1902 Encyclopedia > Vetinerary Science

Vetinerary Science




This science comprises a knowledge of the conformation and structure of all the domesticated animals, espe-cially the horse; their physiology and special racial and individual characteristics ; their humane management and utilization ; their protection from, and medical and surgical treatment in, the diseases and injuries to which they are exposed ; their amelioration and improvement; their relations to the human family with regard to communicable disorders ; and the supply of food and other products, more particularly those derived from them for the use of mankind.

HISTORY.

There is evidence that the Egyptians practised veterin-ary medicine and surgery in very remote times ; but it is Amongst not until we turn to the Greeks that we obtain any very th-e definite information with regard to the state of veterinary Greeks. ag wejj as ]lllman medicine in antiquity. The writings of Hippocrates (460-356 B.C.) afford evidence of excellent investigations in comparative pathology. Diocles of Car-istus, who was nearly a contemporary, was one of the first to occupy himself with anatomy, which he studied in animals. Aristotle, too, wrote on physiology and com-parative anatomy, and on the maladies of animals, while many other Greek writers on veterinary medicine are cited or copied from by Varro, Columella, and Galen. And we must not overlook Mago of Carthage (200 B.C.), whose work in twenty-eight books was translated into Greek and was largely used by Varro and Columella. Amongst Until after the conquest of Greece the Romans do not R6 appear to have known much of veterinary medicine, omans. yarro (iig_28 B.C.) may be considered the first Roman writer who deals with animal medicine in a scientific spirit, in his De Re Rustica, in three books, which is largely derived from Greek writers. Celsus is supposed to have written on animal medicine ; and Columella (1st century) is credited with having utilized those relating to veterinary science in the sixth and seventh parts of his Be Re Rustica, one of the best works of its class of ancient times: it treats, not only of medicine and surgery, but also of sani-tary measures for the suppression of contagious diseases. From the 3d century onwards veterinary science had a literature of its own and regular practitioners, especially in the service of the Roman armies (mulomedici, veterin-arii). Perhaps the most renowned veterinarian of the Roman empire was Apsyrtus of Bithynia, who in 322 accompanied the expedition of Constantine against the Sarmatians in his professional capacity, and seems to have enjoyed a high and well-deserved reputation in his time. He was a keen observer ; he distinguished and described a number of diseases which were badly defined by his predecessors, recognized the contagious nature of several maladies, and prescribed isolation for their suppression ; he also made interesting observations on accidents and diseases of horses' limbs, and waged war against certain absurd empirical practices then prevailing in the treatment of disease, indicating rational methods, some of which are still successfully employed in veterinary therapeutics, such as splints for fractures, sutures for wounds, cold water for the reduction of prolapsed vagina, hot baths for tetanus, etc. Not less eminent was Hierocles, the successor of Apsyrtus, whose writings he largely copied, but with improvements and valuable additions, especially in the hygiene and training of horses. Pelagonius again was a writer of empirical tendency, and his treatment of disease in general was most irrational. Publius Vegetius (not to be confounded with Flavius Vegetius Renatus, who wrote on the military art) was a popular author of the end of the 5th century, though less distinguished than Apsyrtus, to whom and to Pelagonius he was to a great extent indebted in the preparation of his Midomedicina sive Ars Veterinaria. He appears to have been more of a horse-dealer than a veterinary practitioner, and knew next to nothing of anatomy, which seems to have been but little cultivated at that period. He was very superstitious and a believer in the influence of demons and sorcerers; nevertheless he gives some interesting observations derived from his travels. He had also a good idea of aerial infection, recognized the utility of disinfectants, and describes some operations not referred to by previous writers, such as removal of calculi from the bladder through the rectum, couching for cataract, the extirpation of certain glands, and several serious operations on the horse's foot. Though inferior to several works written by his predecessors, the Mulomedicina of Vegetius maintained its popularity through many centuries. Of most of the ancient veterin-ary writers we know little beyond what can be gathered from the citations and extracts in the two great collections of Hipiriaty-ica and Geoponica compiled by order of Con-stantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century.

It is unnecessary to dwell here on the progress of the veterinary art during the Middle Ages. Towards the close of the mediaeval period the subject was much cultivated in the cavalry schools of Italy; and Spain also had an organized system of good practitioners in the 15th century, who have left many books still extant. Ger-many was far behind, and literature on the subject did not exist until the end of the 15th century, when in 1492 there was published anonymously at Augsburg a Pferde-arzneibilchlein. In the following century the influence of the Italian writers was becoming manifest, and the works of ITugger and Fayser mark the commencement of a new era. Fayser's treatises, Von der Gestüterei and Von der Zucht der Kriegs- und Bürger-Pferde (1529-1597), are remarkable for originality and good sense. In Great Britain animal medicine was perhaps in a more advanced condition than in Germany, if we accept the evidence of the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales (London, 1841) ; yet it was largely made up of the grossest superstitions. Among the Celts the healer of horse diseases and the shoer were held in high esteem, as among the more civilized nations of Europe, and the court farrier enjoyed special privileges. The earliest known works in English appeared anonymously towards the commencement of the 16th cen-tury, namely, Propertees and Medcynes for a Horse and Mascal of Oxen, Horses, Sheepes, Hogg es, Dogges. The word " mascal" shows that the latter work was in its origin Italian. There is no doubt that in the 15th century the increasing taste for horses and horsemanship brought Italian riding-masters and farriers into England ; and it is recorded that Henry VIII. brought over two of these men who had been trained by Grisone in the famous Neapolitan school. The knowledge so introduced became popularized, and assumed a concrete form in Blundeville's Foure Chiefest Offices belongi7ig to Horsemanship (1566), which contains many references to horse diseases, and, though mainly a compilation, is yet enriched with original observations. In the 15th century the anatomy of the domesticated animals, formerly almost entirely neglected, began to receive attention. A work on comparative anatomy by Volcher Koyter was issued at Nuremberg in 1573 ; about the same time a writer in Germany named Copho or Cophon published a book on the anatomy of the pig, in which were many original remarks on the lymphatic vessels; and Jehan Hervard in France produced in 1594 his rather incomplete Hippo-Osteologie. But by far the most notable work, and one which maintained its popu-larity for a century and a half, was that of Carlo Ruini, a senator of Bologna, published in 1598 in that city, and entitled Dell' Anatomia, e dell' Infirmila del Cavallo, e suoi Remedii. Passing through many editions, and trans-lated into French and German, this book was for the most part original, and a remarkable one for the time in which it was composed, the anatomical portion being especially praiseworthy. English books of the 17th century exhibit a strong tendency towards the improvement of veterinary medicine and surgery, especially as regards the horse. This is even more notable in the writings of the 18th century, among which may be particularized Gibson's Farrier's Neio Guide (1719), Method of Dieting Horses (1721), and (best of all) his Neiv Treatise on the Diseases of Horses, besides Braken's, Burdon's, Bridge's, and Bartlet's treatises. Veterinary anatomy was greatly advanced by the Anatomy of an Horse (1683) of Snape, farrier to Charles IL, illustrated with copperplates, and by the still more complete and original work of Stubbs, the Anatomy of the Horse (1766), which decidedly marked a new era in this line of study. Of foreign works it may . suffice to mention that of Solleysel, Veritable Parfait Maresckal (1664), which passed through many editions, was translated into several languages, and was borrowed from for more than a century by different writers. Sir W. Hope's Compleat Horseman (1696) is a translation from Solleysel by a pupil.

Modern Schools and Colleges.

The most important era in the history of modern veterinary Veterin-seience commenced with the institution of veterinary schools, ary France was the first to take the great initiative step in this schools, direction. Button had recommended the formation of veterinary schools, hut his recommendations were not attended to. Bourgelat, In an advocate at Lyons and a talented hippologist, through his influ- France, ence with Bertin, prime minister under Louis XV., was the first to induce the Government to establish a veterinary school and school of equitation at Lyons, in 1761. This school he himself directed for only a few years, during which the great benefits that had resulted from it justified an extension of its teaching to other parts of France. Bourgelat, therefore, founded (1766) at Alfort, near Paris, a second veterinary school, which soon became, and has re-mained to this day, one of the finest and most advanced veterinary schools in the world. At Lyons he was replaced by the Abbe Rozier, a learned agriculturist, who was killed at the siege of Lyons after a very successful period of school management, during which he had added largely to agricultural and physical knowledge by the publi-cation of his Journal de Physique and Cours d'Agriculture. Twenty years later the Alfort school added to its teaching staff several dis-tinguished professors whose names still adorn the annals of science, such as Daubenton, who taught rural economy ; Vic d'Azyr, who lectured on comparative anatomy ; Fourcroy, who undertook in-struction in chemistry; and Gilbert, one of its most brilliant pupils, who had veterinary medicine and surgery for his department. The last-named was also a distinguished agriculturist and published many important treatises on agricultural as well as veterinary subjects. The position he had acquired, added to his profound and varied knowledge, made him most useful to France during the period of the Revolution. It is chiefly to him that it is indebted for the celebrated Rambouillet flock of Merino sheep, for the conservation of the Tuileries and Versailles parks, and for the creation of the fine experimental agricultural establishment organized in the ancient domain of Sceaux. The Alfort school speedily became the nursery of veterinary science, and the source whence all similar institutions obtained their first teachers and their guidance. A third Govern-ment school was at a later period founded at Toulouse ; and these three schools have produced thousands of thoroughly educated veterinary surgeons and many professors of high scientific repute, among whom may be named Bouley, Chauvcau, Colin, Toussaint, St Cyr, Goubaux, Arloing, and Galtier.

Soon after the Alfort school was commenced a national school In Ger-for Austria was established at Vienna by order of Maria Theresa ; many, and this, remodelled and reorganized by Joseph II., is now the &c. largest in the country. Prussia quickly followed suit; and soon Government veterinary schools were founded in almost every other European country, except Great Britain, mostly on a munificent scale. Probably all, but especially those of France and Germany, were established as much with a view to training veterinary surgeons for the army as for the requirements of civil life.

In 1790 St Bel (whose real name was Vial, St Bel being a village In the near Lyons, where was his paternal estate), after studying at the United Lyons school and teaching both at Alfort and Lyons, came to Eng- King-land and published proposals for founding a school in which to in- dom. struct pupils in veterinary medicine and surgery. The Agricultural Society of Odiham, which had been meditating sending two young men to the Alfort school, elected him an honorary member, and delegated a committee to consult with him respecting his scheme. Some time afterwards this committee detached themselves from the Odiham Society and formed an institution styled the Veterinary College of London, of which St Bel was appointed professor. The school was to be commenced and maintained by private subscrip-tion. In March 1792 arrangements were made for building tem-porary stabling for fifty horses and a forge for shoeing at St PaneraS. The college made rapid progress in public estimation, notwith-standing considerable pecuniary embarrassments. As soon as tho building was ready for the reception of animal patients, pupils began to be enrolled ; and among the earliest were some who afterwards gained celebrity as veterinarians, as Bloxam, Blaine, R. Lawrence, Field, and Bracy Clark. On the death of St Bel in August 1793 there appears to have been some difficulty in procuring a suitable successor ; but at length, on the recommendation of John Hunter and Cline, two medical men were appointed, Coleman and Moorcroft, the latter then practising as a veterinary surgeon in London. Tho first taught anatomy and physiology, and Moorcroft, after visiting the French schools, directed the practical portion of the teaching. Unfortunately, neither of these teachers had much experience among animals, nor were they well acquainted with their diseases ; but Coleman had as a student, in conjunction with a fellow-student (afterwards Sir Astley Cooper), performed many experiments

animals under the direction of Clinc. Moorcroft, who remained only a short time at the college, afterwards went to India and during a journey in 1819 was murdered in Tibet. Coleman, by his scientific researches and energetic management, in a few years raised the college to a high standard of usefulness ; under his care the progress of the veterinary art was such as to qualify its practitioners to hold commissions in the army ; and he himself was appointed veterinary surgeon-general to the British cavalry. Owing to the lack of funds, the teaching at the college must have been very meagre, and, had it not been for the liberality of several medical men in throwing open the doors of their theatres to its pupils for instruction without fee or reward, their professional knowledge would have been sadly deficient. The board of examiners was for many years chiefly composed of eminent members of the medical profession. Coleman died in 1839, and with him disappeared much of the interest the medical profession of London took in the pro-gress of veterinary medicine. Yet the Royal Veterinary College (first styled "Royal" during the presidentship of the duke of Kent) continued to do good work in a purely veterinary direction, and received such public financial support that it was soon able to dispense with the small annual grant given to it by the Government. In the early years of the institution the horse was the only animal to which much attention was given. But at the instigation of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, which gave £200 per annum for the purpose, an additional professor was appointed to investigate and teach the treatment of the diseases of cattle, sheep, and other animals ; outbreaks of disease among these were also to be inquired into by the officers of the college. This help to the institution was withdrawn in 1875, but renewed in 1886.

This veterinary school has been the parent of other schools in Great Britain, one of which, the first in Scotland, was founded by Prof. Dick, a student of Coleman's and a man of great persever-ance and ability. Commencing at Edinburgh in 1819-20 with only one student, in three years he gained the patronage of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, which placed a small sum of money at the disposal of a committee appointed by itself to take charge of a department of veterinary surgery it had formed. This patronage, and very much in the way of material assistance and encouragement, were continued to the time of Dick's death in 1866. During the long period in which he presided over the school, considerable progress was made in diffusing a sound knowdedge of veterinary medicine in Scotland and beyond it. For many years his examining board, which gave certificates of pro-ficiency under the auspices of the Highland and Agricultural Society, was composed of the most distinguished medical men in Scotland, such as Goodsir, Syme, Lizars, Ballingall, Simpson, and Knox. By his will Dick vested the college in the lord provost and town council of Edinburgh as trustees, and left a large portion of the fortune he had made to maintain it for the purposes for which it was founded. In recent years another veterinary school has been established in Edinburgh, and one in Glasgow, both of which are doing good service.

In 1844 the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (to be care-fully distinguished from the Royal Veterinary College) obtained its charter of incorporation. The functions of this body were, until a recent date, limited almost entirely to examining students taught in the veterinary schools, and bestowing diplomas of membership on those who successfully passed the examinations conducted by the boards which sat in London and Edinburgh. Soon after the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons obtained its charter of incor-poration a difference arose between it and Dick, which resulted in the latter seceding altogether from the union that had been estab-lished and forming an independent examining board, the Highland and Agricultural Society granting certificates of proficiency to those students who were deemed competent. This schism operated very injuriously on the progress of veterinary education and on profes-sional advancement, as the competition engendered was of a rather deteriorating nature. After the death of Dick the dualism in veterinary licensing was suppressed : the Highland Society ceased to give certificates and the only mode of admission to the profession was through the Royal College. Since then the subjects taught have been increased in number; conformably with the requirements of ever-extending science, the period of study has been enlarged so as to be nearly as long as that imposed upon medical students; the teaching is more thorough and practical; and the examinations are more frequent and searching. Candidates for admission to the schools must also give evidence of having received a good general education. Also since the suppression of the dual system an Act of Parliament has been obtained protecting the title of the graduates of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and conferring other advantages, not the least of which is the power granted to the college to remove the names of unworthy members from its register. In some respects the Veterinary Surgeons Act is superior to the Medical Act, while it places the profession on the same level as other learned bodies, and prevents the public being imposed upon by empirics and impostors. The college has instituted a higher degree, that of fellow, which can only be obtained after the graduate has been five years in practice and by passing a severe examination. Fellows only can be members of council or members of the examin-ing boards. The graduates of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons who have been registered since its foundation in 1844 probably number 4000. In the British army there is a smaller mortality among the animals employed, and less loss from con-tagious diseases than in any other in Europe ; this result, as well as the high efficiency of the horses, is largely due to the zeal, intelligence, and natural aptitude of the veterinary officers for their special duties. In no other army are they so severely tested, physically and professionally,—more than one-half of their service being foreign ; and in India their skill has to be exercised on elephants, camels, bullocks, cattle, and sheep, in addition to horses. During war the strain on army veterinary surgeons is very heavy; and, while surgeons are protected in the field by the Geneva Red Cross, being considered as non-belligerents, veterinary officers are regarded as combatants, and therefore run the risk of capture, imprisonment, or death at the hands of the enemy.

In India there are one or more veterinary schools in each presi- Inlndia. dency, in which natives are trained as veterinary surgeons. The need for this will be perceived when it is stated that the loss in India from preventible animal diseases alone amounts to at least £6,000,000 annually.

In the United States of America veterinary science has been an ln the exotic of very slow growth. There are veterinary schools in New United York, Minneapolis, and elsewhere, but these, like those in Great States. Britain, are private institutions. To the Cornell, Pennsylvania, and Harvard universities veterinary schools or chairs have been attached with competent teachers. Events are at present rapidly compelling the people of the United States to realize the true value and importance of veterinary science. For many years the "lung plague" has been gradually extending itself westward, and it is now causing heavy losses. Long exempted from the more serious of the contagious diseases of animals which have scourged Europe, the United States are now invaded by all of them except two—cattle plague and the foot-and-mouth disease ; and an exotic disorder of pigs, the swine plague or fever, is threatening to exterminate these animals.

The veterinary literature of this period affords striking evidence of the progress made by the science: excellent text-books, manuals, and treatises on every subject belonging to it are very numerous, and are published in every European language, while there is an abundance of periodical literature. The education—general and technical—of practitioners of veterinary medicine has, of course, been improving to a corresponding extent. The matriculation test for admission to the best veterinary schools and the fixed period for instruction in them vary but little from those of the medical schools. In Germany the veterinary schools at Berlin and Hanover have been raised to the position of universities.

Objects of the Science.

One of the chief objects of the science is the treatment Treat-of disease in animals. Veterinary medicine has been far ment of less exposed to the vagaries of theoretical doctrines and disease, systems than human medicine. The explanation may perhaps be that the successful practice of this branch of medicine more clearly than in any other depends upon the careful observation of facts and the rational deductions to be made therefrom. No special doctrines seem, in later times at least, to have been adopted, and the dominating sentiment in regard to disease and its treat-ment has been a medical eclecticism, based on practical experience and anatomico-pathological investigation, rarely indeed on philosophical or abstract theories. In this way veterinary science has become pre-eminently a science of observation. At times indeed it has to some extent been influenced by the doctrines which have controlled the practice of human medicine—such as these of Broussais, Hahnemann, Brown, Rasori, Rademacher, and others— yet this has not been for long : experience of them when tested upon dumb unimaginative animals soon exposed their fallacies and compelled their discontinuance.

Of more moment than the cure of disease is its preven- Preven-tion, and this is now considered the most important object tion of in connexion with veterinary science. More especially is dlsease-this the case with those serious disorders which depend for their existence and extension upon the presence of an infecting agent, and whose ravages for so many centuries are written largely in the history of civilization. Every advance made in medicine affects the progress of veterinary science, and the recent remarkable discoveries, some of which have been initiated by members of the veterinary profession, or developed by them, must in the end create as great a revolution in veterinary practice as in the medicine of man. In "preventive medicine" the benefits to be derived from the application of the germ theory will be immense; the sanitary police measures based on this know-ledge are easily framed, and, if carried rigorously into operation, must eventually lead to the extinction of these disastrous disorders.1 The medicine of the lower animals differs from that of man in no particular so much, perhaps, as in the application it makes of utilitarian principles. The life of man is sacred; but in the case of animals, when there are doubts as to complete restoration to health and soundness, monetary considerations generally decide against the adoption of remedial measures. This feature in the medicine of the domesticated animals brings very prominently before us the value of the old adage that " prevention is better than cure." In Great Britain the value of comparative pathology in the relations it bears to human medicine, to the public health and wealth, as well as to agriculture, has been strangely overlooked or ignored; and in consequence but little allowance has been made for the difficulties the practitioner of animal medicine has to contend with. The rare instances in which animals can be seen by the veterinary surgeon in the earliest stages of disease, and when this would prove most amenable to medical treatment; delay, gener-ally due to the inability of those who have the care of animals to perceive these early stages; the fact that animals cannot, except in a negative manner, tell their woes, describe their sensations, or indicate what and where they suffer; the absence of those comforts and conveni-ences of the sick room which cannot be called in to amelio-rate their condition; the violence or stupor, as well as the structural arrangements and attitude of the sick creatures, which only too frequently render favourable positions for cure impossible ; the slender means generally afforded for carrying out recommendations, together with the often-times intractable nature of these diseases; and the utili-tarian influences alluded to above,—all these considera-tions, in the great majority of instances, militate against the adoption of curative treatment, or at least greatly increase its difficulties.

For more than forty years most destructive plagues of animals have prevailed almost continuously in the British islands without any attempt, worthy of the name, having been made to check or extirpate them until within a very recent period. Two exotic bovine diseases alone (contagi-ous pleuro-pneumonia or lung plague and foot-and-mouth disease) are estimated to have caused the death, during the first thirty years of their prevalence in the United King-dom, of 5,549,780 cattle, roughly valued at £83,616,854 ; while the invasion of cattle plague in 1865-66 was calcu-lated to have caused a money loss of from £5,000,000 to £8,000,000. The depredations made in South Africa and Australia by the lung plague alone are quite appalling; and in India the loss brought about by contagious diseases among animals has been stated at not less than £6,000,000 annually. The damage done by tuberculosis—a contagious disease of cattle, transmissible to several kinds of animals, and possibly also to man, by means of the flesh and milk of diseased beasts—cannot be even guessed at; but it must be enormous, when we learn how widely the malady is diffused. But that terrible pest of all ages, the cattle plague, has in its two recent invasions of England been promptly suppressed with comparatively trifling loss. The foot-and-mouth disease, which proved such a heavy inflic-tion to British agriculture from its introduction in 1838, has been completely extirpated. Glanders, which annually caused the destruction of large numbers of cavalry horses, is now unknown in the army, and is rapidly disappearing from civilian stables. Rabies would soon be included in the category of extinct diseases if the indications of veterinary science were followed ; and so with the other contagious maladies of animals. As for such diseases as depend for their development upon germs derived from the soil or herbage upon which animals live, and which cannot be directly controlled by veterinary sanitary measures, the system of protective inoculation with culti-vated virus introduced by Pasteur will probably bring about their extinction, or at any rate greatly mitigate their effects.

Veterinary science can also offer much assistance in the Eela-study and prevention of the diseases to which mankindtions are liable. Some grave maladies of the human species ?f vetl are certainly derived from animals, and others may yet be h"*^, added to the list. In the training of the physician great medi-benefit would be derived from the study of disease incme-animals,—a fact which has been strangely overlooked in England, as those can testify who understand how closely the health of man may depend upon the health of the creatures he has domesticated and derives subsistence from, and how much more advantageously morbid processes can be studied in animals than in our own species. Although as yet no chair of comparative pathology has been estab-lished in any British university, on the Continent such chairs are now looked upon as an almost indispensable item of every university. Bourgelat, towards the middle of the 18th century, in speaking of the veterinary schools he had been instrumental in forming, urged that " leurs portes soient sans cesse ouvertes à ceux qui, chargés par l'état de la conservation des hommes, auront acquis par le nom qu'ils se seront fait le droit d'interroger la nature, chercher des analogies, et vérifier des idées dont la con-formation ne peut être qu'utile à l'espèce humaine." And the benefits to be mutually derived from this association of the two branches of medicine inspired Vicq d'Azyr to elaborate his Nouveau Plan de la Constitution de la Médecine en France, which he presented to the National Assembly in 1790. His fundamental idea was to make veterinary teaching a preliminary (le premier degré) and, as it were, the principle of instruction in human medicine. His pro-posal went so far as to insist upon a veterinary school being annexed to every medical college established in France. This idea was reproduced in the Rapport sur l'Instruction Publique which Talleyrand read before the National Assembly in 1790. In this project veterinary teaching was to form part of the National Institution at Paris. The idea was to initiate students of medicine into a know-ledge of diseases by observing those of animals. The suffering animal always appears exactly as it is and feels, without the intervention of mind obscuring the symptomatology, the symptoms being really and truly the rigorous expression of its diseased condition. From this point of view, the dumb animal, when it is ill, offers the same difficulties in diagnosis as does the ailing infant or the comatose adult.

Of the other objects of veterinary science there is only one to which allusion need here be made : that is the perfectioning of the domestic animals in everything that is likely to make them more valuable to man. This is in an especial manner the province of this science, the know-ledge of the anatomy, physiology, and other matters con-nected with these animals by its students being essential for such improvement.

are -written largely in the history of civilization. Every advance made in medicine affects the progress of veterinary science, and the recent remarkable discoveries, some of which have been initiated by members of the veterinary profession, or developed by them, must in the end create as great a revolution in veterinary practice as in the medicine of man. In "preventive medicine" the benefits to be derived from the application of the germ theory will be immense; the sanitary police measures based on this know-ledge are easily framed, and, if carried rigorously into operation, must eventually lead to the extinction of these disastrous disorders.1 The medicine of the lower animals differs from that of man in no particular so much, perhaps, as in the application it makes of utilitarian principles. The life of man is sacred; but in the case of animals, when there are doubts as to complete restoration to health and soundness, monetary considerations generally decide against the adoption of remedial measures. This feature in the medicine of the domesticated animals brings very prominently before us the value of the old adage that " prevention is better than cure." In Great Britain the value of comparative pathology in the relations it bears to human medicine, to the public health and wealth, as well as to agriculture, has been strangely overlooked or ignored; and in consequence but little allowance has been made for the difficulties the practitioner of animal medicine has to contend with. The rare instances in which animals can be seen by the veterinary surgeon in the earliest stages of disease, and when this would prove most amenable to medical treatment; delay, gener-ally due to the inability of those who have the care of animals to perceive these early stages; the fact that animals cannot, except in a negative manner, tell their woes, describe their sensations, or indicate what and where they suffer; the absence of those comforts and conveni-ences of the sick room which cannot be called in to amelio-rate their condition; the violence or stupor, as well as the structural arrangements and attitude of the sick creatures, which only too frequently render favourable positions for cure impossible ; the slender means generally afforded for carrying out recommendations, together with the often-times intractable nature of these diseases; and the utili-tarian influences alluded to above,—all these considera-tions, in the great majority of instances, militate against the adoption of curative treatment, or at least greatly increase its difficulties.

For more than forty years most destructive plagues of animals have prevailed almost continuously in the British islands without any attempt, worthy of the name, having been made to check or extirpate them until within a very recent period. Two exotic bovine diseases alone (contagi-ous pleuro-pneumonia or lung plague and foot-and-mouth disease) are estimated to have caused the death, during the first thirty years of their prevalence in the United King-dom, of 5,549,780 cattle, roughly valued at £83,616,854 ; while the invasion of cattle plague in 1865-66 was calcu-lated to have caused a money loss of from £5,000,000 to £8,000,000. The depredations made in South Africa and Australia by the lung plague alone are quite appalling; and in India the loss brought about by contagious diseases among animals has been stated at not less than £6,000,000 annually. The damage done by tuberculosis—a contagious disease of cattle, transmissible to several kinds of animals, and possibly also to man, by means of the flesh and milk of diseased beasts—cannot be even guessed at; but it must be enormous, when we learn how widely the malady is diffused. But that terrible pest of all ages, the cattle plague, has in its two recent invasions of England been promptly suppressed with comparatively trifling loss. The foot-and-mouth disease, which proved such a heavy inflic-tion to British agriculture from its introduction in 1838, has been completely extirpated. Glanders, which annually caused the destruction of large numbers of cavalry horses, is now unknown in the army, and is rapidly disappearing from civilian stables. Rabies would soon be included in the category of extinct diseases if the indications of veterinary science were followed ; and so with the other contagious maladies of animals. As for such diseases as depend for their development upon germs derived from the soil or herbage upon which animals live, and which cannot be directly controlled by veterinary sanitary measures, the system of protective inoculation with culti-vated virus introduced by Pasteur will probably bring about their extinction, or at any rate greatly mitigate their effects.

Veterinary science can also offer much assistance in the Eela-study and prevention of the diseases to which mankindtions are liable. Some grave maladies of the human species ?f vetl are certainly derived from animals, and others may yet be h"*^, added to the list. In the training of the physician great medi-benefit would be derived from the study of disease incme-animals,—a fact which has been strangely overlooked in England, as those can testify who understand how closely the health of man may depend upon the health of the creatures he has domesticated and derives subsistence from, and how much more advantageously morbid processes can be studied in animals than in our own species. Although as yet no chair of comparative pathology has been estab-lished in any British university, on the Continent such chairs are now looked upon as an almost indispensable item of every university. Bourgelat, towards the middle of the 18th century, in speaking of the veterinary schools he had been instrumental in forming, urged that " leurs portes soient sans cesse ouvertes à ceux qui, chargés par l'état de la conservation des hommes, auront acquis par le nom qu'ils se seront fait le droit d'interroger la nature, chercher des analogies, et vérifier des idées dont la con-formation ne peut être qu'utile à l'espèce humaine." And the benefits to be mutually derived from this association of the two branches of medicine inspired Vicq d'Azyr to elaborate his Nouveau Plan de la Constitution de la Médecine en France, which he presented to the National Assembly in 1790. His fundamental idea was to make veterinary teaching a preliminary (le premier degré) and, as it were, the principle of instruction in human medicine. His pro-posal went so far as to insist upon a veterinary school being annexed to every medical college established in France. This idea was reproduced in the Rapport sur l'Instruction Publique which Talleyrand read before the National Assembly in 1790. In this project veterinary teaching was to form part of the National Institution at Paris. The idea was to initiate students of medicine into a know-ledge of diseases by observing those of animals. The suffering animal always appears exactly as it is and feels, without the intervention of mind obscuring the symptomatology, the symptoms being really and truly the rigorous expression of its diseased condition. From this point of view, the dumb animal, when it is ill, offers the same difficulties in diagnosis as does the ailing infant or the comatose adult.

Of the other objects of veterinary science there is only one to which allusion need here be made : that is the perfectioning of the domestic animals in everything that is likely to make them more valuable to man. This is in an especial manner the province of this science, the know-ledge of the anatomy, physiology, and other matters con-nected with these animals by its students being essential for such improvement.

DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

Considerations of space forbid a complete or detailed description of all the diseases, medical and surgical, to which the domesticated animals are liable. This is to be found in the current veterinary text-books. Reference will be made here only to the more import-ant disorders of animals which are of a communicable nature, and which were not included in the article MURRAIN (q.v.).

Diseases of the Horse. Every horseman should know something of the injuries, lame-Jesses, and diseases to which the horse is liable. Unfortunately not very much can be done in this direction by book instruction ; indeed, there is generally too much doctoring and too little nursing of sick animals. Even in slight and favourable cases of illness re-covery is often retarded by too zealous and injudicious medication ; the object to be always kept in view in the treatment of animal patients is to place them in those conditions which allow nature to operate most freely in restoring health. This can best be rendered Nursing, in the form of nursing, which sick animals greatly appreciate.

However indifferent a horse may be to caressing or kind attention during health, when ill he certainly appreciates both, and when in pain will often apparently endeavour to attract notice and seek relief from those with whom he is familiar. Fresh air and cleanliness, quiet and comfort, should always be secured, if possible. The stable or loose box should be warm, without being close, and free from draughts. If the weather is cold, and especially if the horse is suffering from inflammation of the air-passages, it may be necessary to keep up the temperature by artificial means ; but great care should be taken that this does not render the air too dry to breathe. The surface of the body can be kept warm by rugs, and the legs by woollen bandages. Yet a sick horse is easily fatigued and annoyed by too much clothing, and therefore it is better to resort to artificial heating of the stable than to overload the body or impede movement by heavy wrappings. If blankets are used, it is well to place a cotton or linen sheet under them, should the horse have an irritable skin. For bedding, long straw should be employed as little as possible, since it hampers movement. Clean old litter, sawdust, or peat-moss litter is the best. If the hoofs are strong, and the horse likely to be confined for some weeks, it affords relief to take off the shoes. Tying up should be avoided, if possible, unless it is urgently required, the horse being allowed to move about or lie down as he may prefer. Food for "When a sick horse has lost his appetite, he should be tempted to a sick eat by offering him such food as will be enticing to him. It should horse, bo given frequently and in small quantities, but should not be forced on him ; food will often be taken if offered from the hand, when it will not be eaten out of the manger. Whether the animal be fed from a bucket or from a manger, any food that is left should be thrown away, and the receptacle well cleaned out after each meal. As a rule, during sickness a horse requires laxative food, in order to allay fever or inflammatory symptoms, while support-ing the strength. The following list comprises the usual laxative food employed:—green grass, green wheat, oats, and barley, lucerne, carrots, parsnips, gruel, bran mash, linseed and bran mash, boiled barley, linseed tea, hay tea, and linseed oil. Green grass, lucerne, and similar articles of food, if cut when in a wet state, should be dried before being given. Boiled grain should be cooked with very little water, so that it may be floury and comparatively dry when ready ; a little salt should be mixed with it. One gallon of good gruel may be made with a pound of meal and cold water, which should be stirred till it boils, and afterwards permitted to simmer over a gentle fire till the fluid is quite thick. To make a bran mash, scald a stable bucket, throw out the water, put in three pounds of bran and one ounce of salt, add two and a half pints of boiling water, stir up well, cover over, and allow the mash to stand for fifteen or twenty minutes until it is well cooked. For a bran and linseed mash, boil slowly for two or three hours one pound of linseed, so as to have about a couple of quarts of thick fluid, to which two pounds of bran and one ounce of salt may be added. The whole should be stirred up, covered over, and allowed to steam as before described. The thicker the mash the more readily will the horse eat it. Linseed tea is made by boiling one pound of linseed in a couple of gallons of water until the grains are (mite soft. It may be economically made by using less water to cook the linseed, and afterwards making up the quantity of water to about a gallon and a half. Hay tea may be prepared by filling a bucket, after scalding it, with good sweet hay, pouring in as much boiling water as the bucket will hold, covering it over, and allowing it to stand until cold, when the fluid may be strained off and given to the horse. This forms a refreshing drink. Linseed oil, in quantities of from one quarter to half a pint daily, may be mixed with the food; it keeps the bowels in a lax condition, has a good effect on the skin and air-passages, and is useful as an article of diet. When debility has to be combated, as in low fever or other weakening diseases, strengthening and other easily digested food must be administered, though some of the foods already mentioned, such as boiled grain, answer this purpose to a certain extent. Milk, eggs, bread and biscuits, malt liquor, corn, &c, arc off en prescribed with this object. Milk may be given skimmed or unskimmed ; a little sugar may be mixed with it; and one or two gallons may be given daily, according to circumstances. One or two eggs may be given beaten up with a little sugar and mixed with milk, three or four times a day, or more frequently ; or they may be boiled hard and powdered, and mixed in the milk. A quart of stout, ale, or porter may be given two or three times a day, or a half to one bottle of port wine daily. Scalded oats, with a little salt added, are very useful when convalescence is nearly completed. As a rule, a sick horse should have as much water as he likes to drink, though it may be necessary in certain cases to restrict the quantity, and to have the chill taken off; but it should never be warmer than 75° to 80°.

As little grooming as possible should be allowed when a horse is very weak ; it should be limited to sponging about the mouth, nostrils, eyes, and forehead with clean water, to which a little vinegar may be added. Rub the legs and ears with the hand, take off the clothing, and shake or change it once a day, and if agreeable rub over the body with a soft cloth. Exercise is of course not re-quired during sickness or injury, and the period at which it is alfowed will dejiend upon circumstances. Care must be taken that it is not ordered too early, or carried too far at first.

Administration of Medicine.—Much care is required in admin-How to istering medicines in the form of ball or bolus; and practice, as give a well as courage and tact, is needed in order to give it without ball, danger to the administrator or the animal. The ball should bo held between the fingers of the right hand, the tips of the first and fourth being brought together below the second and third, which are placed on the upper side of the ball; the right hand is thus made as small as possible, so as to admit of ready insertion into the mouth. The left hand grasps the horse's tongue, gently pulls it out, and places it on that part of the right side of the lower jaw which is bare of teeth. With the right hand the ball is placed at the root of the tongue. The moment the right hand is withdrawn, the tongue should be released. This causes the ball to be carried still farther back. The operator then closes the mouth and watches the left side of the neck, to note the passage of the ball down the gullet. Many horses keep a ball in the mouth a considerable time before they will allow it to go dowu. A mouthful of water or a handful of food will generally make them swallow it readily. If this does not succeed, the nostrils should be grasped by the hand and held a few moments. A running halter should be used, so that the mouth may be quickly and securely closed. If the operator has not had much experience in giving balls, he should station an assistant on the near side, to aid in opening and steadying the mouth, by placing the fingers of his left hand on the lower jaw and the thumb of the right on the upper jaw. Holding the mouth in this manner facilitates the giving of the ball, and saves the operator's right hand, to a great extent, from being scratched by the horse's back teeth. It is most essential to have the ball moder-ately soft; nothing can be more dangerous than a hard one.

To administer a drink or drench requires as much care as giving How to a ball, in order to avoid choking the horse, though it is unattended give a with risk to the administrator. An ordinary glass or stone bottle drink or may be used, provided there are no sharp points around the mouth ; drench, but either the usual drenching horn or a tin vessel with a narrow mouth or spout is safer. It is necessary to raise the horse's head, so that the nose may be a little higher than the horizontal line. If the horse is restless, his head must be elevated by a loop of cord inserted into the mouth over the upper jaw, the prong of a stable fork being passed through it, and the handle held steady by an assistant. The drink must be given by a person standing on the right side (the assistant being in front or on the left side of the horse), the side of the mouth being pulled out a little, to form a sack or funnel, into which the medicine is poured, a little at a time, allowing an interval now and again for the horse to swallow. If any of the fluid gets into the windpipe (which it is liable to do if the head is held too high), it will cause coughing, whereupon the head should be instantly lowered. Neither the tougue nor the nostrils should be interfered with. Powders may be given in a little mash or gruel, well stirred up.

If a wide surface is to be fomented (as the chest, abdomen, or Fomenta-loins), a blanket or other large woollen cloth should be dipped in tions or water as hot as the hand can comfortably bear it, moderately wrung bathing, out, and applied to the part, the heat and moisture being retained by covering it with a waterproof sheet or dry rug. When it has lost some of its heat, it should be removed, dipped in warm water, and again applied. In cases of acute inflammation, it may bo neces-sary to have the water a little hotter ; and, to avoid the incon-venience of removing the blanket, or the danger of chill when it is removed, it may be secured round the body by skewers or twine, the hot water being poured on the outside of the top part of the blanket by any convenient vessel. To foment the feet, they should be placed in a bucket or tub (the latter with the bottom resting wholly on the ground) containing warm water ; a quantity of moss litter put in the tub or bucket prevents splashing and retains the heat longer,

Poultices. Poultices are used for allaying pain, promoting suppuration,
softening horn or other tissues, and bringing on a healthy action
in wounds. To be beneficial, they should be large and always
kept moist. For applying poultices to the feet, a poultice-shoe,
constructed as follows, may be used with advantage. Take a cir-
cular piece of hard wood, a little longer and broader than a horse-
shoe, and about one and a half inches thick, (let one surface of it
rounded in a lathe, so that there may be a rise of about three-
quarters of an inch in the centre, while the other surface remains
flat. Round the circumference of the board nail leather, so as to
form a convenient boot for retaining the poultice, similar to the
one in ordinary use, except that the part which comes on the ground
is rounded. The fact of its being round will enable the horse to
whose foot it is applied to ease the affected spot by throwing his
weight on the toe, the heel, or on either quarter, as he chooses.
Poultices are nsually made with bran, though this has the disad-
vantage of drying very quickly, to remedy which it may be mixed
with linseed meal or a little linseed oil. Boiled carrots or turnips
mashed make a good poultice, as does liuseed meal, when mixed
with boiling water (with a little olive oil added) by stirring. A
charcoal poultice is sometimes used when there is a bad smell to
be got rid of. It is made by mixing linseed meal with boiling water
and stirring until a soft mass is produced; with this some wood
charcoal in powder is mixed, and when ready to be applied some
more powder is sprinkled on the surface. It may be noted that,
in lieu of these materials for poultices, what is known as spongio-
piline can be usefully employed. A piece of sufficient size is steeped
in hot water, applied to the part, covered with a large piece of oiled
silk or waterproof stuff, and secured there. Even an ordinary
sponge, steeped in hot water and covered with any waterproof
material, makes a good poulticing medium ; it is well adapted for
the throat, near the head, as well as for the space between the
branches of the lower jaw.

Enemata Enemata or clysters are given in fevers, inflammation, constipa-
or tion, &c., to empty the posterior part of the bowels. They are
clysters, administered by a large syringe capable of containing a quart or more of water, with a nozzle about twelve inches in length, with an ox's bladder tied to a pipe, or a large funnel with a long nozzle at a right angle ; but the syringe is best. Water alone is usually applied for enemata; it should be about the temperature of the body, not less, but perhaps a degree or two more. To administer an enema, one of the horse's fore-feet should be held up, while the operator pushes the end of the nozzle, smeared with a little lard or oil, very gently and steadily for a few inches into the intestine, and then presses out the water. The amount injected will depend upon the size of the animal; two or three quarts would suffice for an ordinary-sized horse.

Epizootic and Contagious Diseases.—The epizootic diseases affect-ing the horse are not numerous, and may generally be considered as specific, or infectious and contagious, in their nature, circum-stances of a favourable kind leading to their extension by propaga-tion of the agent upon wdiich their existence depends. This agent, in some of the maladies, has been proved to be a micro-organism, and there can be little doubt that it is so for all of them. Glanders. Glanders is one of the most serious diseases affecting horses, not only because it is incurable, but because it is very contagious. It is known in nearly every part of the world, except in Australasia. The virulent principle of glanders establishes itself most easily among horses kept in foul, badly-ventilated stables, or among such as are overworked, badly fed, or debilitated in any way. Glanders, however, has this in common with other contagious diseases, that it is never spontaneously developed, in the absence of the virulent agent. Carnivorous animals—as lions, tigers, dogs, and cats—have become infected through eating the flesh of glandered horses ; and goats, sheep, swine, and rabbits have been successfully inoculated with the virus. Men who attend on diseased horses are liable to be infected, especially if they have any sores on the exposed parts of their bodies (see GLANDERS). Though infection through wounds is the readiest way of receiving the disease, the germ or bacillus may also obtain access through the lungs, stomach, and thin mucous membranes, such as that of the eyes, nose, and lips. Glanders is presented in two forms,—one affecting the mucous membranes of the body, more particularly those of the air-passages (glanders proper), and the other attacking the skin and the superficial lymphatic vessels (farcy). Both forms are due to the same virus, and both may be acute or chronic. The acute form is the more coutagious and virulent, and either destroys life quickly or becomes chronic.

Acute The symptoms of acute glanders are marked by fever and its form. accompaniments—loss of appetite, hurried pulse and respiration, languor, and disinclination to move. Sometimes the legs or joints are swollen ; but the characteristic symptoms, the classical signs, are a yellow adhesive discharge from one or both nostrils ; there is also a peculiar enlarged nodulated condition of one or both lymphatic glands between the branches of the lower jaw, which, though they may be painful, very rarely suppurate ; and on the mucous mem-brane covering the septum of the nose are little yellow pimples or pustules, running into deep ragged-edged ulcers. The discharge from the nostril adheres to its margin, because of its glutinous nature, and straw and other matters also stick to it, while the obstruction to the respiration causes the animal to snort frequently —a cause of danger to men and animals, as this nasal discharge is virulent. In addition, the lymphatic vessels of the face are often involved and appear as corded lines passing up the cheeks ; they are painful on pressure. In some cases there is a cough. As the disease progresses, the ulcers in the nostrils extend in size and depth and increase in number, often completely perforating the septum, and being sometimes covered with black crusts ; the nasal discharge becomes more abundant and tenacious, streaked with blood, and foul smelling, and causes the animal the greatest diffi-culty in breathing, so that it appears to be on the point of suffoca-tion. Death is due either to this cause or to exhaustion.

Chronic glanders generally presents the same symptoms ; but the Chronic animal is not so seriously ill, and may indeed appear to be in good form, health and be able to perforin a certain amount of work. In some cases the ulceration may not be perceptible, and only the peculiar knotty enlarged gland and slight discharge from one nostril be evident. There may be uncertainty in such cases as to whether the disease is glanders, owing to the absence of ulceration ; and, to prove whether it is that disease, recourse has to be had to inocula-tion of another animal, generally a worthless horse or ass, the latter being the best, as it develops the characteristic symptoms more rapidly and certainly.

In farcy, instead of the symptoms being manifested in the interior Farcy, of the body or head, they show themselves on the skin, where the lymphatic vessels become inflamed and ulcerate. These vessels appear as prominent lines or " cords," hard and painful on manipu-lation, and along their course arise little tumours (the so-called " farcy buds "). These tumours ulcerate, forming sores, from which is discharged a thin glutinous pus. When the skin of the limbs is affected, these are much swollen and the animal moves with pain and difficulty. Rarely large abscesses containing thin pus form on the body. Farcy may appear during glanders or precede it, but it generally terminates in it, though the limbs ana body may be covered with ulcers before this occurs.

Medical treatment of glanders, chronic and acute, and of acute Treat-farcy should not be attempted, as the malady is incurable, while meut, the danger of infection being transmitted to other animals or men &c. is always real and imminent. Horses which present suspicious symptoms, or those which have been in contact or have stood in the same stable with diseased horses, should be kept apart from others, and their harness, clothing, &c., left with them. Animals which are found to be affected should be immediately destroyed and buried with proper precautions, their harness, clothing, and the utensils employed with them being either destroyed also or thoroughly cleansed, while stables and places which they have fre-quented should be completely disinfected. Forage and litter used by glandered horses ought to be burned or buried.

The venereal or coitus disease is a malady which occurs in Arabia Coitus and continental Europe, and has recently been carried from France disease, to the United States of America (Montana and Illinois). In some of its features it resembles human syphilis, and it is propagated in the same manner. From one to ten days after coitus, or in the stallion not unfrequently after some weeks, there is irritation, swelling, and a livid redness of the external organs of generation (in stallions the penis may shrink), followed by unhealthy ulcers, which appear in successive crops, often at considerable intervals. In mares these are near the clitoris, which is frequently erected, and the animals rub and switch the tail about, betraying uneasiness. In horses the eruption is on the penis and sheath. In the milder forms there is little constitutional disturbance, and the patients may recover in a period varying from two weeks to two months. In the severe forms the local swelling increases by intermittent steps. In the mare the vulva is the seat of a deep violet congestion and extensive ulceration; pustules appear on the perinseum, tail, and between the thighs ; the lips of the vulva are parted, exposing the irregular, nodular, puckered, ulcerated, and lardaceous-looking mucous membrane. If the mare happens to be pregnant, abortion occurs. In all cases emaciation sets in ; lameness of one or more limbs occurs ; great debility is manifested, and this runs on to paralysis, when death ensues after a miserable existence of from four or five months to two years. In horses swelling of the sheath may be the only symptom for a long time, even for a year. Then there may follow dark patches of extravasated blood on or swellings of the penis ; the testicles may become tumefied ; a dropsical en-gorgement extends forward beneath the abdomen and chest; the lymphatic glands in different parts of the body may be enlarged; pustules and ulcers appear on the skin ; there is a discharge from the eyes and nose; emaciation becomes extreme; a weak and vacillat-ing movement of the posterior limbs gradually increases, as in the mare, to paralysis; and after from three months to three years death puts an end to loathsomeness and great suffering. This malady appears to be spread only by the act of coition. It is a purely con-tagious disorder, and cannot be generated by any known agency or cause. The indications for its suppression and extinction are there-fore obvious. They are (1) to prevent diseased animals coming into actual contact, especially per coitum, with healthy ones, (2) to destroy the infected, and (3), as an additional precautionary measure, to thoroughly cleanse and disinfect the stables, clothing, utensils, and implements used for the sick horse. Influ- Under influenza several diseases are sometimes included, and in enza. different invasions it may (and doubtless does) assume varying forms. It may be said to be a specific fever of a low or asthenic type, associated with inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the air-passages, and also sometimes with that of other organs. At various times it has prevailed extensively over different parts of the world, more especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. Per-haps one of the most wide-spread outbreaks recorded was that of 1872, on the American continent. It usually radiates from the district in which it first appears. The symptoms have been enu-merated as follows:—sudden attack, marked by extreme debility and stupor, with increased body-temperature, quick weak pulse, rigors, and cold extremities. The head is pendent, the eyelids swollen and half closed, eyes lustreless, and tears often flowing down the face. There is great disinclination to move ; the body sways on the animal attempting to walk; and the limb-joints crack. The appetite is lost and the mouth is hot and dry ; the bowels are constipated and the urine scanty and high-coloured; there is nearly always a deep, painful, and harassing cough ; on auscultation of the chest crepitation or harsh blowing sounds are audible ; and the membrane lining the eyelids and nose assumes either a bright pink colour or a dull leaden hue. A white, yellowish, or greenish-coloured discharge flows from the nostrils. In a few days the fever and other symptoms subside, and convalescence rapidly sets in. In unfavourable cases the fever increases, as well as the prostration, the breathing becomes laboured, the cough more painful and deep, and auscultation and percussion indicate that the lungs are seriously involved, with perhaps the pleura or the heart. Clots sometimes form in the latter organ, and quickly bring about a fatal termina-tion. When the lungs do not suffer, the bowels may, and with this complication there are, in addition to the stupor and torpor, tension and tenderness of the abdominal walls when pressed upon, mani-festations of colic, great thirst, a coated tongue, yellowness of the membranes of nose and eyes, high-coloured urine, constipation, and dry fasces covered with mucus. Sometimes rheumatic swelling and tenderness take place in the muscles and joints of the limbs, which may persist for a long time, often shifting from leg to leg, and involving the sheaths of tendons. At other times acute inflam-mation of the eyes supervenes, or even paralysis.
In this disease good nursing is the chief factor in the treatment.
Comfortable, clean, and airy stables or loose-boxes should be pro-
vided, and the warmth of the body and limbs maintained. Cold
and damp, foul air and uncleanliness, are as inimical to health and
as antagonistic to recovery as in the case of mankind. In influenza
it has been generally found that the less medicine the sick animal
receives the more likely it is to recover. Nevertheless it may be
necessary to adopt such medical measures as the following. For
constipation administer enemata of warm water or give a dose of
linseed oil or aloes. For fever give mild febrifuge diuretics (as liquor
of acetate of ammonia or spirit of nitrous ether), and, if there is
cough or nervous excitement, anodynes (such as extract of bella-
donna). When the fever subsides and the prostration is great, it
may be necessary to give stimulants (carbonate of ammonia, nitrous
ether, aromatic ammonia) and tonics, both vegetable (gentian,
quassia, calumba) and mineral (iron, copper, arsenic). Some veter-
inary surgeons administer large and frequent doses of quinine from
the onset of the disease, and, it is asserted, with excellent effect.
If the abdominal organs are chiefly involved, demulcents may
supplement the above (linseed boiled to a jelly, to which salt is
added, is the most convenient and best), and drugs to allay pain (as
opium and hydrocyanic acid). Olive oil is a safe laxative in such
cases. When nervous symptoms are manifested, it may be necessary
to apply wet cloths and vinegar to the head and neck ; even blisters
to the neck have been recommended. Bromide of potassium has
been beneficially employed. To combat inflammation of the throat,
chest, or abdomen, counter-irritants may bo resorted to, such as
mustard, soap liniment, or the ordinary white liniment composed
of equal parts of oil of turpentine, liquor ammonias, and olive oil.
The food should be soft mashes and gruel of oatmeal, with carrots
and green food, and small and frequent quantities of scalded oats
in addition when convalescence is established.

Typhoid, Typhoid, gastric, or bilious fever is often confounded with in-
gastric, fluenza, and sometimes occurs at the same time in a locality. It
or also appears independently in horses when shedding their coat
bilious in the autumn, in those kept in a hot, close, and impure atmo-fever. sphere, and in those fed insufficiently or on badly-preserved, musty, or otherwise improper food, or supplied with water con-taining an excess of decomposing organic matter. Overwork or hardship predisposes to an attack. This fever seems to become con-tagious under certain conditions, especially in badly-ventilated in-salubrious stables. Wholesome and well-aired stables are not indeed always exempt; but in them the disease is less serious and does not spread so rapidly. It is presumed that this fever is caused by some virulent principle. As "premonitory" indications of the malady, the horse appears dull and listless, and careless of food. Then signs of fever appear, in the form of staring coat, shivering, alternate heat and coldness of the surface, restlessness, a hot dry mouth, and elevation of the internal temperature of the body. The visible mucous membranes have a yellow tinge ; constipation is present, and with it indications of colicky pain ; the abdomen is distended, tense, and sensitive on pressure ; feces are passed in the shape of a few hard, dark - coloured pellets covered with mucus ; the urine is scanty, red in colour, and after standing a short time deposits a heavy sediment. Sometimes there is sore throat, with increased respiration and a nasal discharge. In mild attacks convalescence may occur in from a week to ten days. In serious cases the pulse is small, feeble, and quick; the mouth is very hot and dry, and exhibits yellow, brown, or greenish patches; the abdomen is more tender and the bowels very irritable, diarrhoea of a foetid character often ensuing. Prostration to an extreme degree is a very marked feature in these cases. The head is maintained in a pendent posi-tion ; the eyes become sunken ; the expression is haggard and list-less ; while the stupor may be so advanced that pinching or pricking the skin will elicit no indication of sensibility. A fatal termination usually occurs in from ten to twenty days.

The diet must be carefully attended to, and should be soft and easily digested, such as mashes of bran, sliced carrots or turnips, boiled oats or barley, freshly cut grass, and oatmeal gruel. The stable should be kept clean and sweet, fresh air being an important factor in treatment ; the body of the patient must also be made comfortable by clothing. Quiet is necessary. Quinine has been found useful in large and repeated doses ; and calomel has been recommended. A daily dose of Glauber's salt may be given if there is constipation; and, if this is obstinate, enemata of warm water should be administered in addition. A drachm each of chlorate or nitrate of potash and muriate of ammonia may be given three or four times daily with the water drunk ; or in cases of great prostra-tion an ounce of oil of turpentine, sulphuric ether, sweet spirits of nitre, or carbonate of ammonia may be given as well. If there is much tenderness of the abdomen, hot fomentations continued for a long time, or mustard poultices, or the application of extract of mustard should be resorted to. When convalescence sets in, three or four ounces of tincture of gentian or cinchona may be given twice daily, with muriate of iron and stimulants.

Strangles is a specific contagious and infectious fever peculiar to Strangles, ungulates, and is more especially incidental to young animals. It is particularly characterized by the formation of abscesses in the lymphatic glands, chiefly those between the branches of the lower jaw (submaxillary). Various causes are ascribed for its production, such as change of young horses from field to stable, from grass to dry feeding, from idleness to hard work, irritation of teething, and change of locality and climate. It is asserted that repeated attacks will occur in the same horse under the influence of the last-named cause. But the chief, if not the sole, cause is infection,—the malady, in some of its features, closely resembling the "mumps" of the human species. Languor and feverishness, diminution of appetite, cough, redness of the nasal membrane, with discharge from the eyes and nose, and thirst are among the earliest symptoms. Then there is difficulty in swallowing, coincident with the development of swelling between the branches of the lower jaw, which often causes the water in drinking to be returned through the nose and the masticated food to be dropped from the mouth. The swelling is hot and tender, diffused, and uniformly rounded and smooth ; at first it is hard, with soft, doughy margins ; but later it becomes soft in the centre, where an abscess is forming, and soon " points " and bursts, giving exit to a quantity of pus. Relief is now experi-enced by the animal; the symptoms subside ; and recovery takes place. In some eases the swelling is so great or occurs so close to the larynx that the breathing is interfered with, and even rendered so difficult that suffocation is threatened. In other cases the disease assumes an irregular form, and the swelling, instead of softening in the centre, remains hard for an indefinite time, or it may subside and abscesses form in various parts of the body, sometimes in vital organs, as the brains, lungs, liver, kidneys, &c, or in the bronchial or mesenteric glands, where they generally produce serious conse-quences. Not unfrequently a pustular eruption accompanies the other symptoms. The malady may terminate in ten days or be protracted for months, often terminating fatally, especially when the animal is not well nursed and is kept in an unhealthy stable.

Good nursing is the chief part of the treatment. The strength should be maintained by soft nutritious food, and the body kept warm and comfortable ; the stable or loose-box must have plenty of fresh air and be kept clean. The swelling may be fomented with warm water and poulticed. The poultice may be a little bag con-taining bran and linseed meal mixed with hot water, and applied warm to the tumefaction, being retained there by a square piece of calico, with holes for the ears and eyes, tied down the middle of the face and behind the ears. If the breathing is disturbed and noisy, the animal may be made to inhale steam from hot water in a bucket or from bran mash. If the breathing becomes very difficult, the windpipe must be opened and a tube inserted. Instead of the swelling being poulticed, a little blistering ointment is sometimes rubbed over it, which promotes suppuration. When the abscess points, it may be lanced, though it is generally better to allow it to open spontaneously.

It is very important to distinguish strangles from glanders ; the character of the nasal discharge, the absence of ulcers from the nostrils, and the diffused soft swelling between the branches of the lower jaw establish the distinction between them. Horse Horsepox, which is somewhat rare, is almost, if not quite, identi-pox. cal with cowpox, being undistinguishable when inoculated on men and cattle. It most frequently attacks the limbs, though it may appear on the face and other parts of the body. There is usually slight fever ; then swelling, heat, and tenderness are manifest in the part which is to be the seat of eruption, usually the heels ; firm nodules form, increasing to one-third or one-half an inch in dia-meter ; the hair becomes erect; and the skin, if light-coloured, changes to an intense red. On the ninth to the twelfth day a limpid fluid oozes from the surface and mats the hairs together in yellowish scabs ; when one of these is removed, there is seen a red, raw depression, whereon the scab was fixed. In three or four days the crusts fall off, and the sores heal spontaneously. No medical treatment is needed, cleanliness being requisite to prevent the pocks becoming sloughs. If the inflammation runs high, a weak solution of carbolic acid may be employed.

Bibliography.—Among the, numerous modern poputar works in English which treat of diseases of the horse, the following may be mentioned :—Robertson, Equine Medicine (London, 18S3); Williams, Principles and Practice of Veterinary Medicine (2d ed., London, 1874-79), and Principles and Practice of Veterinary Surgery (2d ed., London, 1S72-76); Courtenay, Manual of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery (London, 1886); Fleming, Practical Horse-Keeper (London, 1886) ; Gressweff, Diseases and Disorders of the Horse (Leeds, 1886); Fitzwygram, Horses and Stables (London, 1869) ; and Law, The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser (London, 1879).

Diseases of Cattle.

The diseases of the bovine species are not so numerous as those of the horse, and some of the more serious have been already alluded to (see MURRAIN). We will notice a few which have not been included among these. Tuber- Tuberculosis is a most formidable and widespread disorder of culosis. cattle ; it is assuming greater proportions every year in those countries in which it is prevalent, in consequence of no steps being taken to check or suppress it. It is infectious and con-tagious, can be conveyed to other species of animals by ingestion of the flesh and milk, as well as of the tuberculous material, and by inoculation of these, or inhalation of dried discharges from the lungs ; it can also be transmitted from the affected animal to the foetus in utero. Its infectious properties and ready communica-bility to other species render it a serious danger to mankind, through consumption as food of the flesh and milk of tuberculous cows. The disease owes its origin to a bacillus. The structures chiefly involved are the lymphatic glands and tissues,—the charac-teristic tubercles or "grapes" varying in size from that of a millet seed to immense masses weighing many pounds ; they are found in all parts of the body, but generally in the chest and on its lining membrane, as well as in the abdominal cavity. The symptoms resemble somewhat the contagious pleuro-pneumonia of cattle in its chronic form (see MURRAIN), though tubercles, sometimes in large numbers, are often found after death in the bodies of cattle which exhibited no sign of illness during life, and which when killed were in excellent condition. When the lungs are involved, there are a peculiar phthisical cough, low fever, wasting and de-bility, and often enlarged throat glands, less frequently enlarged joints. If the animal is not killed, it perishes in a state of maras-mus, from the difficulty experienced in breathing, or the profuse foetid diarrhoea which ensues. Medical treatment is of little if any avail. Preventive measures are of the utmost importance. Animals free from the tuberculous taint should alone be bred from, and those discovered to be affected should be at once completely segre-gated, and if convenient destroyed. The milk of tuberculous cows should not be given to any animal as food, not at least unless well boiled. Neither should the flesh be eaten unless well cooked throughout.

Milk or Milk or parturient fever is a specific malady which appears after parturi- parturition, due to the absorption of septic matter from the interior ent fever, of the uterus or vagina, producing what is known as "blood-poison-ing " or septicaemia. The symptoms may be briefly summarized as follows :—high fever, restlessness, intense injection of the visible mucous membranes, tympanitis, fcetid breath, stupor, swollen limbs, sanguinolent and perhaps purulent discharges from the vagina, foul-smelling diarrhoea, coma, and death. In the early stage treatment is generally successful. The uterine cavity should be thoroughly cleaned out by injections of warm water, and any adherent portions of placenta removed by hand. Then a weak solution of Condy's fluid (permanganate of potash) must be injected. Cleanliness is all-important. Diffusible stimulants in large quantity should be given, with doses of solution of sulphate of quinine, perchloride of iron, oil of turpentine, or carbolic acid.

There is now strong evidence that one form of abortion in cows Abor-is due to infection. Whenever a case of abortion occurs in a shed, tion. either the cow should be at once removed from the others, if they are pregnant, and cleaning and disinfection immediately resorted to ; or, better still, the pregnant cows should be quickly moved out of the shed, and every care taken to keep them away from the sick cow and the discharges from it—these and the aborted foetus being burned or otherwise completely destroyed.

Cowpox is a contagious disease of much less frequent occurrence Cowpox. now than formerly, probably owing to improved hygienic manage-ment. In many localities the disease appears in all heifers which have recently calved on certain farms. There is usually a slight premonitory fever, which is generally overlooked ; this is succeeded by some diminution in the quantity of the milk, with some in-creased coagulability, and by the appearance of the eruption or "pox" on the udder and teats. In well-observed cases the udder is hot and tender on manipulation for a day,or two previous to the development of small pale-red nodules about the size of peas ; these increase in dimensions to from three-fourths to one inch in diameter by the eighth or tenth day, when their contents have become fluid and they present a depressed centre. This fluid, at first clear and limpid, becomes yellowish white as it changes to pus, and soon dries up, leaving a hard, button-shaped black crust, which gradually becomes detached. On the teats, owing to the handling of the milker or to the cow lying on the hard ground or on straw, the vesicles are early ruptured and sores are formed, which often prove troublesome and may cause inflammation of the udder.

Actinomycosis, though affecting man (cf. vol. xviii. p. 270), horses, Actino-pigs, and other creatures, is far more common in the bovine species, mycosis. The fungus (Actinomyces) may he found in characteristic nodules in various parts of the body, but it usually invades the bones of the jaws, upper and lower, or the soft parts in the neighbourhood of these, as the tongue, cheeks, face, throat, and glands in its vicinity. About the head the disease appears to commence with slight sores on the gums or mucous membrane of the mouth or with ulcers alongside decaying teeth, and these extend slowly into the tissues. If the jaw is affected, a large rounded tumour grows from it, the dense outer bone becoming absorbed before the increas-ing soft growth within. Soon the whole becomes ulcerated and purulent discharges take place, in which are found the minute, hard, yellow granules which contain the fungus. When the tongue is affected, it becomes enlarged and rigid ; hence the designation of "wooden tongue" given to it by the Germans. In the course of time the surface of the organ becomes ulcerated, and yellowish masses or nodules may be seen on the surface. Sometimes the entire face is involved, the lips and nostrils becoming swollen, hard, and immovable, often rendering respiration difficult. Around the throat there are rounded dense swellings, implicating the glands. When the disease is well-defined and of slight extent, the parts involved may be removed by the knife, wholly or partially. If the latter only, then the remaining affected tissues should be dressed with tincture of iodine or iodized carbolic acid. Chromic acid has also been found useful.

Bibliography.—J. H. Steef, Diseases of the Ox (London, 1881); J. W. Hill, Bovine Medicine and Surgery (London, 1882); G. Armatage, Clater's Cottle Doctor (London, 1870); J. Dobson, On the Diseases of the Ox (London, 1864); W. Youatt, On Cattle (London, 1854); J. Law, The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser (London, 1879) ; G. Fleming, Tuberculosis from a Sanitary and Pathological Point of View (London, 1880), and Influence of Heredity and Contagion on the Propagation of Tuberculosis (London, 1883).

Diseases of Sheep.

The contagious diseases of the sheep are comparatively few, and two of the more serious have been described under MURRAIN.

The formidable disorder of sheep-pox is confined chiefly to the Sheep-continent of Europe. It is extremely contagious and fatal, and in pox. these and some other characteristics resembles human smallpox. From three to twelve days after being exposed to infection the sheep appears dull and listless, and eats little if anything; the temperature rises ; there are frequent tremblings ; tears flow from the eyes; and there is a nasal discharge. Red patches appear inside the limbs and under the abdomen ; and on them, as well as on other parts where the skin is thin, dark red spots show themselves, which soon become papules, with a deep hard base. These are generally conical, and the apex quickly becomes white from the formation of pus. This eruption is characteristic and unmistakable ; and the vesicles or pustules may remain isolated (discrete pox) or coalesce into large patches (confluent pox). The latter form of the disease is serious. In bad cases the eruption may develop on the eyes and in the respiratory and digestive passages. The course of the disease lasts about three weeks or a month, and the eruption passes through the same stages as that of cowpox. The mortality may extend from 10 per cent, in mild outbreaks to 90 or 95 per cent, in very virulent ones. Diseased animals should be sheltered, and fed on nourishing food, especially gruels of oatmeal, flour, or linseed ; acidulated water may he allowed. If there is sloughing of the skin or extensive sores, oxide of zinc ointment should be applied. But treatment should not he adopted unless there is general infection over a wide extent of country. All diseased animals should be destroyed, as well as those which have been in contact with them, and thorough disinfection resorted to.

Diseases of the Pig. Swine The pig may become affected with foot-and-mouth disease (see plague or MURRAIN'), and it also has its own particular variola. But the dis-fever. ease special to it, and which causes enormous losses, is swine plague.
This scourge, known in America as hog cholera, is a specific con-tagious fever, or fevers, for it is extremely probable that two diseases are included under this designation. It is generally very rapid in its course, death ensuing in a very few days ; and when the animal survives recovery is protracted. After a period of three or four days to a fortnight from exposure to infection, the animal exhibits signs of illness by dulness, weakness, shiverings, burying itself under the litter, disinclination to move, staggering gait, great thirst, hot dry snout, sunken eyes, loss of appetite, and greatly increased pulse, respiration, and temperature. Red and brown patches appear on the skin ; there is a hacking cough ; nausea is followed by vomiting; pressure on the abdomen causes extreme pain ; diarrhoea ensues ; the hind limbs become paralysed ; stupor sets in ; and the animal perishes. Treatment should not be at-tempted when there is danger of the infection extending to other pigs. If treatment be used, nursing ought to be the chief element; sloppy food, in which small doses of carbolic acid and oil of turpen-tine have been mixed, should be given, and these should be followed by tonics when convalescence sets in. To suppress the disease, kill all affected pigs, and if necessary those which have been in contact with them ; burn or bury deeply the carcases and litter ; and disinfect everything likely to have been contaminated by the virus.

Diseases of t/ie Dog.

Bis- The contagious diseases of the dog are likewise very few, but
temper, the one which attracts most attention is common and generally serious. This is what is popularly known as distemper. It is peculiar to the canine species, for there is no evidence that it can te conveyed to other animals, though the different families of Car-nivora appear each to be liable to a similar disease. Distemper is a specific fever which most frequently attacks young dogs, its effects being primarily developed in the respiratory passages, though the brain, spinal cord, and abdominal organs may subse-quently be involved. Highly bred and pet dogs suffer more severely than the commoner and hardier kinds. It is a most infectious disease, and there is much evidence to prove that it owes its ex-istence and prevalence solely to its virulence. One attack confers immunity from another. The symptoms are rigors, sneezing, dul-ness, loss of appetite, desire for warmth, and increased temperature, respiration, and pulse. The eyes are red, and the nose, at first dry and harsh, becomes smeared with the discharge wdiich soon begins to flow from the nostrils. Suppuration also begins at the eyes ; vision is more or less impaired by the mucus and pus, and often the cornea becomes ulcerated, and even perforated. There is a cough, which in some cases is so violent as to induce vomiting. Debility rapidly ensues, and emaciation is soon apparent; diarrhoea in the majority of cases sets in ; the body emits an unpleasant odour ; ulceration of the mouth is noticed ; the nostrils become obstructed by the discharge from them; convulsions generally come on ; signs of bronchitis, pneumonia, jaundice, or other complications manifest themselves ; and in some instances there is a pustular or vesicular eruption on the skin. In fatal cases the animal dies in a state of marasmus. Many which recover are affected with chorea for a long time afterwards. Here, again, good nursing is all-important. Comfort and cleanliness, with plenty of fresh air, must be ensured. Debility being the most serious feature of the disease, the strength should be maintained or restored until the fever has run its course. Light broth, beef tea, or bread and milk, or these alternately, may be allowed as diet. Preparations of quinine, given from the com-mencement of the attack in a little wine, such as sherry, have proved very beneficial. Often a mild laxative is required. Com-plications should be treated as they arise. The disease being ex-tremely infectious, precautious should be adopted with regard to other dogs.

The formidable affliction known as RABIES {q.v.) has been treated of under that name.
Bibliography.—J. H. Steel, Treatise on the Diseases of the Dog; J. W. Hill, Management and Diseases of the Dog (London, 1S7S) ; W. Youatt, The Dog (Lon-don, 1851); D. Blaine, Canine 1'athology (London, 1851); W. Mayhew, Diseases of the Dog (London, 1865).

PRINCIPAL PARASITES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

in horse. Perhaps the commonest worm infesting the horse is Ascaris megalocephala or common lumbricoid. The males are from 6 to 8 inches long, females 7 to 17 inches. It is found in almost every part of the intestinal canal, but generally in the small intestines, 'he symptoms produced in the horse by this worm are colicky pains, which occur intermittently, an unhealthy condition of the skin, and staring coat. Although the animal feeds well, it does not im-prove in condition, but is very "tucked up," and the visible mucous membranes are very pale. In some instances pouches are formed in the coats of the intestines. There are many recipes for the expulsion of lumbricoid ; among the principal remedies is a mixture of emetic tartar, oil of turpentine, and linseed oil; others are san-tonine, sulphate of iron, male fern, &c. Strongylus armatas or palisade worm was at first supposed to consist of two varieties, but it has been proved that these are simply different stages of growth of one parasite. It is a moderate-sized Nematoid worm, having a straight body, with a globular and somewhat flattened head,—males 1 to 1£ inches long, females 1J to 2 inches. It is found in the intestines, especially the double colon and eascmn. The embryo is developed in the interior of the egg after its expulsion from the host, and is lodged in moist mud, where, according to Cobbold, it changes its first skin in about three weeks, after which it probably enters the body of an intermediate bearer, whence it is conveyed to the alimentary canal of the horse, its ultimate host, in food or water. From the stomach it bores its way into the blood-vessels, whore it again changes its skin and gives rise to aneurisms. After a time it recommences its wanderings, and passes into the large intestines, where it rapidly acquires sexual maturity. It is a dung-feeder. Sometimes it passes into other tissues of the body (kidney, liver, &c), and occasionally produces fatal results. This parasite is most dangerous to its equine host when it is migrating from one organ to another. It is principally found at the root of the anterior mesenteric artery, but it also gives rise to aneurism in the cceliac axis, the post-mesenteric and splenic arteries, and even the aorta. The common lumbricoid, the palisade worm, and the f'our-spined strongyle {S. tetracanthus) are principally productive of colic. The last-mentioned worm, of which the male and female are about the same size, J to |- inch long, is found in the caseum, colon, and duodenum. It is a true blood-sucker, and its development is very similar to that of S. armatus, except that, when in the intestines in the trichonemous stage, it pierces the inner coats, encapsules itself, and forms little pill-like masses, and then again enters the tissues of the intestines before becoming mature. The symptoms of its presence are loss of condition, more or less constant colicky pains, unhealthy coat, flabby muscles, abdominal distension, diarrhoea, foetid and watery fasces, pale mucous membranes, great weakness, more or less frequent cough, and sometimes partial or complete paralysis, due to the formation of a clot of blood causing thrombosis of one of the principal vessels of the posterior extremities, thus interfering with the circulation of blood in the part supplied by the particular vessel. The treatment by which the common lumbri-coid is expelled will suffice to expel these strongyles, but care must be exercised in administering oil of turpentine, as it very often irri-tates the wounds caused by S. tetracanthus in the coats of the intes-tines. Of course this treatment applies to the mature stage of these worms.

Oxyuris curvula or pin worm is fusiform in shape, with smooth gently curved body (males 1J to 1| inches, females 3J to inches long). It is seated in the caecum and colon ; and, although not found in the rectum, it causes great irritation at the anus by the clusters of eggs which are deposited around that part in the form of yellowish crusts. This parasite is best treated by means of a cathartic, followed by sulphate of iron, also carbolic acid in 2J per cent, solution.

The Cestodes of the horse are very insignificant, both as regards their size and the symptoms they create, the two principal being Tama perfoliate, and T. plicata. The former is the more common, but is only from 1 to 5 inches in length ; it is found in the eascum and colon, and is distinguished from T. plicata, not only by its length, but also by its rounder head. This last, which has a nearly square head, and is from 6 inches to 3 feet in length, occurs in the small intestines and stomach. Generally a horse may be proved to be infested with tape-worm by finding some of the proglottides in the fasces. The best remedy for the removal of Tsenia is extract of male fern, with oil of turpentine and linseed oil, given three days in succession.

Gastrus equi or the common bot, though not a true helminth (see INSECTS, vol. xiii. p. 150), is classed with the parasites on account of its larval form living as a parasite. The bot-fly deposits its eggs on the hair of horses in such a position as to enable that animal, when licking itself, to take them into its mouth ; there the warmth and moisture of the tongue, combined with the pressure of licking, cause them to burst, and from each egg a small grub escapes, which sticks to the tongue, and then passes down into the stomach, where it fixes itself to the cuticular lining of the organ by a hook which it has on each side of its mouth. There it under-goes no change (except that of growth, being at this time about 1 inch long) for about nine months, when it detaches itself, passes into the food, and is discharged with the fasces.

Of the parasites which infest cattle and sheep mention will only In cattle be made of Fasciola hepatica or common fluke, which gives rise to and the disease called rot, and is more frequently met with in sheep sheep than in cattle. For a full description of its anatomy and develop-ment, see TREMATODA, vol. xxiii. p. 535.

Strongylus micrurus is the husk-producing worm of cattle. The common earthworm is the intermediate bearer. S. filaria, or the common lung strongyle of sheep, is distinguished from S. micrurus by having no papilla? on its head. The males are 1 inch to 1 inch 2 lines long and the females nearly 3 inches. The development is unknown ; but Cobbold thought that in its larval form the creature infested snails, &c. The symptoms of its presence in the sheep are a dull expression, quickened breathing, foetid breath, foaming at the mouth and nostrils, violent and spasmodic cough, loss of appetite, and emaciation. Of various specific remedies the most successful is a mixture of oil of turpentine, linseed oil, and sulphuric ether, administered two mornings in succession, followed by a third dose on the fourth morning. This causes coughing, and consequent freeing of the tubes of the larvae and mucus. Good results have been derived from inhalation of chlorine gas, &c, which acts in the same way. The intratracheal injection of oil of turpentine is said to be followed by favourable results. The system should be supported with as much good nourishing food as possible. S. rufescens, or gordian strongyle (males 5 to 6 inches long, females 6 to 7 inches), is very often associated with S. filaria.

The principal Cestode of ruminants is Tenia expansa, which, when fully mature, is more frequently found in sheep than in cattle. Its body consists of about one thousand segments, each more broad than long. It is the longest of all tape-worms, being (according to Cobbold) in sheep from 8 to 30 feet and in oxen from 40 to 100 feet in length. Its maximum width is § inch ; it is found in the largo and small intestines. Cobbold thought its larval form was developed in the louse of the ox. The symptoms are emacia-tion, with dysentery, and loss of appetite. Male fern ought to be given in doses according to the size of the animal. For a full account of the development of Oysticercus iovis, the beef measle, see TAPE-WORMS, vol. xxiii. pp. 50-52. ft ovis is supposed by Cobbold to be the larval form of his so-called T. lenella of the human subject. Another bladder worm, found only in the mesentery of the sheep, is O. tenuicollis, the larval form of T. marginata of the dog. Another important hydatid of ruminants is Gcenurus ccrcbralis, which gives rise to gid ; it is generally found in the brain of sheep, cattle, goats, deer, &c, and also in the soft structures of rabbits. It is the larval form of T. coenurus of the dog. The symptoms of gid are these. The animal has a rotatory motion ; it does not graze freely ; there is paralysis on the opposite side to the vesicle ; the head is elevated or depressed if the hydatid is situated in the centre ; and the animal is easily frightened. Medical treatment is of no avail; but the hydatid may be removed by a surgical operation.

Trichoceplidlus affinis, the common whip-worm, sometimes gives rise to severe symptoms in ruminants, particularly in sheep. The males and females are each about 2 inches long. In the The helminths of the pig, although not very detrimental to the pig. animal itself, are nevertheless of great importance in respect to the Entozoa of the human subject, being the intermediary bearers of some dangerous human parasites in their immature state. Allusion must be made to Trichina spiralis (see PARASITISM, vol. xviii. p. 270). The development of this parasite requires about three weeks after being taken into the stomach, where the capsule is digested ; it then passes into the intestines of the pig, principally the duo-denum, where it takes two days to become mature ; then after about a week the embryos leave the body of the female worm, and immedi-ately commence penetrating the walls of the intestines in order to pass into some voluntary muscles. About fourteen days elapse from the time they begin their wandering. Each is generally enveloped in a capsule, but two or even four have been found in one capsule. The male is TVth, the female -|th inch long, and the larvre fath to _jVth inch. They have been known to live in their capsules from eighteen months to two years.

Oysticercus cellulose is the larval form of Tenia solium of man (see TAPE-WORMS, vol. xxiii. p. 52). " Measly pork" is caused by the presence in the tissues of the pig of this entozoon, which is bladder-like in form. It has also been discovered in the dog, ape, bear, rat, and deer. Other important parasites of the pig are Stephanurus dentatus, or crown-tailed strongyle, and Echinorhyn-chus gigas. This latter is the only thorn-headed or acanthoceplia-lous worm infesting the domesticated animals (Cobbold).

The commonest of all parasites infesting the dog is Ascaris mystax (males 2 to 3J inches, females 3 to 8 inches long). It is also found In the in the cat and larger canines. The symptoms are wasting, voracity, dog. irregularity of bowels, short cough, and irritation at anus ; in the cat, more particularly, large quantities of mucus, with numerous parasites, are vomited. The treatment consists of the administra-tion of castor oil, witli santonine, according to the size of the animal. Filaria immitis, another Nematode, infests the heart of the dog, and its larvae circulate in the blood, giving rise to fits, which often end in death.
Tenia scrrata is a moderate-sized Cestode, from 2 to 3 feet in length ; it is found in about 10 per cent, of all English dogs, most frequently in sporting dogs, especially greyhounds and harriers, owing to their eating the intestines of rabbits, &c, in which the larval form (Oysticercus pisiformis) of this parasite dwells. It takes two months to pass through the first stage and one month to pass through the second when it is artificially produced, but much longer when produced naturally (Cobbold). T. ccenurus gives rise to gid in sheep, as previously stated. It is 18 to 24 inches long, and is principally seen in the small intestines. T. marginata is the largest Cestode infesting the dog. It varies in length from 5 to 8 feet, and is found in the small intestines of about 30 per cent, of dogs in Great Britain ; its larval form, O. tenuicollis, is found in the mesentery, &c., of sheep. In the treatment of Cestodes extract of male fern has been found the most effectual remedy ; areca nut and a pill consisting of colocynth and jalap, varying according to the size, age, and condition of the dog, have also proved efficacious. Com-paratively small doses of any vermifuge have often been found to give rise to violent symptoms, and all vermifuges if taken in large doses produce death ; too much care cannot, therefore, be exercised in administering vermifuges to young animals.

Another order of parasites which cause numerous diseases of the Dcrmalo-skin in the domesticated animals may be classed under two heads, zoa. viz., animal parasites or Dermatozoa and vegetable parasites or Dermatophyta. The animal parasites are those which produce scab, itch, mange, &c., in all animals. This class may be again divided into three varieties, viz., Sarcoptes, which burrow in the skin ; Dermatodectes, which bite the skin ; and Symbiotes, which simply pierce the epidermis (Gerlach). All these parasites live on serous fluids, produced by the irritation which they excite. Either one or more of these varieties infest all our domesticated animals : all three varieties have been found on the horse and sheep, the last two on the ox, and one in the pig, dog, and cat respectively. The sarcoptic variety of the horse and dog is easily transmitted to man. To distinguish between the different varieties, it is only necessary to place a few fresh scales in the sun : if Semites are present, they will soon be found on the under surface, whereas Dermatodectes are on the upper surface. Again, the Sarcoptes are isolated, whereas the Symbiotes and Dermatodectes live in clusters or colonies. Thirdly, the Symbiotes do not burrow, but merely bite the skin, and principally invade the limbs. An effectual cure for those which infest the horse is a mixture of sulphur, hellebore, oil of turpentine, whale oil, and carbolic acid, applied for three successive days, then washed off and applied again. For the dog a very useful remedy is made from creosote, olive oil, solution of potassium, and sulphur, also train oil and spirits of tar. The first is an almost sure cure for cats. A good remedy for destroying lice may be compounded from staphysagria powder, soft soap, and hot water, applied warm to the skin.

Vegetable parasites are of two kinds, namely, Tinea tonsurans, or the common ringworm, seen in most of our domesticated animals, and Favus, or honeycomb ringworm. The latter is seldom seen.

T. tonsurans is due to a cryptogamic parasite, Tricophyton, and is lodged in the interior of the roots of the hairs, which after a time lose their elasticity and break off, leaving the fungi in the form of a greyish white bran-like incrustation. In this they differ from Favus, which is yellow and covers the epidermis. It may affect any part of the body, but occurs principally on the head, face, neck, and hindquarters ; it is very prevalent amongst young cattle. Ringworm is very contagious, and may be communicated from one animal to another, and from animals to man. It mostly attacks badly-fed and ill-cared-for animals. The affected parts should be well washed with soft soap and warm water, removing as much as possible of the bran-like scales, and then with Stockholm tar ointment, and finally with either iodine (in tincture or ointment) or carbolic acid (in solution or ointment). (G. FL.)



Footnotes

See Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1864.
See Fleming, Horse-Shoes and Horse-Shoeing, London, 1869.

See Moorcroft and Trebeck's Travels in Cashmere and Thibet,

==
1 Comp. Fleming, Veterinary Sanitary Science and Police, London, 1875.
1 Comp. Fleming, Veterinary Sanitary Science and Police, London, 1875.









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