Bourguignon Honoré
On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment
At this closing period, which determines the fate of the disease, as we say, there is a tendency to despair of the cure. Seeing the fatal course of most attacks, we lose heart, death seems inevitable, and we yield its prey to its fangs. But let us not despair; let us remember that, in these febrile infectious diseases, above all, the phenomena must almost always proceed to the last stage of exhaustion of the vital powers to render the cure attainable. Some patients, smitten with typhoid fever or cholera, have owed their lives to the indefatigable tenacity of the contest in extremis between life and death.
I still see before me a choleraic patient, whom, during the epidemic of 1849, I had left in the morning at ten o'clock, passing into the cold period. At five o'clock I returned to see him; the whole family was in tears, and the sheet had been thrown over the patient's head, as if he had already breathed his last. Time was precious to me at that fell season, and I was about to retire, when I applied my finger to the wrist of the sufferer, and felt a faint pulsation at long intervals. I threw my coat off directly, called for flannel and essential oil of mustard, which I had prescribed that morning. I set the example, and instantly the whole family helped me to rub the patient in every direction. In a quarter of an hour the heart quickened and revived, and in less than half an hour more the circulation resumed its course; at the end of an hour of this obstinate struggle the vital heat began to show itself – in a word, the patient was saved.
We must not, therefore, give up the contest until the death of the sufferer is fully ascertained; and the same persistency should be practised in the case of animals smitten with the typhus. If the circulation slackens, if the skin turns cold, take a piece of wool, coat it with rubefacient liniment, and rub the animal therewith, more particularly along the spine. Then give him a cordial drink, and pass raies de feu over the loins. All these appliances will help to stimulate the nervous system, and resuscitate the exhausted powers of life.
If, at last, we are so fortunate as to overcome the profound adynamia which has utterly prostrated the frame, we next shall have to sustain the sick animal by giving him decoctions of meat with sea-salt, or sulphate of iron added to it, or a light broth, made with meat and bread.
Herbivorous animals, put upon a carnivorous diet, would not generally endure it, of course; but some of them rather incline to unctuous beverages, and even to cooked or raw meat. All men know that certain horse trainers give race-horses a small portion of meat, especially when the races are coming on, in order to increase their mettle and strength.
We remember a sheep, which we saw at the Ecole d'Alfort, during our studies of comparative pathology and the cutaneous diseases of domestic animals, which manifested a great liking for meat, and even ate it ravenously like a glutton.
In convalescence, the animal must be sent into the open air, in some fold enclosed with bars; he must be taken every day to pasture, each day increasing the time he is allowed to feed, and gradually he will be left to return to his usual regimen. But still it must be observed, that in this distemper convalescence is long and slow, and very deceitful. A too substantial course of feeding often revives the inflammation of the intestines by irritating ulcerations not yet healed, and more than one animal which had been looked upon as cured has perished in its convalescence through a lack of watchful attention.
Herbivorous beasts, therefore, incline to and digest animal food; consequently, we must give sick oxen meat broths, pure milk, or milk and water. With these must be mixed wheat straw chopped small, for hay or even oat straw would swell and distend the stomachs.
The typhus in this epizootia is not regular in its progress and development. Frequently the nervous or pulmonary phenomena predominate, when the treatment, such as we have just explained, must be modified. We must also bear in mind that nature does not divide a disease into periods, like those we have adopted to render our exposition of the symptoms more intelligible and the treatment itself more methodical.
If the nervous form of the disease prevails – if the animal shows alternations of dulness and restlessness – if, pressure on the spine is very painful – above all, if, in bulls, for instance, there is plethora, let the bleedings and purgings be increased in order to abate the nervous erethismus. In this form, the violence of the attack usually carries off the beast. Should there, however, be any chance of saving him it will be by employing this medication, which is at once revulsive and depletive, notwithstanding the well-known fact that bleedings, far from relieving the nervous system, sometimes aggravate its irritability.
A general ablution with cold water may be tried in desperate cases. The animal must then be immediately well rubbed, and covered with wool, in order to excite a thorough reaction.
In the pulmonary form of the typhus, but only during the acute stage, the drinks must be warm and emollient, composed of a decoction of soothing substances, with mallows, &c.; or one of linseed, to which must be added some oxymel of squills and opium. The purgatives must be non-stimulating; and emetics, freely diluted, for instance, will be very serviceable.
At the third and fourth period in this pulmonary form of the disease, adopt the treatment prescribed for intestinal typhus.
We might have greatly enlarged the list of the pharmaceutic agents, but the richer a treatment is in remedies the poorer it is in cures. We have made choice of the simplest and safest among all the remedies advised by experienced men, making allowance for the difficulties inherent to the number of animals, the mode of application, the cost, &c., always keeping in view the life of the animal to be saved and the interest of the cattle owners.
We think that the treatment by inoculation might have prevented the typhus in a very large proportion, and that the curative medication might have saved many of the infected cattle at the worst period of the epizootia.
Such, then, are the results which will one day be obtained, when we shall be able to supersede the barbarous process of general extermination, by the adoption of a rational treatment, founded at once on science and practical experience.
IV
Hygienic Measures to be taken against the Extension of the Contagion – Acts and Orders concerning Sanitary Police Regulations.
I have purposely neglected, in discussing the various plans of treatment, certain measures to be adopted with the object of opposing the spread of the contagion. The memorandum published on this subject by the Privy Council, and drawn up by Dr. Thudichum, is so complete and so clear, that we can find nothing better to say. I recommend its perusal to all who possess horned cattle, and who have occasion to send them to any distance. It is of the highest importance to follow this judicious advice, as the general interest will constitute here the safeguard of the pecuniary interests of each in particular. I add to this memorandum upon hygienic measures, the consolidated and amended acts and orders published under the head of "Sanitary Police." In this way those interested will have beneath their eyes all which it is important for them to know, both in a medical and legal point of view.
Memorandum on the Principles and Practice of Disinfection, as applicable to the present Epidemic of Cattle Disease. By J. L. W. Thudichum, M.D.
I. – Principles of disinfection.
I. – Principles of Disinfection
1. Definition of disinfection.
1. The term disinfection signifies the removal and destruction, or destruction and subsequent removal of the products of destruction, of all matters actually being or containing products of disease capable of reproducing disease in other animals.
2. May include special purification and deodorization.
2. If the same processes and means, as used for this purpose, are applied to the purification and deodorization of places and things not actually infected, but capable or suspected of being infected, then these preventive measures are practically and properly included under the definition of disinfection.
3. Reproducers and primary carriers of infection.
Infectious parts of dead animals.
3. The reproducers of the infectious matter or contagion are all kinds of cattle of the ox tribe, which also are at present in this country the only animals liable to its specific effects. It is probable that the contagion adheres with particular pertinacity to all secretions and discharges from sick animals. For this reason, fæces or droppings, urine, ruminated food, all secretions from the mouth, nose, and eyes, and any sore parts of the surface of the diseased animals must be considered as the principal and primary carriers of the infectious matter or plague poison. It is also probable that many parts of animals which have died from the cattle plague, or have been killed during advanced stages of the disease, are infectious, some because they are primarily imbued with the contagion, others because they have been in contact with it after the death of the animal. Skins, hides, hair, horns, and hoofs, must therefore always be treated with precaution. The chances of infection by flesh, fat, cleaned guts, and blood, are perhaps more remote, but cannot be lost sight of.
4. Particular danger of droppings, or fæces.
4. The cattle plague, although affecting every part of the animal, shows its visible effects most extensively in the intestinal canal. It is believed, and apparently upon good grounds, that the intestinal discharges are the principal agents, upon the distribution of which mainly depends the spread of the disorder.
5. Enumeration of infected things and places.
5. It follows from the above, that all articles which have been in contact with a diseased animal, or any of its discharges, particularly its fæces, are capable of carrying the infection for an indefinite time, and must be looked upon as being actually infectious to other healthy animals. Such are racks of wood or iron; cribs or mangers of wood, iron, or stone; articles used for fastening animals; leather collars and straps, ropes and chains; all harness of any animals used for drawing, and all carts, waggons, and carriages which they have actually been drawing; the stalls or sheds in which animals have been standing; the whole lengths of the gutters and drains through which their urine has been flowing; the entire surface over which their manure has been drawn, and all implements with which the removal has been effected; the entire dung-heap upon which infected manure has been put, and the fluid contents of the manure pit, or of the special receptacle for the urine; yards or sheds in which cattle have been kept to tread down long straw, and the whole of such straw and manure, as also the ground beneath them; paths and roads upon which diseased cattle have walked or been carried; fields and meadows upon which they have been grazing; all carts, carriages, trucks and railway trucks in which diseased cattle have been conveyed, and all the platforms, railings, bridges, and boards upon which they have been moved thereto; as also all apparatus which has been used to pen, tie, lift, haul, lower, and fix them; the clothes, and particularly shoes and boots, and iron-pointed sticks of drivers and their dogs; the apparel of all cattle-herds or attendants, particularly their shoes and boots; the shoes and boots of all persons visiting places where diseased cattle are or have been standing; and, in general, the clothes of all persons visiting infected places, ships, and all parts of the platforms, stages, stairs and bridges, hoists and cranes used for embarking and landing the animals; markets, and all sheds, and pens, and implements used in contact with cattle; slaughter-houses, and all persons and implements in them which have been employed upon sick cattle, as also sundry parts or organs which come from sick animals killed in slaughter-houses; knackers' yards, trucks or carts, horses, men, and implements which have been employed in the disposal of sick or dead animals; wells and ponds from which diseased cattle have been drinking, or into which any portion of their excreta has had any opportunity of flowing, directly or indirectly; all fodder, grass, hay, straw, clover, &c., and particularly remnants of fodder upon which diseased cattle have been feeding; and, in general, all persons, animals, places, buildings, and movable things which have been in contact with matters proceeding from diseased cattle, or with such diseased cattle themselves. To the above-mentioned places and things any of the processes and agents enumerated and described in the following may have to be applied.
II. Practice of disinfection.
II. – Practice of Disinfection
A. Disinfection by earth.
1. Burying of animals, &c.
A. Disinfection by Earth. 1. Burying.– All matters that can be buried, so as to remain covered with a thick layer of ground or earth are innocuous. The ground chosen for such interment should be dry. The quickest, and cheapest, and most certain way of disinfecting an animal dead from the plague is to bury it entire.
2. Burying of dung.
2. The droppings, and all straw and other matters contaminated therewith, may also be buried into ground where they are not likely to be disturbed for a long time. The places from which such droppings have been removed to be cleaned and disinfected as will be described below.
3. Infected manure and compost heaps.
3. Manure heaps and the down-trodden manure of cattle yards, if they have become infected by even a small quantity of the droppings of a diseased animal, should be carefully shifted to a suitable piece of ground, and there be transformed into compost heaps. A layer of manure one or two feet in thickness should be covered all over with six inches of dry earth, ashes, and mineral rubbish; upon this another layer of manure may be placed, and then again a layer of earth, and so forth, until the whole of the manure is stacked; it should be covered all over with a continuous layer of earth of from six inches to one foot in thickness. If the manure heap or yard manure cannot be shifted, it may be covered on the spot with a layer of dry earth, after which all animals are to be kept away from it.
4. Removal of boil infected by soakage.
4. If the floor of any shed or stable in which diseased cattle has been standing is not constructed with special water-tight and impenetrable material, it must be assumed to be infected to the depth of at least six inches. This ground should therefore be removed, together with any stones, pavements, or wood work which may have been in contact with it, carted to a piece of dry land and buried. Half-rotten wood is a particularly favourable carrier of infection. Mortar, bricks, loam, or any other lining of the sides of a pen in which a diseased animal has been standing, should be broken out and buried.
B. Disinfection by fire.
1. Burning.
B. Disinfection by Fire. 1. Burning.– All infected articles of a minor value, or made of incombustible materials, can be disinfected by exposing them to a heat which will char organic matter. To this class of articles may be reckoned racks of wood or iron; cribs or mangers of wood, iron or stone; leather collars and straps, ropes and chains; dry manure, residues of fodder from which diseased cattle have eaten; and all such small articles of little value which can easily be replaced by new ones. Chains may be exposed to a dull red heat; all other articles may be heated over a fire of coal, brushwood, or straw until well scorched. All new articles of ironware should be bought in a galvanised state, to prevent the formation of rust, the accumulations of which form convenient seats for infectious matter, and for the same purpose it is desirable that iron articles which have been disinfected by heat as above should afterwards be either galvanised, or, at least, while hot be treated with resin, to cover them with a durable varnish, or should be varnished or painted.
C. Disinfection by chloride of lime. General remarks.
C. Disinfection by Chloride of Lime.– Chloride of lime, or bleaching powder, is the most powerful, the cheapest and most easily managed of all artificial disinfectants. It can be had everywhere, and at any time, and in quantities sufficient for every purpose. It should as much as possible he applied in solution, of a strength varying somewhat with the particular purpose for which it is to be employed; and after it has been allowed to act upon the surface or matter to be disinfected a reasonable time, should be washed off, together with all products of decomposition. As chloride of lime does not destroy only the infectious matter in a mixture, but destroys all organic matter without distinction, it is not applicable to large quantities of matter, such as the manure of cattle, dung-heaps, &c., inasmuch as twice or three times the weight of these matters of chloride of lime would be required for their effectual destruction and disinfection. It is further inapplicable to all matters rich in ammonia, particularly putrid urine, as it destroys the ammonia and evolves a large amount of gases, some of which have a repugnant odour, and are perhaps not quite innocuous. But for the disinfection of surfaces of things and places no better or more suitable agent than chloride of lime is at present known to science.
D. Special directions for disinfection of stables, sheds, &c., trucks, and ships, &c.
1. Special directions.
D. Special Directions for the Disinfection of Stables, Sheds, Vans, Railway Trucks, and Cattle Ships,22 and of Persons and Things connected with them.– 1. After such a place has been cleaned by mechanical means, scraping, &c., as much as possible, and all manure and
Washing.
Scrubbing.
All washing water to be disinfected.
dirt has been carefully buried, the entire surface which has been contaminated, or is likely to have been contaminated, should be covered with a layer of chloride of lime in powder. The powder should be worked about with a broom until equally distributed. It is intended to disinfect the water to be used in the washing process which is now to commence. Clean water, from a hose in which it flows under pressure, or from a force-pump, garden-engine, or from large watering-pots or water-cans, or poured freely from buckets, should now be applied to the entire surface by one person, while another at the same time scrubs the entire surface; and particularly all crevices, joints, and irregularities. The washing water and chloride of lime are then to be worked down the gutters, into the sinks, cesses, or natural watercourses. No washing water from any infected place or thing should ever be allowed to flow into any cesspool, urine-hold, dung-heap, pond, sewer, or natural watercourse, without having previously been mixed and stirred with a liberal amount of chloride of lime. When the place has thus been scrubbed until the water flows off clean, it is ready for effectual disinfection.
2. Actual disinfection.
Solution of chloride of lime.
How applied.
How long to be left on.
2. For this purpose a solution of chloride of lime in water, in the proportion of one pound of the powder to one gallon of water, is made. For the lair of one animal from six to ten gallons of such fluid should be prepared. This fluid is now distributed over the whole surface to be disinfected, gradually, by squirting from a syringe, or by pumping through a force-pump, garden-engine, or by watering from a watering-pot or can with a finely pierced rose. All woodwork, stones, bricks, cement, mortar, all fixtures of whatever material, should be well wetted with the solution, and immediately be scrubbed with a hard brush. Floor and ceiling are also scrubbed, and the whole is left in this wet state covered with the chloride of lime solution for at least one hour, during which time care is taken that no parts become dry.
3. To be washed off after disinfection.
Flushing.
Precautions as to direction of clean water.
3. As the chloride of lime and the products of its decomposing action upon infectious matters may be hurtful to cattle, these matters have to be carefully washed off by a second and final flushing. For this too much water and too much scrubbing cannot be employed. Care should be taken to apply the clean water always to the highest parts, so as to cause it to flow thence to the lower parts, and to wash away the waste from the lower parts before applying any fresh water to the upper parts.
4. Care not to carry back dirt by brooms, boots, &c.
4. Care should also be taken to rinse and flush every broom which has worked away sediment and waste from the lower parts into and through the gutters and drains before applying it again to the clean upper parts. Care should also be taken that the working persons should not step from the dirty or partially cleansed places on to the clean ones, as this may suffice to bring infection back to the disinfected place.
5. Disinfection of workmen and tools.
5. Lastly, all persons employed in this work, having swept and flushed the gutters with the same care as the lairs, are collected, together with all engines and tools which they have used, as near as possible to the sink or place of final egress of water from the premises, and there disinfected as will be described.
Tools.
The tools, such as hooks, forks, spades, hoes, barrows, &c., are scrubbed with the above solution of chloride of lime, and subsequently water until clean; they are then repeatedly wetted with the solution, and after it has had time to disinfect the entire surfaces of them, they are washed clean and laid up, or hung up to dry.
Workmen.
Disinfection of boots.
Disinfection of workpeople's bodies, hands, &c.
Changing and disinfecting clothes.
Burning of articles of little value.
The workmen, then, having finished the disinfection and flushing of all objects and surfaces, effect their own disinfection in the following manner: – They wash their boots most carefully with chloride of lime and water, scraping the soles and scrubbing the seams where the soles join the upper leather. They wash their hands and arms, and by means of clean rags or sponges they remove any splashes from their clothes. After this they go indoors, remove all clothes from head to foot, wash their bodies, and particularly their hands, faces, hair and feet, with plenty of soap and water, and put on fresh clothes and linen. The clothes and linen which they have taken off should be treated as infected, set to soak immediately in boiling water and afterwards disinfected, or in water containing two ounces of chloride of lime to the gallon in solution, or containing four ounces of Condy's red permanganate of potash fluid in solution; or the clothes and linen should be put in a copper and boiled and subsequently washed. All articles of little value which are much soiled should be burned on a bright fire.
E. Disinfection of live stock.
1. Stock may carry infection in two modes.
E. Disinfection of Live Stock.– 1. Live cattle may carry infection in two ways: first, by being themselves infected with the plague and reproducing the poison; and secondly, by accidentally carrying the poison from other animals in a dormant state upon some part of their surface, their hair, and particularly their feet. These latter animals may therefore infect others without being or becoming themselves subjects of the plague. All persons therefore buying new animals, should disinfect them before allowing them to enter their premises. In a similar manner, if in a stable there has been a case of plague, the healthy or apparently healthy animals should all be disinfected.
2. Mode and means of disinfecting live stock.
Warming and refreshing drink.
Penned in the quarantine shed.
2. The mode in which live animals may be disinfected, consists in washing them with disinfectant solutions of such strength as will destroy the contagion without injuring the surface of the animal. A solution of two ounces of chloride of lime in a gallon of water, is a proper solution for washing the coat of animals. A mixture of four ounces of Condy's red permanganate of potash fluid, with one gallon of water, is also a proper disinfectant solution. For full-sized cows and bullocks, &c., several gallons of either of these solutions should be used. Great care should be taken to keep the solution away from the eyes, nostrils, mouth, and tender parts. When the entire surface is washed and disinfected, all disinfectant is removed by the application of great quantities of clean tepid water to all parts. The animal is given a warming and refreshing drink, and is conducted by a clean attendant to the clean quarantine shed. There it should receive fodder both dry and green, and sop, and plenty of pure cold water, and be rubbed dry with whisks of straw and hay.
F. The quarantine shed.
1. Objects.
Both quarantine and surface disinfection are required.
F. The Quarantine Shed.– 1. The quarantine shed is intended to keep the new and suspected cattle separate for a period of at least ten days, in order to afford the security, to be obtained by observation alone, that it is not actually infected with plague. While, therefore, disinfection of the surface of cattle removes one kind of danger, another, which cannot be removed, can only be kept circumscribed or penned in, and this is done by the quarantine shed. But the keeping of cattle in the quarantine shed would not disinfect its surface with certainty even during a much longer period than ten days; disinfection of the surface therefore cannot supply the precaution of the quarantine shed, and a rigorous quarantine cannot supply the effect of surface disinfection. Both precautions are necessary for perfect security, although either of them, without the other, obviates a particular kind and a certain amount of danger.
2. Management of the quarantine shed.
2. The quarantine shed should be situated in an isolated part of the premises. All manure and urine from it should flow and be carried to a particular place separate and distinct from the common dung-heap, and be buried daily.
Cleanliness.
Persons attending healthy stock not to attend quarantine shed, and vice versâ.
The utmost cleanliness should be observed in the shed. All tools, pails, currycombs, etc., used in this shed should be used in it exclusively and nowhere else. The person attending the quarantine shed should not be allowed to go into the shed where healthy stock is kept, or permitted to approach healthy stock. No person attending healthy stock should be permitted to approach quarantine cattle, or to go near or into the quarantine shed. But should unfortunately only one person be available for both duties, that person should be allowed to approach quarantine cattle only when clothed in the safety dress to be immediately described.
G. The safety dress.
1. Description.
G. The Safety Dress.– 1. This consists of strong water-boots reaching up to the knees, well greased all over; of a waterproof coat, buttoned close all the way up in front, and closing tightly round the neck and wrists. The head is to be covered with a cap which takes the hair well in.
2. Persons who should use the safety dress.
To disinfect before leaving suspected or infected premises.
2. Every person having occasion to visit sheds in which there is diseased cattle, or suspected cattle, or quarantine cattle, should be provided with the above dress, put it on when entering the place, take it off when leaving the place, and have it disinfected immediately. This precaution should be strictly observed by all inspectors, all veterinarians, or others called in to attend sick cattle, by all dealers and butchers entering sheds, yards, or meadows, for the purpose of sale or purchase, and by all other persons coming on the premises on business in connexion with cattle.
3. Strangers not to enter sheds except in disinfected safety dresses.
Proprietors of cattle to keep safety dresses.
3. The owners of stock should not allow any strangers to enter their sheds, yards, or meadows, except in disinfected safety-dresses; and in case this should give rise to difficulties, they will do well to have themselves one or two such safety-dresses at hand, and to cause all persons whose business compels them to enter their sheds, to leave their own boots behind, and to put on the long boots, waterproof-coat, and special cap. Only thus can they hope to exclude all ordinary and obvious chances of infection from their previously healthy sheds, yards, and meadows.
H. Measures to be taken where plague has appeared.
Killing and burying diseased animals.
Disinfecting the living and the stables.
H. Measures to be taken on Premises where Plague has actually appeared.– 1. When the plague has actually appeared in any shed, yard, or place, the sick animal should at once be removed with all due precautions. It is certainly the safest and best to pole-axe the animal at once, and to bury it entire, and then to disinfect the particular lair as above described, clear out the stable or shed, disinfect the whole of it and all apparatus, also all the animals, and only to let the animals enter the shed, &c. again, after it is completely sweet and dry.
2. Hospital shed.
Situation of.
2. If, however, a proprietor is desirous of keeping a sick animal because its illness does not appear severe or fatal, he should place it in a separate shed, which must not be the same as or near to the quarantine shed, and be distant from all healthy animals, and so situated that the prevailing wind does not blow from this hospital shed towards the healthy or quarantine shed. The water should also not flow from this hospital shed towards the others, or the yard, or any meadow, but should be carefully drained away and sent off the premises by a special sink.