ENGLISH MODE OF CUTTING UP BEEF.
ENGLISH MODE OF CUTTING UP BEEF.
The loin is the principal roasting-piece; the rump is the favorite steak-piece; the aitch-bone, the favorite stew; the buttock, the thick flank, and the thin flank are all excellent boiling-pieces when corned; the hock and the shin make soup and afford stock for the various requirements of the culinary art; and the tail furnishes ox-tail soup—a favorite English luncheon. These are all the pieces of the hind-quarter, and they are valuable of their respective kinds.
In the fore-quarter, the fore-rib, middle-rib, and chuckle-rib are all roasting-pieces, not alike good; but in removing the part of the shoulder-blade in the middle-rib, the spare-ribsbelow make a good broil or roast; the neck makes soup, being used fresh, boiled; the back end of the brisket is boiled, corned, or stewed; the leg-of-mutton piece is coarse, but is as frequently stewed as boiled; the shin is put to the same use as the shin and hock of the hind-quarter.
On comparing the two modes of cutting-up, it will be observed that in the English there are more roasting-pieces than in the Scotch, a large proportion of the fore-quarter being used in that way. The plan, too, of cutting the loin between the rump and aitch-bone in the hind-quarter, lays open the steak-pieces to better advantage than in the Scotch bullock. Extending the comparison from one part of the carcass to the other, in both methods, it will be seen that the most valuable pieces—the roasting—occupy its upper, and the less valuable—the boiling—its lower part. Every beast, therefore, that lays on beef more upon the upper part of its body is more valuable than one that lays the same quantity of flesh on its lower parts.
It is deemed unnecessary to enter into details as to the modes of cutting-up most in vogue in this country, as there is a needlessly great want of uniformity.
Of the qualities of beef obtained from the different breeds of cattle in England, there is no better meat than from the West Highlanders for fineness of grain and cutting up into convenient pieces for family use. The Galloways and Angus, when fattened in English pastures, are great favorites in the London market. The Short Horns afford excellent steaks, being thick of flesh, and the slice deep, large and juicy, and their covered flanks and nineholes are always thick, juicy, and well-mixed. The Herefords are somewhat similar to the ShortHorns, and the Devons, may, perhaps, be classed among the Galloways and Angus, while the Welsh cannot be compared to the West Highlanders. Taking, then, the breeds of Scotland as suppliers of good beef, they seem to be more valuable for the table than those of England.
There are, perhaps, not sufficient data in existence to determine the true proportion of offal of all kinds to the beef of any given fat ox; but approximations have been made, which may serve the purpose until the matter is investigated by direct experiment, under various circumstances. The dead weight bears to the live weight a ratio varying between .571 and .605 to 1; and on applying one or the other multiplier to the cases of the live weight, a pretty correct approximation is reached. The tallow is supposed to be eight one-hundredths of the live weight; so that the multiplier is the decimal .08. The hide is supposed to be five one-hundredths of the live weight; so to obtain its weight, a multiplier, .05, is used. The other offals are supposed to be in a proportion of about one-fourth of the live weight; so that the multiplier, .28, is as near as can be proposed under existing experience.
Beef is the staple animal food of this country, and it is used in various states—fresh, salted, smoked, roasted, and boiled. When intended to be eaten fresh, theribswill keep the best, and with care will keep five or six days in summer, and in winter ten days. The middle of theloinis the next best, and therumpthe next. Theroundwill not keep long, unless it is salted. Thebrisketis the worst, and will not keep more than three days in summer, and in winter a week.
In regard to the power of the stomach to digest beef, thatwhich is eaten boiled with salt only, is digested in two hours and forty-five minutes. Beef, fresh, lean, and rarely-roasted, and a beefsteak broiled, takes three hours to digest; that fresh, and dry-roasted, and boiled, eaten with mustard, is digested in three and a half hours. Lean fresh beef fried, requires four hours, and old hard salted beef boiled, does not digest in less than four and a quarter hours. Fresh beef-suet boiled takes five and a half hours.
The usual mode of preserving beef is by salting; and, when intended to keep for a long time, such as for the use of shipping, it is always salted with brine; but for family use it should be salted only with good salt; for brine dispels the juice of meat, and saltpetre only serves to make the meat dry, and give it a disagreeable and unnatural red color. Various experiments have been made in curing beef with salt otherwise than by hand-rubbing, and in a short space of time, and also to preserve it from putrefaction by other means than salt. Some packers putmeatin a copper which is rendered air-tight, and an air-pump then creates a vacuum within it, thereby extracting all the air out of the meat; then brine is pumped in by pressure, which, entering into every pore of the meat formerly occupied by the air, is said to place it in a state of preservation in a few minutes. The carcass of an ox was preserved, in France, for two years from putrefaction by injecting four pounds of saline mixture into the carotid artery. Whether any such contrivance can be made available for family purposes, seems doubtful.
Cattle, when slaughtered, are useful to man in various other ways than by affording food from their flesh,—their offal of tallow, hides, and horns, forming extensive articlesof commerce. Of thehide, the characteristics of a good one for strong purposes are strength in its middle, orbutt, as it called, and lightness in the edges, oroffal. A bad hide is the opposite of this—thick in the edges and thin in the middle. A good hide has a firm texture; a bad one, loose and soft. A hide improves as the summer advances, and it continues to improve after the new coat of hair in autumn until November or December, when the coat gets rough from the coldness of the season, and the hide is then in its best state. It is surprising how a hide improves in thickness after the cold weather has set in. The sort of food does not seem to affect the quality of the hide; but the better it is, and the better cattle have been fed, and the longer they have been well fed, even from a calf, the better the hide. From what has been said of the effect of weather upon the hide, it seems a natural conclusion that a hide is better from an ox that has been fed in the open air, than from one that has been kept in the barn. Dirt adhering to a hide injures it, particularly in stall-fed animals; and any thing that punctures a hide, such as warbles arising from certain insects, is also injurious. The best hides are obtained from the West Highlanders. The Short Horns produce the thinnest hides, the Aberdeenshire the next, and then the Angus. Of the same breed, the ox affords the strongest hide; but, as hides are applied to various uses, the cow's, provided it be large, may be as valuable as that of the ox. The bull's hide is the least valuable. Hides are imported from Russia and South America.
Hides, when deprived of their hair, are converted intoleatherby an infusion of the astringent property of bark.The old plan of tanning used to occupy a long time; but, such was the value of the process, that the old tanners used to pride themselves upon producing a substantial article—which is more than can be said in many instances under modern improved modes, which hasten the process, much to the injury of the article produced. Strong infusions of bark make leather brittle; one hundred pounds of skin, quickly tanned in a strong infusion, produce one hundred and thirty-seven pounds of leather; while a weak infusion produces only one hundred and seventeen and a half,—the additional nineteen and a half pounds serving only to deteriorate the leather, and causing it to contain much less textile animal solid. Leather thus highly charged with tanning is so spongy as to allow moisture to pass readily through its pores, to the great discomfort and injury of those who wear shoes made of it. The proper mode of tanning lasts a year, or a year and a half, according to the quality of the leather wanted and the nature of the hides. A perfect leather can be recognized by its section, which should have a glistening marbled appearance, without any white streaks in the middle. The hair which is taken off hides in tanning, is employed to mix with plaster, and is often surreptitiously put into hair-mattresses.
The principalsubstancesof whichglueis made are the parings of ox and other thick hides, which form the strongest article and the refuse of the leather-dresser. Both afford from forty-five to fifty-five per cent. of glue. The tendons, and many other offals of slaughter-houses, also afford materials, though of an inferior quality, for this purpose. The refuse of tanneries—such as the ears of oxen and calves—arebetter articles. Animal skins also, in any form, uncombined with tannin, may be worked into glue.
Ox-tallowis of great importance in the arts. Candles and soap are made of it, and it enters largely into the dressing of leather and the use of machinery. Large quantities are annually exported from Russia. Ox-tallow consists of seventy-six parts of stearine and twenty-four of oleine, out of one hundred parts.
Thehornsof oxen are used for many purposes. The horn consists of two parts: an outward horny case, and an inward conical-shaped substance, somewhat intermediate between indurated hair and bone, called thefluidof the horn. These two parts are separated by means of a blow upon a block of wood. The horny exterior is then cut into three portions by means of a frame saw. The lowest of these, next the root of the horn, after undergoing several processes by which it is rendered flat, is made into combs.
The middle of the horn, after having been flattened by heat, and its transparency improved by oil, is split into thin layers, and forms a substitute for glass in lanterns of the commonest kind. The tip of the horns is used by makers of knife-handles and of the tops of whips, and for other similar purposes. The interior, or core of the horn, is boiled down in water. A large quantity of fat rises to the surface; this is put aside, and sold to the makers of yellow soap. The itself is used as a kind of glue, and is purchased by the cloth-draper for stiffening. The bony substance remaining behind is then sent to the mill, and, after having been ground down, is sold to farmers for manure.
Besides these various purposes to which the different partsof the horn are applied, the clippings which arise in comb-making are sold to the farmer for manure, as well as the shavings which form the refuse of the lantern-makers. Horn, as is well known, is easily rendered soft and pliant in warm water; and by this peculiarity and its property of adhering like glue, large plates of horn can be made by cementing together the edges of small pieces rendered flat by a peculiar process, as a substitute for glass. Imitation of tortoise-shell can be given to horn by means of various metallic solutions. Horn, also, when softened, can be imprinted with any pattern, by means of dies.
Diseases and their Remedies
Under this head it is proposed to notice such diseases as are most common among cattle, together with their symptoms, and to suggest such treatment of the same as has been found in the practice of the author, in the main, effective. He is aware that much more space might have been appropriated to this head, as has been the case in other treatises of this class; but he doubts the propriety of multiplying words about diseases which are of very rare occurrence, deeming it more fitting to leave such instances exclusively to the intelligent consideration of the reliable veterinary practitioner.
For convenience of reference, the diseases here noticed have been arranged in alphabetical order; the whole concluding with information as to two or three operations which cannot be uninteresting to, or unprofitable for, the reader.
The cow is, more than any other animal, subject to abortion, or slinking, which takes place at different periods of pregnancy, from half of the usual time to the seventh, or almost to the eighth month. The symptoms of the approach of abortion, unless the breeder is very much among his stock, are not often perceived; or, if perceived, they are concealed by the person in charge, lest he should be accused of neglect or improper treatment.
The cow is somewhat off her feed—rumination ceases—she is listless and dull—the milk diminishes or dries up—the motions of the fœtus become more feeble, and at length cease altogether—there is a slight degree of enlargement of the belly—there is a little staggering in her walk—when she is down she lies longer than usual, and when she gets up she stands for a longer time motionless.
As the abortion approaches, a yellow or red glairy fluid runs from the vagina (this is a symptom, which rarely, or never, deceives) her breathing becomes laborious and slightly convulsive. The belly has for several days lost its natural rotundity, and has been evidently falling,—she begins to moan,—the pulse becomes small, wiry, and intermittent. At length labor comes on, and is often attended with much difficulty and danger.
If the abortion has been caused by blows or violence,whether from brutality, or the animal's having been teased by other cows in season, or by oxen, the symptoms are more intense. The animal suddenly ceases to eat and to ruminate—is uneasy, paws the ground, rests her head on the manger while she is standing, and on her flank when she is lying down—hemorrhage frequently comes on from the uterus, or when this is not the case the mouth of that organ is spasmodically contracted. The throes come on, are distressingly violent, and continue until the womb is ruptured. If all these circumstances be not observed, still the labor is protracted and dangerous.
Abortion is sometimes singularly frequent in particular districts, or on particular farms, appearing to assume an epizoötic or epidemic form. This has been accounted for in various ways. Some have imagined it to be contagious. It is, indeed, destructively propagated among the cows, but this is probably to be explained on a different principle from that of contagion. The cow is a considerably imaginative animal, and highly irritable during the period of pregnancy. In abortion, the fœtus is often putrid before it is discharged; and the placenta, or after-birth, rarely or never follows it, but becomes decomposed, and, as it drops away in fragments, emits a peculiar and most noisome smell. This smell seems to be peculiarly annoying to the other cows: they sniff at it and then run bellowing about. Some sympathetic influence is exercised on their uterine organs, and in a few days a greater or less number of those that had pastured together likewise abort. Hence arises the rapidity with which the fœtus is usually taken away and buried deeply, and far from the cows; and hence the more effectual preventive of smearingthe parts of the cow with tar or stinking oils, in order to conceal or subdue the smell; and hence, too, the inefficacy, as a preventive, of removing her to a far-distant pasture.
The pastures on which the blood or inflammatory fever is most prevalent are those on which the cows oftenest slink their calves. Whatever can become a source of general excitation and fever is likely, during pregnancy, to produce inflammation of the womb; or whatever would, under other circumstances, excite inflammation of almost any organ, has at that time its injurious effect determined to this particular one.
Every farmer is aware of the injurious effect of the coarse, rank herbage of low, marshy, and woody countries, and he regards these districts as the chosen residence of red water; it may be added, that they are also the chosen residence of abortion. Hard and mineral waters are justly considered as laying the foundation of many diseases among cattle, and of abortion among the rest.
Some careful observers have occasionally attributed abortion to disproportion in size between the male and the female. Farmers were formerly too fond of selecting a great overgrown bull to serve their dairy or breeding cows, and many a heifer, or little cow, was seriously injured; and she either cast her calf, or was lost in parturition. The breeders of cattle in later years are beginning to act more wisely in this matter.
Cows that are degenerating into consumption are exceedingly subject to abortion. They are continually in heat; they rarely become pregnant, or if they do, a great proportion of them cast their calves. Abortion, also, often follows asudden change from poor to luxuriant food. Cows that have been out, half-starved in the winter, when incautiously turned on rich pasture in the spring, are too apt to cast their calves from the undue general or local excitation that is set up. Hence it is, that when this disposition to abort first appears in a herd, it is naturally in a cow that has been lately purchased. Fright, from whatever cause, may produce this trouble. There are singular cases on record of whole herds of cows slinking their calves after having been terrified by an unusually violent thunder-storm. Commerce with the bull soon after conception is also a frequent cause, as well as putrid smells—other than those already noticed—and the use of a diseased bull. Besides these tangible causes of abortion, there is the mysterious agency of the atmosphere. There are certain seasons when abortion is strangely frequent, and fatal; while at other times it disappears in a manner for several successive years.
The consequences of premature calving are frequently of a very serious nature; and even when the case is more favorable, the results are, nevertheless, very annoying. The animal very soon goes again to heat, but in a great many cases she fails to become pregnant; she almost invariably does so, if she is put to the bull during the first heat after abortion. If she should come in calf again during that season, it is very probable that at about the same period of gestation, or a little later, she will again abort: or that when she becomes in calf the following year, the same fatality will attend her. Some say that this disposition to cast her young gradually ceases; that if she does miscarry, it is at a later and still later period of pregnancy; and that, in about threeor four years, she may be depended upon as a tolerably safe breeder. He, however, would be sadly inattentive to his own interests who keeps a profitless beast so long.
The calf very rarely lives, and in the majority of cases it is born dead or putrid. If there should appear to be any chance of saving it, it should be washed with warm water, carefully dried, and fed frequently with small quantities of new milk, mixed, according to the apparent weakness of the animal, either with raw eggs or good gruel; while the bowels should, if occasion requires, be opened by means of small doses of castor-oil. If any considerable period is to elapse before the natural time of pregnancy would have expired, it will usually be necessary to bring up the little animal entirely by hand.
The treatment of abortion differs but little from that of parturition. If the farmer has once been tormented by this pest in his dairy, he should carefully watch the approaching symptoms of casting the calf, and as soon as he perceives them, should remove the animal from the pasture to a comfortable cow-house or shed. If the discharge be glairy, but not offensive, he may hope that the calf is not dead; he will be assured of this by the motion of the fœtus, and then it is possible that the abortion may still be avoided. He should hasten to bleed her, and that copiously, in proportion to her age, size, condition, and the state of excitation in which he may find her; and he should give a dose of physic immediately after the bleeding. When the physic begins to operate, he should administer half a drachm of opium and half an ounce of sweet spirits of nitre. Unless she is in a state of great debility, he should allow nothing but gruel,and she should be kept as quiet as possible. By these means he may occasionally allay the general or local irritation that precedes or causes the abortion, and the cow may yet go to her full time.
Should, however, the discharge be fetid, the conclusion will be that the fœtus is dead, and must be got rid of, and that as speedily as possible. Bleeding may even then be requisite if much fever exists; or, perhaps, if there is debility, some stimulating drink may not be out of place. In other respects the animal must be treated as if her usual time of pregnancy had been accomplished.
Much may be done in the way of preventing this habit of abortion among cows.The fœtus must be got rid of immediately.It should be buried deep, and far from the cow-pasture. Proper means should be taken to hasten the expulsion of the placenta. A dose of physic should be given; ergot of rye administered; the hand should be introduced, and an effort made, cautiously and gently, to detach the placenta; all violence, however, should be carefully avoided; for considerable and fatal hemorrhage may be speedily produced. The parts of the cow should be well washed with a solution of the chloride of lime, which should be injected up the vagina, and also given internally. In the mean time, and especially after the expulsion of the placenta, the cow-house should be well washed with the same solution.
The cow, when beginning to recover, should be fattened and sold. This is the first and the grand step toward the prevention of abortion, and he is unwise who does not immediately adopt it. All other means are comparativelyinefficient and worthless. Should the owner be reluctant to part with her, two months, at least, should pass before she is permitted to return to her companions. Prudence would probably dictate that she should never return to them, but be kept, if possible, on some distant part of the farm.
Abortion having once occurred among the herd, the breeding cows should be carefully watched. Although they should be well fed, they should not be suffered to get into too high condition. Unless they are decidedly poor and weak, they should be bled between the third and fourth months of pregnancy, and a mild dose of physic administered to each. If the pest continues to reappear, the owner should most carefully examine how far any of the causes of abortion that have been detected, may exist on his farm, and exert himself to thoroughly remove them.
An interesting paper upon this subject may be found in the Veterinary Review, vol. 1., p. 434, communicated by Prof. Henry Tanner, of Queen's College, Birmingham, England. As it suggests a theory as to the origin of this disease which is, to say the least, quite plausible, we transfer the article:—
"I shall not go into any notice of the general subject of abortion, but rather restrict my remarks to a cause which is very much overlooked, and yet which is probably more influential than all other causes combined. I refer to the growth of ergotized grass-seeds in our pastures.
"The action of ergot of rye (secale cornutum) upon the womb is well known as an excitant to powerful action, which usually terminates in the expulsion of the fœtus. We have asimilar disease appearing on the seeds of our grasses, but especially on the rye grass, and thus we have an ergot of the seeds of rye grass produced, possessing similar exciting powers upon the womb to those produced by the ergot of rye.
"Two conditions are necessary for the production of this ergot upon the seed of rye grass. The first is, the grass must be allowed to run to seed; and the second is, that the climate must be favorable for encouraging the development of the ergot.
"In practice, we find that on land which has been fed on during the summer, unless it has been grazed with unusual care, much of the grass throws up seed-stalks and produces seed. In districts where the climate is humid and rain abundant, as well as in very wet seasons, these seeds become liable to the growth of this ergot. Cattle appear to eat it with a relish, and the result is that abortion spreads rapidly through the herd. Heifers and cows, which, up to the appearance of the ergot, have held in calf, are excited to cast their calves by consuming it in their food. The abortion having once commenced, we know that the peculiarly sensitive condition of the breeding animal will cause its extension, even where the original cause may not be in operation; but their combined action renders the loss far more serious. If we add to this the tendency which an animal receives from her first abortion, to repeat it when next in calf, we see how seriously the mischief becomes multiplied.
"A somewhat extended observation, added to my own experience, has led me to the conviction that very much of theloss arising from abortion in our cows may be traced to the cause I have named. I feel assured the influence is even more extended than I have stated; for not only would the fœtus be thrown off in its advanced stage, but also in its earlier growth, thus causing great trouble to breeders of high-bred stock, the repeated turning of cows to the bull, and at most irregular intervals.
"The remedy differs in no respect from the ordinary mode of treatment, except that it compels a removal of the stock from the influence of the cause. Much, however, may be done by way of prevention; and this I shall briefly notice.
"It simply consists in keeping breeding cows and heifers upon land free from these seeds. Grass which has been grazed during the summer, will very generally, in a humid climate, have some of this ergotized seed; but I have not observed it produced before the end of July, or early in August; and I doubt its existence, to any injurious degree, up to this time. We may, therefore, consider such ground safe up to this period. If the breeding stock are then removed to grass land which, having been mown for this operation is a guaranty against any seeds remaining, it will seldom, if ever, happen that any injury will result from the production of ergotized grass later in the season.
"I will not venture to say that such will not appear in some cases where the grass has been cut early and has been followed by a rapid growth; but, at any rate, we have grazing land free from this excitant from July until September; and in the grass which has been mown late, I do not consider that there is the least fear of ergot's being again formed in that season. In this manner a farmer may keepgrass land for his breeding stock entirely free from ergotized grass; and, consequently, so far as this cause is concerned, they will be free from abortion. How far young heifers may be prejudicially influenced, before they are used for breeding, by an excitement of the womb, appears to me to be a subject worthy of some attention on the part of the veterinary profession."
This is a determination of blood to the head, causing pressure upon the brain. Animals attacked with this disease are generally in a plethoric condition. The usual symptoms arecoma(a sleepy state), eyes protruding, respiration accelerated; finally, the animal falls, struggles, and dies.
In such cases, bleeding should be resorted to at an early period; give in drink one pound of Epsom-salts.
This is simply an exaggerated stage of the disease known as Red Water,—to which the reader is referred in its appropriate place,—the urine being darker in color in consequence of the admixture of venous blood.
The symptoms are similar, though more acute. There is constipation at first, which is followed by diarrhœa, large quantities of blood passing away with the evacuations from the bowels; symptoms of abdominal pain are present; the loins become extremely tender; and the animal dies in a greatly prostrated condition.
The treatment does not differ from that prescribed in case of Red Water.
The trachea and bronchial tubes are frequently the seat of inflammation, especially in the spring of the year,—the symptoms of which are often confounded with those of other pulmonary diseases. This inflammation is frequently preceded by catarrhal affections; cough is often present for a long time before the more acute symptoms are observed. Bronchitis occasionally makes its appearance in an epizoötic form.
Symptoms.—A peculiarly anxious expression of the countenance will be observed; respiration laborious; a husky, wheezing, painful cough; on placing the ear to the windpipe a sonorousrâleis heard; symptomatic fever also prevails to a greater or less extent.
Treatment.—Counter-irritation should be early resorted to; strong mustard, mixed with equal parts of spirits of hartshorn and water, and made into a thin paste, should be applied all along the neck, over the windpipe, and to the sides, and should be well rubbed in; or, the tincture of cantharides, with ten drops of castor-oil to each ounce, applied in the same manner as the former, will be found equally effective. Give internally ten drops of Fleming's tincture of aconite every four hours, until five or six doses have been given; after which give one of the following powders twice a day: nitrate of potash, one ounce; Barbadoes aloes, one ounce; Jamaica ginger, half an ounce; pulverized-gentian root, one ounce; mix and divide into eight powders. If necessary a pound of salts may be given.
This affection—technically known asphthisis pulmonalis—is the termination of chronic disease of the lungs. These organs become filled with many little cysts, or sacks, containing a yellowish or yellowish-white fluid, which in time is hardened, producing a condition of the lungs known as tuberculous. These tubercles in turn undergo another change, becoming soft in the centre and gradually involving the whole of the hardened parts, which, uniting with adjoining ones, soon forms cysts of considerable size. These cysts are known as abscesses.
No treatment will be of much service here. It is, therefore, better, if the animal is not too poor in flesh, to have it slaughtered.
In the spring, and late in the fall, catarrhal affections are quite common, occurring frequently in a epizoötic form. Coryza, or nasal catarrh,—commonly called a cold in the head,—is not very common among cows. As its name implies, it is a local disease, confined to the lining membrane of the nose; and, consequently, the general system is not usually disturbed.
Symptoms.—The animal will be observed to sneeze; the Schneiderian membrane (membrane of the nose) is heightened in color; cough sometimes accompanies; there is also a muco-purulent discharge from the nose. Neglect to attend to these early symptoms frequently occasions disease of amore serious nature; in fact, coryza may be regarded as the forerunner of all epizoötic pulmonary disorders.
A CHAT ON THE ROAD.
A CHAT ON THE ROAD.
Treatment.—The animal should be kept on a low diet for a few days; the nostrils occasionally steamed, and one of the following powders given night and morning, which, in most cases, will be all the medicine required: nitrate of potassa, one ounce; digitalis leaves pulverized and tartrate of antimony, of each one drachm; sulphate of copper, two drachms; mix, and divide into eight powders. Should the disease prove obstinate, give for two or three days two ounces of Epsom-salts at a dose, dissolved in water, three times a day.
Two varieties of sore teats occur in the cow, in the form of pustular eruptions. They first appear as small vesicles containing a purulent matter, and subsequently assume a scabby appearance, or small ulcers remain, which often prove troublesome to heal. This latter is the cow-pox, from which Jenner derived the vaccine matter.
Treatment.—Foment the teats well with warm water and Castile-soap; after which, wipe the bag dry, and dress withcitrine ointment. The preparations of iodine have also been recommended, and they are very serviceable.
Cattle are frequently subject to this disease, particularly in the spring of the year when the grass is young and soft. Occasionally it assumes a very obstinate form in consequence of the imperfect secretion of gastric juice; thefæcesare thin, watery, and fetid, followed by very great prostration of the animal.
The symptoms of diarrhœa are too well known to require any detailed description.
Treatment.—If in a mild form, the diet should be low; give two ounces of Epsom-salts, twice a day. In a more obstinate form, give two drachms of carbonate of soda in the food. Oak-bark tea will be found very useful in these cases; or one of the following powders, twice a day, will be found very advantageous: pulverized opium and catechu, each one and a half ounces; prepared chalk, one drachm; to be given in the feed.
Calves are particularly subject to this disease, and it often proves fatal to them. It sometimes assumes an epizoötic form, when it is generally of a mild character. So long as the calf is lively and feeds well, the farmer should entertain no fear for him; but if he mopes about, refuses his food, ceases to ruminate, wastes in flesh, passes mucus and blood with thefæces, and exhibits symptoms of pain, the case is a dangerous one.
In such an emergency, lose no time, but give two or three ounces of Castor-oil with flour-gruel, or two ounces of saltsat a dose, followed with small draughts of oak-bark tea; or give, twice a day, one of the following powders: pulverized catechu, opium, and Jamaca ginger, of each half an ounce; prepared chalk, one ounce; mix, and divide into twelve powders. Bran washes, green food, and flour-gruel should be given, with plenty of salt.
This disease is very frequently confounded with the foregoing. A distinction, however, exists,—since inflammation appears in this disease, while it is absent in the former. In this affection, inflammation of the large intestines takes place, which is attended with diarrhœa. Thefæcesare covered with blood; the animal rapidly becomes prostrated, and death frequently comes to his relief.
Youatt says: "It is, however, with dysentery that the practitioner is most loth to cope,—a disease that betrays thousands of cattle. This, also, may be either acute or chronic. Its causes are too often buried in obscurity, and its premonitory symptoms are disregarded or unknown. There appears to be a strong predisposition in cattle to take on this disease. It seems to be the winding-up of many serious complaints, and the foundation of it is sometimes laid by those that appear to be of the most trifling nature. It is that in cattle which glanders and farcy are in the horse,—the breaking up of the constitution.
"Dysentery may be a symptom and concomitant of other diseases. It is one of the most fearful characteristics of murrain; it is the destructive accompaniment, or consequence, of phthisis. It is produced by the sudden disappearance ofa cutaneous eruption; it follows the cessation of chronic hoose; it is the consequence of the natural or artificial suspension of every secretion. Were any secretion to be particularly selected, the repression of which would produce dysentery, it would be that of the milk. How often does the farmer observe that no sooner does a milch cow cease her usual supply of milk than she begins to purge! There may not appear to be any thing else the matter with her; but she purges, and, in the majority of cases, that purging is fatal.
"It may, sometimes, however, be traced to sufficient causes, exclusive of previous disease. Unwholesome food—exposure to cold—neglect at the time of calving—low and marshy situations—the feeding in meadows that have been flooded, where it is peculiarly fatal—the grazing (according to Mr. Leigh, and our experience confirms his statement) upon the clays lying over the blue lias rock—the neighborhood of woods and of half-stagnant rivers—the continuation of unusually sultry weather—overwork, and all the causes of acute dysentery, may produce that of a chronic nature; an acute dysentery—neglected, or badly, or even most skillfully treated—may degenerate into an incurable chronic affection. Half starve a cow, or over-feed her, milk her to exhaustion, or dry her milk too rapidly—and dysentery may follow.
"The following will, probably, be the order of the symptoms, if they are carefully observed: There will be a little dullness or anxiety of countenance, the muzzle becoming short or contracted; a slight shrinking when the loins are pressed upon; the skin a little harsh and dry; the hair a little rough; there will be a slight degree of uneasiness and shivering that scarcely attracts attention; then—except it bethe degeneracy of acute into chronicdysentery—constipation may be perceived. It will be to a certain extent, obstinate; the excrement will voided with pain; it will be dry, hard, and expelled in small quantities. In other cases, perhaps, purging will be present from the beginning; the animal will be tormented withtenesmus, or frequent desire to void its excrement, and that act attended by straining and pain, by soreness about theanus, and protrusion of therectum, and sometimes by severe colicky spasms. In many cases, however, and in those of a chronic form, few of these distressing symptoms are observed, even at the commencement of the disease; but the animal voids herfæcesoftener than it is natural that she should, and they are more fluid than in a state of health; while at the same time she loses her appetite and spirits and condition, and is evidently wasting away."
Treatment.—Give one drachm of the extract of belladonna, three times a day, dissolved in water; or calomel and powdered opium, of each one drachm three times daily. As soon as the inflammatory stage passes by, give one of the following three times daily, in their gruel: nitrate of potash pulverized, gentian-root pulverized, of each one ounce; pulverized Jamaica ginger, one half an ounce; pulverized caraway, or anise-seed, six drachms. A bottle of porter given once or twice a day, will be found of very great advantage.
This is an inflammation of the external or internal coat of the intestines, sometimes attended with violent purging, especially when it is confined to the internal coats. Oxen ingood condition are more subject to this disease than are cows. It mostfrequentlyoccurs in dry, hot weather. It is sudden in its attacks, and often fatal in its termination.
Symptoms.—The animal is dull, and not disposed to move about; the muzzle is dry, and the coat staring; the animal yields, on pressure of theloins; a weak, staggering gait, when forced to move; respiration hurried; pulse accelerated but small; eyes red, full and fiery; head protruding; mouth, ears, and horns hot; appetite bad; rumination ceases; the bowels become constipated; the animal moans continually, and froths at the mouth. These symptoms violently increase as the disease advances. The animal becomes more depressed and feeble, grinds his teeth, and appears half unconscious, and dies in convulsions.
Of the causes of this disease, Youatt, who is almost the only authority we have upon this subject, says: "It seems occasionally to be epidemic; for several instances of it occur, of the same character, and in the same district. M. Cruzel gives an illustration of this in his description of the disease that destroyed so many cattle, in the years 1826 to 1827, in the Departmentde la Nievre. Out of two hundred and eighteen cattle belonging to three farmers, one hundred and thirteen were attacked by this disease, and eighty-three of them died. One farmer in a neighboring district had nineteen head of cattle, all of which sickened, but only three were lost. These were unusually hot summers. The upland pasture was burnt up, or what remained of it was rendered unusually stimulating; and the acrid plants of the marshes and low groundsacquiredadditional deleterious agency.
"When isolated cases occur, they may generally be attributed to mismanagement. Exposure to cold, or the drinking of cold water when overheated with work; too hard work in sultry weather; the use of water stagnant, impure, or containing any considerable quantity of metallic salts; the sudden revulsion of some cutaneous eruption; the crowding of animals into a confined place; too luxuriant and stimulating food generally; and the mildewed and unwholesome food on which cattle are too often kept, are fruitful sources of this complaint."
Treatment.—In the early stage of the disease, give an active purge, and follow it with ten drops of Fleming's tincture of aconite, four times daily, for two days; then give drachm doses of the extract of belladonna; give no food for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, according to circumstances. Bleeding, if done early, is often beneficial. Counter-irritants to the belly are also recommended; the best are mustard, hartshorn, and water, mixed together—or tincture of cantharides, with one drachm of croton-oil added to every ounce.
Diseases of this class have the same relation to the inferior animals that epidemic diseases have to man. Of course, they assume a very pestilential character. Scarcely a year passes away without diseases of this nature making their appearance in some parts of the world. They occur at all seasons of the year, but more generally prevail in the spring and fall. The period of their duration varies from months to years. They are, at times, mild in their attacks, and yield readily toproper treatment; at other times, they become painful pestilences, destroying every thing in their course.
The causes are generally sought for in some peculiar condition of the atmosphere. The use of the milk and flesh of diseased cattle has frequently been productive of malignant diseases in the human family.
Silius Italicus describes a fearful epizoötic, which first attacked the dog, then the feathered biped, then horses, and cattle, and, last of all, the human being.
"On mules and dogs the infection first began,And, last, the vengeful arrows fixed in man."
Epizoötics, occurring in rats, cats, dogs, horses, and cattle, which were followed in the succeeding years by more fearful ones which attacked the human family, are numerously recorded. These scourges have appeared in all ages of the world; but, as time and space will not allow our entering upon an extended consideration of them,—however interesting they might be to the general reader,—we shall content ourselves by quoting, somewhat in brief, from the lectures of the late William Youatt on these fatal maladies:—
"In the year 801, and at the commencement of the reign of Charlemagne, an epidemic disease devastated a great portion of his dominions. This was attributed to the villainy of the Duke of Benevento, who was said to have employed a great many persons in scattering an enchanted powder over the fields, which destroyed both the cattle and the food of the cattle. M. Paulet seems inclined to give full credence to this, and says that history offers many proofs of this destructive and diabolical practice. He affirms that many personswere punished in Germany, France, and, particularly, at Toulouse, for the commission of this crime. Several of the suspected agents of these atrocities were put to the torture and made full confession of their crime.
"Of the occurrence of these diseases from the year 800 to 1316,—an interval of mental darkness, and of horrors and calamities of every kind,—history records twenty cases, more or less destructive, and extending, with greater or less devastation, over France and Germany, Italy and England. Of these twenty, four date their origin from an excessive moisture in the air, accompanied by almost continual rains, and flooding the country to a considerable extent. One was supposed to be the consequence of long-continued drought and excessive heat; one was traced to the influence of an eclipse of the sun; another, to a comet; and a fourth, to a most unusually stormy winter. The reader will have the kindness to remember that we are here expressing the opinions of the writers of the day, and by no means, our own belief of the matter.
"Of the four which trace their origin to extreme wet and its consequences, the first occurred in France, in 820, after a long continuance of rain; and it was equally fatal to men and cattle. The second, which was equally fatal to both, appeared in Lorraine, in 889. The third broke out among the cavalry of the army of Arnoul, in its passage over the Alps, on its return to Italy. The fourth pervaded the whole of England in 1125, and was equally fatal to the biped and the quadruped.
"That which followed excessive heat and drought, was generally prevalent throughout Europe, but especially so inGermany. It attacked oxen, sheep, and pigs. It appeared in 994, and lasted six months.
"The one which was attributed to the comet, and which principally attacked cattle, appeared in France in 943 Almost every animal perished.
"Another, that was supposed to be connected with an eclipse of the sun, was prevalent throughout the greater part of Germany, among men and animals, in 989.
"The disease, which was the consequence of a cold and boisterous winter, was principally prevalent in France, in 887, and committed sad ravages among the herds of cattle and sheep.
"Of the twelve others, of which, authors do not indicate the cause, the first was in France, in 810, and principally among cattle. The second was also in France, in 850, and almost depopulated the country of cattle. The third, in 868, was common to all animals in France. The fourth, in 870, was in the same country, and caused severe loss among cattle. The fifth prevailed on the Rhine and in Germany, and destroyed an almost incalculable number of cattle. The sixth attacked the horses of the army of Arnoul in Lorraine, in 888. The seventh, in 940, destroyed a vast number of cattle in France, Italy, and Germany. The eighth and ninth were in France, in 941 and 942, and almost all the cattle in the country perished. The tenth pestilence broke out in England, in the year 1041, and frightful was its devastation among all animals, and, particularly, horned cattle. The eleventh also devastated our country, in 1103, and the ravages were dreadful. The twelfth was chiefly fatal in Germany, and particularly in Gueldres, in 1149.
"These twenty pestilences occurred in the space of 506 years. Five or six of them were most prevalent among cattle; two were almost confined to horses; twelve included, to a greater or less degree, almost every species of quadrupeds; and four extended to the human being. Among these the ravages of eight were most destructive in France; as many in Germany; and four in Italy and England.
"As far as we have hitherto proceeded, it will also appear that cattle are more subject to these diseases than any other species of domesticated animals, and that the pestilence is always most fearful among them. It is also evident that the maladies which proceed from cold or humidity are more frequent in the temperate and southern parts of Europe than those which depend upon drought, or almost any other cause.
"The malady lingers in different countries, in proportion to its want of power to accomplish at once all its devastation.
"After this time, there are few satisfactory accounts of these diseases for more than five centuries. We only know that, occasionally suspending their ravages,—or, rather, visiting new districts when they had ceased to desolate others—they have continued to be objects of terror and instruments of devastation, even unto the present day; and it is only within a few years that they have been really understood, and have become, to a certain degree, manageable."
In the United States, epizoötic diseases have been of frequent occurrence; but, owing to the want of properly qualified veterinary surgeons, they have not, until within a very recent period, been properly described or understood.The day however, is fast approaching when this void will be filled, and when epizoötic and other diseases will be correctly noted and recorded. The necessity for this must have been forcibly impressed upon the minds of the inhabitants of our country from the experience of the last ten or twelve years.
Respecting the late epizoötic among cattle in Portage County, Ohio, William Pierce, V.S., of Ravenna, thus describes the symptoms as they appeared, in a letter to the author: "A highly-colored appearance of the sclerotic coat of the eye, also of theconjunctiva(a lining membrane of the eyelid) and the Schneiderian membrane of the nose; a high animal heat about the head and horns; a highly inflammatory condition of the blood; contraction of all the abdominal viscera; hurried respiration; great prostration and nervous debility; lameness; followed by gangrene of the extremity of the tail, and the hind-feet; terminating in mortification and death."
Mr. Pierce is convinced that these symptoms are produced by the continued use of the ergot, or spur of the June grass,—the effects being similar to those produced upon the human family by long-continued use of ergot of rye. This disease assumes both an acute and chronic form.
The same gentleman also says: "Ordinary observers, as well as those who claim to be scientific, have entertained very conflicting opinions as to its general character; some regarding it as epizoötic, others as contagious; some attributing it to atmospheric influence, others to foulings in the stable or yard. Others, again, attribute it to freezing of the feet in winter. Cattle-doctors in a majority of cases, fail to cure it. I have, however, by a simple course of treatment, effectedmany signal cures. Some parties are so confident of the contagious character of the disease that they refuse to drive cattle along a road where it is known to exist. They even, oftentimes, wash their boots previous to entering their barnyards, after walking over the ground where such diseased cattle have been running.
"Caution is both proper and commendable. I do not, however, regard it as a contagious disease, nor can it be transmitted by inoculation. The calf is carried during the progress of the disease, and delivered in apparently good health. The milk of the cow appears to be unaffected and harmless. I call this diseasesphacial fever, organgrenous fever.