Reports on the diseases of cattle in the United States made to the Commissioner of Agriculture, with accompanying documents. / Department of Agriculture.

  • United States. Department of Agriculture.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on the diseases of cattle in the United States made to the Commissioner of Agriculture, with accompanying documents. / Department of Agriculture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    134/206 (page 128)
    while we can alleviate some of the suffering's of the affected cattle, a very triMiiig- moasui-c of success attends the most assiduous nursiuf,'and medication. Bleeding- has been, in some parts, a favoi ite remiMly; and I have known one aninuil recover, either in conse(jueuce or in s])it(i of the remedy. Purgatives have been freely and fairly tried, with good result in very few instances, and with depressing and killing inliuences in many more. The red water of cows in Scotland is often cured by oi)iates, which check the discharge of blood; and with alcoholic stimulants in jnodera- tion, with the free use of mucilaginous drinks. I have tried the same treatment in splenic fever, with little or no success. Page after page might be filled with notes on the administration of nitrate iind of chlo- rate of potash, iodide of potassium, quinhie, salts of iron, scs(juicarbo- nate of ammonia, Epsom or Glauber's salts, sulphur, ginger, calomel, soap, and oil; and even guano from the goose cote has been said fi-e- quently to effect a cure, given in doses of one quart, until a thorough evacuation is produced. A reporter from Woodson County, Kansas, says this is a sovereign and unfailing remedy for the dry murrain. None of these agents (and some have been extolled as specific) have affected the steady progress and fatality of the disease. Shelter, protection from flies, linseed or flaxseed tea, fiiction of the limbs, and injections, are humane, and, to a trifling extent, useful expe- dients, I have seen cows return to nearly their full quantity of milk on such treatment, with the aid of half-ounce doses of sulphuric ether, in four ounces of the solution of the acetate of ammonia and a quart of water, given thrice daily. Belief has been afforded by giving an oimce of tincture of opium for the first day or two; but to enter further into the history of experiments on this point is to recount a history of failures such as the world is accustomed to, in speaking of the medical treatment of human cholera and small-pox, or rinderpest and the deadly forms of anthrax in cattle. THE PKEVENTION OF SPLENIC FEVER. The main object of the investigation which has brought to light the facts noted in the foregoing pages, has been the discovery of means whereby the direct and the indirect losses sustained for several years past, but especially in 1868, may not again harass American farmers, and injure the traders in Texan cattle. Hitherto the only measures sug- gested, and very partially adopted, have consisted either in proiiibiting the importation of southern cattle into certain States, or portions of States; and, in one instance, in preventing their introduction only dur- ing the summer months. Stringent laws have failed to avert the most disastrous and wide-spread losses; and while on the one hand persons interested in the Texan trade have justified their inattention to legal restrictions, by declaring them one and all unconstitutional, instances have not been wanting of mob