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

But there is another question of some importance which deserves to fix our attention for a moment. People sometimes inquire whether the ox-typhus can be communicated to other animals, and even to man, either by contact, by direct absorption, or by inhaling the miasma floating in the atmosphere.

Experiments of great interest might be made on this subject; but we can already assert, on the evidence of facts publicly known, that the direct absorption of putrid matter and purulent secretions, and likewise the mere contact with tainted flesh, when the epidermis or scarf-skin is cracked or peeled off, or when the least open sore exists, may give access to the disease, and produce death, both in man and other animals. In these cases, the absorbed virus operates, not as a specific agent, giving birth to typhus, but as a provocative septic agent, endowed with infectious properties, which infuse into the economy a germ of virulent and mortal disease. So long as a sound and intact outer skin stands as a safeguard between us and absorption, we may fearlessly touch and handle the tainted flesh of these animals. But the slightest sore or abrasion is an open door to let in death. A young veterinary surgeon, who had a slight wound in one of his arms, was carried off within forty-eight hours, as was proved at a coroner's inquest, after he had dissected an ox which had died of the typhus.16

We see by this fatal example that we must be particularly careful not to touch an ox tainted with typhus when we carry about us any open sore, unless we take the utmost precaution in order to guard against all direct contact or absorption. Man, as we have said and shown, breathes with comparative impunity an atmosphere laden with the infectious miasma of this typhus. But that which to-day is true may not be true to-morrow; let us, therefore, be also on our guard against the too continuous absorption of an atmosphere impregnated with these deleterious principles.

As for herbivorous animals in general, a similar organization must, in their cases, predispose them to receive the contagion. Whenever we visit the markets, we cannot help fearing to see the ox typhus communicated to the sheep and pigs which are stationed around them. It is an unquestionable fact that, in certain epizootias, all animals without distinction have been smitten and struck down, and the herbivorous animals more rapidly than any other. The habit of collecting such vast numbers of cattle in the same market, and on the same day, though convenient for business, appears to us injudicious, especially during the prevalence of this scourge.

This part of our treatise was in the printer's hands when Mr. Simonds wrote a letter to the Privy Council which justifies all our apprehensions. The typhus of the ox has been communicated to a number of sheep, and we must all expect to see this cruel disease assume much larger proportions than heretofore, since it has now obtained a second focus for its maintenance and dissemination.

"Veterinary Department, 23, New-street,Spring-gardens, Sept. 25th.

"Sir, – I beg to report that, acting on the instructions received from you to investigate without loss of time the statement received at your office relative to an outbreak of the cattle plague in a remote part of the county of Norfolk, supposed to have arisen from cattle having been in contact with some diseased sheep, recently brought to the premises, I have visited the district in question, and inquired into all the circumstances of the case.

"It appears that as far back as the 17th of August Mr. C. Temple, farmer and merchant, of Blakeney, received on his farm 120 lambs which he had instructed a dealer to procure for him for feeding purposes.

"The lambs were bought at Thetford-fair on the preceding day, and were immediately sent by rail to Fakenham, from which place they were driven to Blakeney, a distance of about ten miles. On their arrival they appeared to be fatigued to a greater extent than ordinary, which was, however, attributed to the heat of the weather and the exertion the animals had undergone.

"In addition to this, the shepherd observed that several of them seemed unwell, and he remarked to his master that they did not appear to be a 'very healthy lot,' and that he thought it would be better to return them to the dealer. Within a day or two of this time the symptoms of illness were more marked in all the original cases, and many more of the animals had been attacked. On the 24th two of the worst cases were removed from the field to the farm premises, and were placed in a shed for treatment, in which afterwards a cow was put. On the 25th two of the lambs died, and in consequence of this, and of the large number which were now affected, the whole were brought, on the morning of the 27th, into the same yard where the shed previously alluded to was situated. There is also another shed, separated from this yard only by some old furze faggots, into which the cows were driven night and morning for being milked. The lambs remained in the yard till the morning of the 28th, when having had some medicine administered to them, they were returned to the fold and never came again near the cows.

"While in the yard three died, two on the 27th, and one on the 28th, and on the following day two others died in the field. From this time the disease went on, so that by Friday last, the 22nd of September, the day of my visit, forty-six had either died or been killed, and twenty-seven were in a very precarious condition.

"On the 7th of September, ten days after the last exposure to the sheep, a cow gave evidence of being affected with the cattle plague, this animal being the one which had been put into the shed occupied by the diseased sheep on the 24th of August. A second cow was attacked on the 11th of September, and a third shortly afterwards, which was followed by others; so that by the 16th all the cows, six in number, a heifer, and a calf, were all dead.

"My examination of the lambs showed that they were unmistakably the subjects of the plague. The symptoms agreed in almost every particular with those observed in cattle affected with the malady, and the post-mortem appearances were also identical.

"With a view to ascertain the true nature of the changes produced in the system prior to death, I had four of the lambs killed, and from these I took some diseased parts and forwarded them to the Royal Veterinary College without note or comment. These parts were examined by my colleague, Mr. Varnell, who at once recognised the special changes of structure which are caused by the cattle plague.

"The whole facts of the case leave not the least doubt of sheep being liable to the disease termed the cattle plague, and that when affected they can easily communicate the malady to the ox tribe; and moreover, that when so conveyed it proves equally as destructive as when propagated from ox to ox in the ordinary manner.

"The case is also more important from having occurred in a place no less than fourteen miles distant from any other where the cattle plague exists, thus placing beyond a doubt the fact of the malady being introduced among the cattle by the sheep alone.

"I regret to add that this is not a solitary case of sheep being affected by the cattle plague. I learned that some sheep were supposed to be similarly affected belonging to Mr. R. J. H. Harvey, M.P., on his estate at Crown Point, near Norwich. This place I also visited, and found a large flock of upwards of 2000 lambs, among which the malady was prevailing. A large number had been separated from the diseased, and gave no evidence of the malady. Very many, however, had died, and the disease was making rapid progress. I also examined many of the dead, and found the post-mortem appearances to be identical with those seen in the other cases spoken of in this report.

"In this instance the malady was brought into the estate by the purchase of some cattle, which afterwards died from the disease, and which were unfortunately pastured with the sheep at the time the disease manifested itself.

"The whole matter is one of the greatest importance, and which I lose no time in submitting to you for the information of the Lords of the Council.

"I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,

"Jas. B. Simonds."IVGeneral Considerations on the Ox-Typhus, and the Recapitulation of the Symptoms

We have seen the causes, the symptoms, and the cadaveric alterations of the Bovine typhus, and we may therefore apply ourselves at present to the consideration of its pathogenia and its nature. Only, the limits of this book will not admit of a complete discussion of every point of this important question of pathology; for if we desired to show in what respect the typhus differs from, and in what respect it resembles, such and such a morbid entity, febrile, infectious and contagious like it, such a dissertation would require a whole volume for itself; we are therefore obliged to keep within certain limits.

Like every watchful physician who has applied himself to the study of comparative pathology, we entertained our own preconceived opinions as to the nature of this Cattle Plague. Arguing à priori from what we knew, from the laws of the pathogenia of those exanthematic diseases which we have alluded to in a former chapter; from the identity of variola in various animals; from the preventive treatment to which this identity has led; believing that animals and man have each their typhoid fever, as they have their variola or small-pox; considering with the Ecole de Tours, typhoid fever as a variola of the intestinal mucous membrane, and having proposed, in 1855,17 to adopt inoculation as a preventive treatment, drawing an easy comparison between the typhus we are now observing and the typhoid fever in man; hoping, we may say, indeed, to find in this typhus the inoculative and preventive virus which is required for our typhoid fever, all will understand with what eager and vivid curiosity we have examined the entrails of the victims struck down by this epizootia. For, if this typhus had been a genuine typhoid fever, the bovine species which has already provided the preventive virus for small-pox, would equally have afforded us the preventive virus for typhoid fever. In this hypothesis, our proposal to inoculate the typhoid fever, which up to this time has been tried on horses only, and in experiments badly conducted, by pupils of the Veterinary School of Lyons, was perhaps on the eve of being realised. But we regret to say, we have been forced to submit to evidence, and to acknowledge that the present infectious typhus is not the one we require to provide us with the anti-typhoid virus.

In the same manner as pathologists disagree as to the question, whether the typhus and typhoid fever in man are one and the same disease, so should we long debate, without coming to an agreement, as to that which relates to the typhus and typhoid fever of the ox. We cannot pretend to produce a reconciliation between these dissentient schools; all we desire, is to sum up what observation has suggested to us, on account of the practical and therapeutic interest belonging to the subject.

For ourselves, the typhus and the typhoid fever of the ox are two diseases of the same order, but nevertheless distinct; and the reasons upon which we ground our opinion are suggested to us by the nature of the intestinal lesions, the symptoms, and causes of these distempers.

As we have already seen, the contagious typhus of the ox, at least that of the present epizootia, is an infectious disease, which varies in the intensity of the functional disorders and the cadaveric lesions to which it gives rise. The typhoid fever, we mean the real one, – for there are other intestinal exanthematic fevers which simulate it, – always localize on the small intestines a pustulous exanthem, and in the typhus of the ox, this pustulous exanthem and the ulcerations by which it is succeeded, are frequently wanting.

The real typhoid fever springs up in every country under the influence of local causes, and is not in the same degree infectious and contagious as the typhus proper. In fine, the typhoid fever smites many species of animals – the horse, the pig, etc., without transmitting its contagion with the same intensity.

The contagious typhus of the ox appears to be more especially proper to that animal; for in those latitudes where it developes itself other animals are not affected by it.

For these reasons, then, to which we could easily add many others, we consider the typhus of the present epizootia a special and distinct type of typhic diseases, and differing from the typhoid fever: it is the highest expression of its class, and occupies the first degree in the scale of infectious typhic diseases. Next to it we should place the typhoid fever, which we admit is not often found in the ox. But veterinary pathology is still less understood than human pathology, and typhoid fever may perhaps be recognised in those diseases which the former science has described under the names of adynamic and ataxic fevers. Besides, a persistent research among the veterinary memorials and reports might possibly enable us to discover some instances in which the real typhoid fever in the ox had been traced, apart from the epizootic conditions. Here is an instance of it: —

Gellé, in vol. i. page 245 of the Pathologie Bovine, quotes the following abstract which had been forwarded to him by one of his brethren, on the dissection of an ox, which was made on the 10th of May, 1824: —

"Duodenum.– Uniform redness of the mucous membrane, with thickening, softening, and petechial spots. In the middle portion were discovered some of Peyer's glands, small round pustules, whitish at the top, with a reddish circumference. In some parts contiguous to these pustules lay ulcerations somewhat extensive, which seemed to be the result of the softening of the pustules which had preceded them. A dark pus issued from these ulcerations. The inflammation by which they were attended was diffused in some places, whilst in others it was circumscribed. In some parts the intestinal mucous membrane was utterly destroyed. The mesenteric glands were red and soft."

Gellé adds: – "I have recorded this interesting narrative, as it may perhaps serve hereafter to throw light on a point of doctrine."

The intention which Gellé nurtured at the time, is, we see, now fulfilled conformably with his object.

The contagious typhus of the ox not being a real typhoid fever, we shall not, consequently, be able to borrow from it the preventive virus for that disease in man. But if these diseases differ, and if it is difficult, in the present state of science, to assign to them such distinct characters as to produce a perfect agreement among all medical writers, we must, however, admit, that to designate the ox-typhus now before us by the generic name of plague, after the Germans, who have given it the name of rinderpest, would carry us too far back.

Let us acknowledge also, that the denomination of contagious typhus, adopted by the French veterinary doctors, is not, any more than the designation of typhus fever, applied to it by English physicians, totally free from objection.

In truth, the various species of typhus whose characteristics we have already given (see p. 73), are all of them febrile and contagious. Whoever uses the word typhus, speaks of a contagious and febrile malady, inasmuch as we cannot conceive typhus without its accompaniments, fever and contagion. But as the prevailing characteristic of this infectious disease is, above all, its contagion, we have preferred to adopt the name of contagious typhus, without, however, deceiving ourselves as to the value of the denomination. The final elucidation has not yet been found for these diseases; at some future day they will be methodically divided and arranged, and each of them will then receive a special title, which will remove from the mind that vague uncertainty which at present we regret.

But if some faults of doctrine are open to debate, no doubt whatever can exist in the mind as to the morbid individuality of ox-typhus, or the general conditions of its pathogenia; and we are able to deduce from the preceding explanation, the following conclusions as so many propositions definitively settled: —

1st. The typhus of the ox is a disease essentially infectious, which is produced by the absorption of the morbigenous miasma in the air.

2nd. This typhic miasma is absorbed and engendered by the ox, under the influence of a number of special deleterious causes.

3rd. When the miasma has been absorbed and incubation produced, the disease itself is but a supreme effort of nature – a struggle between the vital forces and the morbid evolution of the poison, in order to guard and defend life against the danger which threatens it.

4th. A malady essentially general, totius substantiæ, it directs its action, in different degrees, over the whole structure, but chiefly on the nervous centres, on the organs of respiration, and on the digestive apparatus.

5th. Its progress is regular; to the latest period of incubation it succeeds that of the general poisoning of the blood – that of the pyrexia of general fever – which for a time stops up all the secretions. Then, the morbid flux is localized according to particular predispositions: either on the nervous centres, when the animal is struck down at the outbreak; or on the lungs, when the respiratory derangements become the leading symptoms; or on the digestive channels, when the train of typhoid phenomena is observable.

6th. The period of acute inflammation, which had dried up the sources of secretion, gives place to that of the depurative and critical exhalations or secretions; from every mucous membrane, from every outlet, there issues a mucous discharge, which at first is thin and clear, but afterwards becomes thick and purulent, and endowed with the most infectious properties. The intestinal mucous membrane, smitten with a particular lesion, becomes the seat of a flux extremely copious and intolerably fetid. Gases, and occasionally purulent deposits, are developed in the cellular tissue beneath the skin.

7th. The organism or physical frame, disturbed in the very centres of life, undergoes a general transformation, a kind of organic decomposition beforehand, and all the symptoms of reaction are followed by a period of wasting atony and adynamia, which usher in dissolution or life's extinction.

8th. Finally, throughout the whole course of the distemper, one special functional derangement —stupor– has been witnessed as the predominant symptom, the nervous system being in a manner annihilated in its functions in consequence of the general infection.

Such are, in a brief outline, the principal symptoms of this typhus, which, when once engrafted on the economy, pursues its fatal march, and no treatment can then arrest its evolution. As in small-pox, so in typhoid fever and in most general disorders, Nature for a time must be allowed to exercise her new functions, which succeed each other in due course, and which the physician must not stop; for if he did, he would accelerate death; but he must watch with a vigilant eye, in order to assist the vital powers.

The medical man, satisfied with these facts, will therefore abandon the chimerical hope of finding a specific remedy for such a disease. The virus once absorbed, the frame will endure, and fatally endure, all the morbid phenomena which must produce and succeed each other. Against such a poison no other antidote exists than the poison itself. And this will be easily understood. What necessity have we for a specific remedy to resist a distemper, which carries within itself its preventive treatment? If it germinates and is propagated, let us not accuse Nature and render her responsible; our own blindness, the lack of a community of interests among the people, our social institutions, the still imperfect state of the exact sciences, &c., amply explain how it is that we have not yet employed the effectual means we possess, not of curing it, but preventing it. If we could have our choice between prevention and cure, should we not naturally take the former?

Indeed, the sources, the causes which generate the typhic miasma, are thoroughly well known to us, and these we can avoid. The developed miasms hang suspended in the air; we may, perhaps, one day destroy them, if not in the outer atmosphere, at least in the stalls and sheds where the animals inhale and absorb them. In fine, if we are powerless to arrest the fell disease when its periods revolve, we may hope at some future time to act with greater efficiency upon it during its period of incubation.

On the other hand, if this formidable disease cannot be stopped in its progress, does it follow that we should not treat it at all? Certainly not! Far be such a heresy from our thoughts. What would be the consequence, if we left to their fate the sufferers from the small-pox, from typhoid fever, and from typhus itself, instead of watching over them with the utmost solicitude? If the physician, the enlightened interpreter of morbid phenomena, did not direct them with a bold and fearless hand, but abandoned Nature to her helpless course, why, necessarily, every patient would die, whereas a large number are now saved.

That which is true in the case of man, is likewise true in the case of animals: we are bound to treat them when they are ill. If to-day we think it more expeditious and more profitable to exterminate them, we certainly neglect our duty. We are the sovereign masters of animals; they are the companions of our toils and pleasures, their lives must be given to preserve our own; but on their well-being and their happiness our own well-being and happiness also depend. They will return to us the sufferings and diseases of which they die a hundred times over. Like ourselves, they die of consumptive, tubercular, cancerous, eruptive, typhoid, and parasitical diseases. And who can tell whether they have not communicated these disorders to man, who was, perhaps, originally exempt from them; and whether they do not continually communicate them to him?

What noble pages might be written on the close connexion which exists between all organized beings, both physically and morally! Let us love these animals, let us treat them with kindness, and all our other qualities will be raised by so doing.

But as a man must belong to the time he lives in, we will take up for a moment with the doctrines of the economists; we will tolerate the extermination of diseased animals, as a painful necessity. Our duty is to seek in the study of the diseases of animals and in their cure, the cure of the disorders which afflict the human species. We shall, therefore, now proceed to consider the subject of the treatment of horned cattle, both as relates to preventive and curative medication.

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.