, whatever may be their race, their age, or their sex. The recovered animals may live with impunity amidst diseased herds of cattle, thanks to its non-relapsive nature. Jessen has even witnessed cows which, after their own cure, communicated a sort of immunity to their offspring. For the same reason it is that epizootias are less fatal in those countries where they often occur, the constitutions of those animals which are engendered amongst such habituated herds, preserving a prophylaxy inherent to the blood which has been transmitted to them.

Besides, what a pregnant subject is this for the physician, and what more meritorious task can he set himself than the treatment of such a distemper, which reason assures him must eventually lead to the cure and eradication of the same complaint in the human species?

From a cause which as yet has been indistinguishable and imponderable, what important, what marvellous results loom in the future! The air seems to us pure and wholesome, yet it conceals a typhic miasma of the most deadly kind; it carries this pernicious principle into the richest meadows, where we see feeding flocks and herds which to us seem exuberant with health. Then this miasma is inhaled and absorbed, and it meets in the frame the special and indispensable organic element which is needed for its multiplication; there it undergoes certain latent transformations, and a fermentation, a germination, which we call incubation, in order to explain a process which we cannot understand. Then fever is kindled, all the functions are disturbed, and the sick animal is struck down, leaving us wondering, ignorant, and powerless spectators in the presence of phenomena which, nevertheless, are the eternal work of nature and have endured through all time. – But if in the invisible typhic atom nature gives us death, it also gives us life in the zoosperma.

IILesions found in the Bodies of Oxen after Death

The description which we have given of the disorders produced in the different functions by the operation of the typhus, may easily suggest what must be the lesions exhibited by the organs of the body.

Death, we have said already, may overtake the disease at any of its periods, and thus show every aspect and every degree of the organic lesions. Such an animal being struck down at the period of initiation, will not, of course, present the changes and varieties of the period of decline, and vice versâ.

In general, the state of the dead bodies is that of the most decided marasmus; the remains are intensely repulsive, as well by the stench they emit as by the sight they afford; and, in summer especially, decomposition sets in with great rapidity. Consequently, the utmost care is required in conveying them from place to place; and this attention is the more essential, because in the transit, the cavities being deprived of their contractile power, let flow the pestilential liquids which they contain, thereby infecting the carriages and public roads. The urgent necessity there is to inhume at once these dead bodies, the most active agents in diffusing the contagion, is equally the drift of this observation.

The deceased animal, as a subject of anatomy, enables us to certify the seat of the emphysematous tumours, and to see that they are really due to the air which insinuates itself into the cellular tissue, and which, receding from the pressure of the fingers between the cells, produced the crackling sound we noticed above. This penetration of the air is, moreover, a far more general effect than was supposed.

It is ascertained, likewise, from the examination of these subjects, that the round, fluctuating, and smaller tumours, are indeed purulent gatherings, which occasionally find a passage into the layers and interstices of the muscles.

The muscular flesh is usually flabby, bloodless, unsightly, of a very nauseous smell; and it would be difficult to imagine that the most avaricious trickster would dare to offer even the most presentable parts of it for sale and consumption. But when the expedients and artifices known to the butcher's trade are had resort to, when, regardless of the public health, the unprincipled dealer selects the most fleshy parts, when he dresses and adorns them by colouring them over with the blood of a healthy beast, the unwary eye of the purchaser may be deceived. Observe, that we are now speaking of cattle that have died in the last stage of this marasmus, so that we might suppose, even if the many summonses before the magistrates, and the too moderate fines which have been imposed on the guilty parties, had not shed the broadest light upon the fact, that a large number of sick cattle which had been slaughtered at different stages of this frightful disease, have been dressed and adorned, exposed for sale, sold, and eaten by a very large portion of the inhabitants of London and of the country likewise.

Digestive Channels.– The mucous membrane of the buccal cavity is, for the most part, of a livid whiteness; ecchymosed stains, and sometimes ulcerations, differing in their form and number, are visible on the floor of the tongue. Mr. Simonds has had an anatomical model constructed, which presents a perfect type of these ulcerations, some of which are of a scarlet hue, with perpendicular edges. The stomachs exhibit a variety of ulcerations.

The paunch, or first stomach, always contains a large quantity of food intended for rumination; sometimes these aliments are dry, and lie sticking to its sides; at other times they are diluted with water which had not yet been absorbed after drinking. The inner membrane of this first reservoir may show flat spots, with livid injections of different sizes.

The honeycomb, or second stomach, generally exhibits the same injuries as the paunch.

The manyplies, or third stomach, contains between its laminæ hard, pulverulent, and dry alimentary substances, which are seen sticking to the different leaves. On removing these substances, some ecchymosed spots are laid bare, the epithelium of which easily peels off; sometimes ulcerations, and even perforations, are visible.

The reed, or fourth stomach, whose sides are thicker, more fleshy, and more vascular, exhibits within its folds various kinds of lesions or sores: they consist of large flat stains of a darkish red, more or less soft, and sometimes ulcerations red on their deep surface, with clean edges.

As for the intestines, properly so called, the duodenum shows the same injuries, but most generally large ecchymosed spots.

The small intestine appears on the outside, even when it preserves its place in the abdomen, of a reddish colour, lined with vessels distended with blood, the signs of a general congestion of its membranes. The examination of the mucous membrane, after it has been cut open lengthways, shows, indeed, that this portion of the digestive tube is the principal seat of the distemper; for, independently of this general injection, you perceive ulcerations which have succeeded to detached pustules or lengthy flat spots, the result of a cluster of several of Peyer's glands, brought together by the plastic influence of inflammation. These flat spots, or wafers, very similar to those we observe in the typhoid fever of man, are inflamed and ulcerated in different degrees.

The mucous membrane of the large intestine exhibits lesions depending on the period of the disease. About the third period, the injection is sometimes general, especially near the rectum; but in the fourth and last period we often meet with ulcerations which are smaller in the upper part, larger and deeper about the lower or rectal part. The membrane of the sexual parts of the cow is strongly injected, and of a dull red colour.

As we have seen, the different organs of the digestive apparatus may, in this typhus, offer to view extensive alterations perfectly consistent with the gravity of the symptoms or the functional derangements. In two cases in which disorders of the respiration had prevailed, and which had been sacrificed on the eighth or tenth day of the disease, we only observed partial injections of a very limited character, either on the gastric membranes or on that of the intestine, and which might have been detected in the case of common intestinal inflammation. Therefore, in these two cases, the characteristic lesions of the typhus, if they must be localized in the intestine, were, so to speak, absolutely wanting. It was, we will not say exactly the same, on four other animals, three oxen and one cow; but if, in two of them, the fourth stomach was inflamed, if in the third the small intestine was congested, and if, lastly, in the cow the large intestine showed ulcerations, we could not in these lesions distinguish those of typhoid fever.

These facts struck us with great surprise, for we were far from suspecting them. We hoped, on opening the intestine of these animals, which had certainly all died of the typhus, to meet assuredly in a determined spot some well-known lesion declared beforehand. To our great astonishment, such has not always been the case. So that our theories, conclusive as they seemed on the identity of the ox typhus and the typhoid fever in man, and which more than anyone else we wished to see confirmed, must submit to observation.

In fine, in this epizootia the intestinal lesions or sores present different appearances. Developed to the utmost in some cases, so much so as to exhibit ulcerations at the root of the tongue as well as in the intestines, and to be in a manner the excess of the injuries which are seen in typhoid fever, they are in other cases scarcely perceptible, and sometimes entirely absent, when the animal is struck down in the third or fourth period, that is to say, when the exanthematic or pustular state has had time to develope itself on the digestive channels. One of these animals seized by Mr. Tegg at the Camden Town market, was in such a state of exhaustion that he could not be driven to the slaughter-house, only two hundred yards distant; they were forced to fell him on the spot midway, in order to have him conveyed to the place of dissection. We only detected partial injections on the digestive tube of this beast. The pulmonary emphysema which had caused this animal's death was developed in the highest degree. – He was opened at the request of M. Bouley, of Alfort.

Apparatus of Respiration.– Here, again, the typhus shows us injuries which differ from those of typhoid fever; for if the breathing is always more or less obstructed at the outbreak of this fever, no serious organic change in the lungs is the consequence thereof. In the ox typhus, on the contrary, when the pulmonary form prevails, the derangements of the respiratory organs are remarkable. Thus, the mucous membrane of the nostrils, from which flows a purulent and fetid mucus, is sometimes ulcerated and excoriated. The larynx and the trachea or windpipe, choked up with frothy mucus, show the same alterations, though less frequently. The lungs, which are rather congested than inflamed, are emphysematous, the air having entered and distended the cellular tissue which unites the lobes together.

In some cases, the lungs are so gorged with air that their lobes constitute but a single heap, rendering them irrecognisable, so greatly do their volume, their specific gravity, and their spongy aeriform aspect differ from the natural state.

Apparatus of Circulation.– The inner sides of the heart show ecchymosed spots, and the same is the case with the larger vessels. The blood, diminished in its quantity and altered in its quality, is blackish and more fluid; but in most cases it coagulates instantaneously and in a mass, without separating into its solid and liquid parts.

Nervous System.– Having observed and dissected the dead bodies at the slaughter-houses of the markets, we were not able to examine either the brain or the spinal marrow. Besides, let us remark in this place, that the mode of felling cattle in England would have rendered impossible such an examination. For the animals are struck with a club, which kills them both by cerebral concussion and by the direct alteration of the brain; the instrument having a sharp end which perforates the skull and injures the cerebral lobes. Nor is this all; the moment the animal is struck down, a flexible rod is inserted into the hole made in the skull, and driven as far as the spinal canal, so as to tear to pieces the protuberance and the bulb, that is to say, the vital knot. This manner of killing cattle seems to us, however, preferable to the one adopted in France, where the animal does not sink till he has been struck repeatedly with the club.

But be that as it may, those authors who have examined the nervous centres of horned cattle which had perished victims of the typhus, have usually found the meninges, or membranes that envelope the brain, injected, whilst the brain itself was slightly dotted over with blood.

These anatomical lesions of the nervous centres being insufficient of themselves to explain the death at the second period, we have endeavoured to give the explanation of it in treating of the symptoms.

The other organs, the spleen, the liver, the kidneys, present alterations of a secondary interest only.

III

Diagnosis – Prognosis – Use of the Flesh of Animals which have Died of the Typhus – Danger of direct Absorption.

The typhus of the ox has such distinct and strongly marked characteristics that it is not easily mistaken. However, to conform ourselves to received custom, I will say some words about the principal symptoms of some distempers affecting the ox, between which and typhus unprofessional persons might be embarrassed, and hesitate to distinguish them. We will transfer, however, those particulars pertaining to the diagnosis to the part written for the special use of agriculturists, farmers, and graziers, in order that they may readily find whatever it may be necessary for them to know when they chance to have any sick and tainted cattle to treat and cure.

We have likewise a few words to say on the subject of the prognosis of the disease, as regards its propagation and its time of lasting. Finally, we will unfold a question of very real importance in hygiene – we mean the use and consumption of the flesh of animals as food, and the danger which may accrue to man and other animals from contact with their dead bodies, or fragments of the same.

The diseases of the ox, which we are accustomed to consider as distinguished from typhus, are the contagious peripneumonia, the apthous fever, and the "charbonneux" typhus; but, as we have just said, we will mention by-and-by their chief characteristics.

Everyone is anxious, and natural indeed is that anxiety, to know what this epizootia will become – what will be its course; how long it will last; whether it will extend its ravages over the whole extent of the three kingdoms; and if, in fine, it will invade all Europe.

To answer in a precise manner these questions would be a difficult task; for who amongst us can assign at present any definite course to the atmospheric variations? and yet they have a genuine influence on the progress of the epizootia. On the other hand, the measures which have been taken hitherto to confine the contagion to its different foci, have unhappily proved almost ineffectual, but it may be hoped that, assisted by experience, we shall be able to resist the evil more effectually, and check its propagation.

If the atmospheric conditions and the preventive measures could not modify the spread of the distemper, we should have reason to dread a still greater extension of the contagion; for the virulent character of the epizootia appears to be of an exceptional intensity, and we may perhaps compare it with the famous epizootia, of the middle of the eighteenth century, which for ten years afflicted all Europe with its ravages, striking down six millions of horned cattle.

Let the reader cast an eye over the extracts borrowed from the physicians of the principal faculties who have described this typhus, and which we have reproduced in the first part of this book relating to its history, and he will then be convinced that the disease is absolutely the same as that which then raged so fiercely. And if that is the case, we must anticipate that it will extend its ravages whilst prolonging its duration. Already it has spread to Holland and Belgium; Hungary and other provinces in the south-east of Germany – a fact much less surprising – are likewise smitten with it; and now we hear the news that France, though so vigilantly on her guard, has seen her frontiers passed over. In spite of the cordon sanitaire which she had prudently established everywhere, some horned cattle have been seized with the typhus at the town of Raubaix, in the north.

Without setting ourselves up as pessimists, let us declare that we must expect that the contagion will continue to spread. Let us make up our minds to this, in order to take the necessary sanitary measures, and set ourselves seriously to work by trying the preventive treatment. But, alas! between the Government, the municipal corporations, the agricultural societies, the cattle proprietors, and, with regret we add, the veterinary surgeons, there has been sadly wanting, up to the present time, that mutual understanding; that prompt and decisive action, and those pecuniary advances which are so necessary to encounter and contend with this great calamity.

As for estimating with any approach to accuracy the sacrifice of property; the pecuniary loss, which this fatal epizootic may occasion the country, the want of exact statistics as to the number of cattle which have already been struck down will not permit us to do it. But we may, perhaps, already set it down approximately from 50,000 to 60,000 head of cattle for England and Scotland, until we have obtained more precise statistical information on this significant point of inquiry.

That would represent, however, a very considerable capital; for if we compute the loss of each animal at the average sum of 15l. only, the sacrifice already incurred would not be less than from 750,000l. to 900,000l. This sacrifice in money might possibly have proved the be all and the end all; and at this point we might, perhaps, have arrested the contagion, had we all been able to act advisedly and harmoniously together, in the name and for the interest of the public, from the first appearance of the disease. But this calculation of, let us say, 900,000l., is made on the supposition that each cattle owner had been willing to abide by his own loss; whereas, unfortunately, many of them have striven to shift it on others, and large numbers of the sick and tainted beasts having been sold and consumed, a proportionate sum thus recovered by those avaricious men must be of course deducted from this estimate. Deducted, indeed! Considering the consequences on the public health, is it not rather an aggravation than a mitigation of the loss?

These last assertions naturally lead us to inquire whether we are not justified in saying that the flesh of sick and tainted cattle, thus circulated and consumed, has not had its baleful effects on the public health.

The butchers who sold the flesh of these sick and tainted cattle have no doubt been careful to abstain from using it in their own families; and the first time they speculated on the health of their fellow-citizens, well knowing what they did, their conscience probably reproached them with the misdemeanour. But afterwards, when no bad consequences to their customers had been seen, their own impunity, joined to this apparent harmlessness to their neighbours, rendered them bolder, and it became a daily habit with them to sell this peccant offal, which poisons even the earth by its contact.

Moreover, the graziers themselves were in league with the butchers, and took care to slaughter the affected animals before the wasting of their flesh by the progress of the distemper had bereft them of their greatest value. Their private interest prompting them thus to dispose of the sick animals as fast as they could, the majority of the tainted beasts were sold and eaten in the second stage or period of the typhus.

Now, if the flesh of these diseased animals had been eaten raw, accidents most terrible and appalling would certainly have been the consequence, although dogs may have fed upon it without injury. But the cooking of animal flesh at 100 degrees of heat has the property of destroying for a time the septic germs, as the famous debates now being held by the experimentalists who are studying the subject of spontaneous generation tend to show. This poisonous meat, therefore, may at first have been digested without producing immediate ill effects.

Our medical practice, however, authorizes us to declare that, after making every allowance for the influences of this extraordinarily hot summer, digestive and nervous complaints of the acutest description, and without any special cause to account for them, have been very numerous indeed during the last two months, and beyond all proportion greater than they usually are in London. And we cannot but feel that, if the cholera should reach the shores of England at this critical conjuncture, it will find organisms most ready to receive its virus. Then, indeed, if the typhic miasma come to mix and blend with the choleraic miasma, all living beings will have to contend with the most deleterious causes of alterations in their health, and we may (God send it be otherwise!) witness one of those measureless calamities which, known in former ages as the Black Pestilence, decimated cattle and men indiscriminately, and which, when we read the sorrowful accounts of it in history, make the flesh creep with affright.

We sincerely hope that such misfortunes may be spared us. But ought we to abstain entirely and absolutely from consuming the flesh of cattle smitten with typhus? It is a delicate question, but still we shall answer it, making due allowance for every interest concerned.

We conceive that all animals which are smitten with the early effects of the disorder, which begin to operate at the opening of its second period, that is to say, when the first symptoms are declared, such as stupor, loss of appetite and shiverings, may be handed over to the butchers. But this must only be done on the positive understanding and condition that every animal, sick or not sick, in times of epizootia, shall pass, either in the farm, the market, or the stable, under the examination of a competent veterinary inspector, who shall mark the beast when fit to be sold for consumption. With this precaution, which at present is put in practice in Belgium, every interest is cared for and guarded – those of the public health as well as those of the cattle owners.