Part 29

In Mr. Needham's herd, about twenty-eight days intervened between the first and second case of disease, instead of about fourteen, as in Mr. Olmstead's.

Case 4.--A nice heifer, in fair condition, eating well, only having a slight cough. Percussion dull over base of the left lung.

Autopsy.--Base of left lung adherent to diaphragm and costal pleura; lung hardened. On cutting into base, found ulceration and a head of Timothy grass, four or five inches long. Animal in every other way well.

Case 5.--This cow was taken, January 1st, with a cough, difficulty of breathing, and the other symptoms of the disease, and continued sick till March 1st. On taking her out, April 12th, to be slaughtered, she capered, stuck up her tail, snuffed, and snorted, showing all the signs of feeling well and vigorous.

Autopsy.--Right lung firmly adherent to diaphragm and costal pleura, near the spine. Base of lung hardened, containing a cyst with a large lump, of the size of a two-quart measure, floating in pus; outside of the lump was of a dirty yellow-white, irregular, brittle, and cheesy; the inside mottled, or divided into irregular squares; red like muscle, and breaking under the finger, like liver. Costal pleura smooth, shining; adhesions where there was motion; card-like and polished; no serum; lung apparently performing its functions well, except for a short distance above the air-tight cyst, where it was still hardened. It would seem as though Nature was intending to dissolve this lump, and carry it off by absorption. She knows how, and would have done it, in the opinion of the writer, had she been allowed sufficient time.

Case 6.--Was taken December 18th, and was very sick; in three weeks she was well, except a cough, quite severe, and so continued till about the first of March, when she coughed harder and grew worse till seven days before she was killed, April 12th, when she brought forth a calf, and then commenced improving again.

Autopsy.--Right lung adherent to diaphragm and costal pleura. At its base, was a flabby, fluctuating cyst. In cutting into it, the lump was found to be breaking up by decomposition, and scenting badly. Every thing else normal. Was not the cyst broken through by some accident, thus letting in the air, when she grew worse? Would she not, probably, have overcome this disagreeable accident, and recovered, in spite of it? This cow's hair did not look well, as did that of those in which the cyst was air-tight; but still she was beginning to eat well again, and appeared in a tolerable way for recovery.

Case 7.--This heifer had coughed slightly for six weeks, but the owner said he thought no one going into his herd would notice that any thing was the matter with her.

Autopsy.--Slight adhesions of lung to diaphragm. Near these adhesions are small cysts, of the size of a walnut, containing pus and cheesy matter; about the cysts a little way the lung was hardened, say for half an inch. There were several cysts, and they appeared as though the inflammation attacked only the different lobes of the lungs, leaving others healthy between,--Nature throwing out coagulable lymph around the diseased lobe, and forming thereby an air-tight cyst, cutting around the diseased lobe by suppuration, so that it could be carried off by absorption.

In the herd to which this animal belonged, nine days after the first cow died, the second case occurred. First cow was sick five weeks. The time of incubation could not have been over six weeks,--probably not over three weeks. Of these cows, one improved in eight weeks, the other in three weeks.

Case 8.--This cow had been sick three weeks. Killed.

Autopsy.--Large quantities of serum in left chest; lung adherent, and hardened at base. On cutting into the hardened lung, one side of the lump was found separated from the lung, with pus between the lines of separation, and the forming coat of the cyst outside of the pus; the other side of the lump was part and parcel of the hardened lung which had not yet had time to commence separation. The costal pleura was covered with organized lymph to the thickness of an inch, with the usual characteristics. The right chest contained a small quantity of serum, and had several small, hardened red spots in that lung, with some tender, weak adhesions; but most of the right lung was healthy.

Case 9.--Sick four weeks. Killed.

Autopsy.--Right lung hardened at base; adherent to diaphragm and costal pleura; lump separated on one side only. Cyst beginning to form, outside of separation; pus between cyst and lump, but in a very small quantity.

These two cases settle the character of the lump, and the manner of the formation of the cyst; the lump being lung and lymph, cut out by suppuration,--the cyst being organized, smoothed off by suppuration, friction, etc.

Case 10.--Killed. Hair looked badly; but the cow, it was said, ate, and appeared well. This case, however, occurred in a herd, of which no reliable information, in detail, could be procured.

Autopsy.--Base of lung hardened, adherent to diaphragm; containing a cyst, in which was a lump, of the size of a quart measure, but little pus. This lump had air-tubes running through it, which were not yet cut off by suppuration; and in one place, the cyst was perforated by a bronchial tube, letting in the external air to the lump, which was undergoing disorganization, and swelling badly. When cut into, it did not present the red, mottled, organized appearance of those cases with air-tight cysts.

Quite a number of other cases were examined, but these ten present all the different phases. One or two cases are needed of an early stage of the disease, to settle the point, whether, in all cases, the primary disease is lung fever, and the pleurisy a continuation, merely, of the primary disease; together with some six or eight cases, during five, six, seven, eight months from attack, and so on till entire, final recovery. Some cases were sick almost a year since, and are now apparently quite well; perhaps all the lump and pus are not yet gone. Many practitioners think that no severe case will ever recover, and some think that none ever get entirely well. Others, however, can see no reason why, as a general rule, all single cases should not recover, and all double cases die.

The disease was the most fatal in Mr. Chenery's (the original) herd, although it was the best-fed and the warmest-stabled. He attributed the fatality, in part, to a want of sufficient ventilation. The other herds, in which all the fatal cases occurred in two hours, consisted, originally, one of forty-eight head, of which thirteen died, or were killed, to prevent certain death; of twenty-three head, of which seven died; of twenty-two head, of which eight died; of twenty-two head, of which eight also died; and of twenty-one head, of which four died. A little less than thirty per cent., therefore, of these herds died.

This estimate excludes the calves. Most of the cows which had not calved before being attacked, lost their calves prematurely. The probable time of incubation, as deduced from those Massachusetts cases, is from two to three weeks; of propagation, about the same time; the acute stage of the disease lasting about three weeks.

The author's attention was first directed to this disease, upon its appearance in Camden and Gloucester counties, New Jersey, in the year 1859, at about the same time it made its advent in Massachusetts. The singularity of this coincidence inclined him for the time to regard the disease as an epizooetic--having its origin in some peculiar condition of the atmosphere--rather than as a contagious, or infectious disease, which position was at that time assumed by him.

This opinion was strengthened by the fact, that no case occurring in New Jersey could be traced to a Massachusetts origin, in which State it was claimed that the disease never had existed in this country previous to its introduction there. It was, therefore, denied by the veterinary surgeons in the Eastern States, that the disease in New Jersey was the true European pleuro-pneumonia, but it was called by them the swill-milk disease of New York City, and it was assigned an origin in the distillery cow-houses in Brooklyn and Williamsburg.

In 1860 it found its way across the Delaware River into Philadelphia, spreading very rapidly in all directions, particularly in the southern section of the county, known as The Neck,--many of the dairymen losing from one third to one half of their herds by its devastating influence. In order to save themselves--in part, at least--from this heavy loss, many of them, upon the first indications of the malady, sent their animals to the butcher, to be slaughtered for beef. In 1861 the disease found its way into Delaware, where its ravages were severely felt. So soon, however, as it became known that the disease was infectious or contagious, an effort was made to trace it to its starting-point; but, in consequence of the unwillingness of dairymen to communicate the fact that their herds were affected with pleuro-pneumonia, all efforts proved fruitless. In 1860 the disease found its way up the Delaware to Riverton, a short distance above the city of Philadelphia. A cattle-dealer, named Ward, turned some cattle into a lot, adjoining which several others were grazing. The residents of this place are chiefly the families of gentlemen doing business in the city, many of whom lost their favorite animals from this destructive malady.

The first case occurring at this place, to which the author's attention was called, was a cow belonging to Mr. D. Parrish, which had been exposed by coming in contact with Ward's cattle, had sickened, and died. An anxiety having been manifested to ascertain the cause of the death, the author made an examination of the animal, which, upon dissection, proved the disease to be a genuine case of the so-called pleuro-pneumonia. This examination was made August 20th, 1860, at the time of the Massachusetts excitement. Two cows, belonging to Mr. Rose, of the same place, had been exposed, and both had taken the disease. His attention having been called to them, he placed them under the author's treatment, and by the use of diffusible stimulants and tonics, one of these animals recovered, while the other was slaughtered for an examination, which revealed all the morbid conditions so characteristic of this disease.

The next case was a cow belonging to Mr. G. H. Roach, of the same place, which had been grazing in a lot adjoining that of Mr. Parrish. This cow was killed in the presence of Charles Wood, V.S., of Boston, Mass., and Arthur S. Copeman, of Utica, N. Y., who was one of a committee appointed by the New York State Agricultural Society for the purpose of investigating the disease. Both of these gentlemen having witnessed the disease in-all its forms, as it appeared in Massachusetts, were the first to identify this case with those in that State.

Upon opening the cow, the left lung was found to be completely consolidated, and adhered to the left side, presenting the appearance usual in such cases. As she was with calf, the lungs of the foetus were examined, disclosing a beautiful state of red hepatization.

The author's attention was next called to the herd of Mr. Lippincott, a farmer in the neighborhood, who had lost several cattle by the disease; but as he had been persuaded that treatment was useless, he abandoned the idea of attempting to save his stock in that way. From Riverton it soon spread to Burlington, some ten miles farther up the river, where it carried off large numbers of valuable cattle, and it continued in existence in that neighborhood for some time.

The disease was not then confined to these localities alone, but has spread over a large extent of country,--and that, too, prior to its appearance in Massachusetts, as will be shown by extracts from the following letters, published in the Country Gentleman:--