Bourguignon Honoré
On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment
Thus, the Islington Market (the fact is assured) had received horned cattle imported from the countries where typhus is known to be permanent. Were these cattle thus imported affected with the typhus? This fact likewise is as certain as the other, since two of the foreign cows thus imported, were the first to fall sick, and to die of this typhus.
But if the contagious typhus of horned cattle rages permanently on the banks of the streams which discharge themselves into the Black Sea, and if the beasts reared in those countries have long been transported to England and other countries, how, it will be asked, is it that the disease has not broken out more frequently, for it has never been seen in Great Britain, at least, during the former part of the nineteenth century?
This question is not devoid of a certain degree of importance, and deserves to fix our attention for a moment.
Now the conditions in which the animals were exhibited in 1863 and 1864 were precisely the same as those of 1865, before the outbreak of the disease; and yet the contagion has been possible in 1865, whilst it was not so in 1863.
We do not presume to explain the mysterious phenomena which govern the development of epidemics and epizootics; but it seems to us not altogether impossible to give a rational and satisfactory elucidation of the facts.
In general, in epizootics, and I might even say in some particular epidemics – in that of the typhus, for instance – three connected and inseparable facts form the condition sine quâ non, of the generation of the disease. First, a focus for producing the virus; secondly, for the most part a favourable soil, and a special predisposition amongst animals to receive and propagate it; thirdly, what is called an epidemic or epizootic genius – that is to say, a particular state of the atmospheric elements, or the air, which hitherto has escaped our analyses, and whose morbific properties vary in their degrees of intensity. Thus the epizootic genius of 1711, the terrible one of 1750, and the one which now diffuses its contagious miasma, have differed in some of their virulent conditions.
However that may be, it will be sufficient to glance back at the past to assure ourselves that, in general, epizootics have been coincident with some violent change of season, such as extreme droughts, or superabundant rains; that is to say, when the cattle, disturbed in the physiological conditions of their health, have become favourable to the incubation of the miasmatic leaven scattered through the air, or else when these animals were living under irregular conditions, and had to endure unwonted fatigues and privations, as in the folds of campaigning armies, for instance.
These epizootics have appeared to depend not only on the state of the soil and of the health of the cattle, but also (we repeat it designedly) on an element no less indispensable to the propagation of the disease – a special state of the air, which favours the development and preservation of typhic miasma: for sometimes a sudden change of temperature has proved sufficient to stop the rampant progress of the contagion, the other conditions remaining unaltered.
These relations of cause and effect between the contagious principle, the predisposition of the animals, and the state of the atmosphere, evidently are subject to some exceptions; but we must allow that in the present epizootic they are absolutely and completely applicable. For, in truth, the years 1864 and 1865 have been distinguished, if not by the persistency of a high rate of temperature not often witnessed, at least by an excessive drought during the months which are both hot and rainy; and this has happened in the various countries of Europe, thereby producing a falling off in the pasture and fodder both as respects their quantity and quality.
As to England, a country usually cold and damp, but renowned for its spacious green fields and meadows, it has suffered more than any other country from these unfavourable conditions, and their destructive influence on the grass and corn; the herds having found a great reduction of food where formerly they met with abundance. Everybody has seen, as we have ourselves, large herds of cattle, wandering in amazement from field to field, and seeking for something to browse on a parched and arid soil. A supplementary provision of corn, roots, malt, and the grounds of the beer vat or spirit barrel, no doubt served to mitigate the sad effects of these privations on the health of cattle; but in spite of all that could be done, their blood became impoverished, their strength and vital resistance sank, and (like the animals which we transferred at will into a soil more favourable to the spread of parasitic diseases), they afforded last June, as they do now, an unusual predisposition to suffer and transform the morbific principles of typhus, which in all probability they would have been proof against at any other time. We may very fairly infer this much, for we must of necessity believe that the regular importation of cattle from those countries which are considered as the permanent focus of typhus, has from time to time transported the miasmatic germs of this malady into England, although the virus did not take effect on British cattle at those periods, for want of one or other of the conditions necessary to its generation and development.
We may likewise infer, and a watchful appreciation of the facts contained in the veterinary medical journals would show that this opinion is not unfounded, that the special disease which constitutes this typhus (similar in that respect to epidemic diseases), may develop itself in one beast by accident, spontaneously, sporadically – that is to say, without immediate contagion; in a word, apart from those epizootic conditions which alone render its propagation possible. To be brief, we think that an isolated case of cattle typhus may by chance be detected, when there is no epizootia prevailing to account for it, just as we occasionally meet with cases of typhus or cholera among men during seasons absolutely free from these epidemics. It would not, therefore, appear to us altogether impossible, that under the influence of very special conditions, the contagious typhus of the ox might have its birth in England; and this would favour the theory of those reasoners who maintain that this typhus met with the first causes, and the origin of its development, in the stalls and cowsheds of London. But such has not been the cause of cattle typhus in the epizootia which we see at present.
No doubt some animals suffered great privations, but, whatever alteration their health may have sustained, all this is nothing to be compared to the sufferings endured by the cattle in the steppes under the influence of deleterious conditions of the most exceptional character, which do, indeed, give birth to this typhus, and which we have already described.
No, certainly not! Nothing authorizes us to believe that the typhus now under our observation was bred and born, at first, within the stalls and cowsheds of London. It was most assuredly imported. But it is true, nevertheless, that this cruel scourge found the horned cattle of England predisposed to receive it, and it likewise met with atmospheric conditions favourable to its subsequent diffusion; in a word, it met with the epizootic genius proper for the generation and propagation of the typhus miasma.
It is thus that we may account for and reconcile the two contending theories, one of which refers the cause of this typhus to foreign importation, whilst the other insists that it originated in the filthy and half-ventilated cowsheds of the metropolis.
But if this typhus could not spring up spontaneously out of the bovine race of England, it must be confessed that, independently of the general predisposition due to a great and protracted drought, it found in the sickening sheds of the metropolitan and country cattle the most favourable conditions for its incubation and subsequent diffusion.
It would, indeed, be difficult to conceive of anything more directly adverse to the hygienic laws of health in cattle than the stalls and sheds dotted over the densely populated districts of London. Most of these pent-up cribs are situated in narrow lanes and yards, in filthy streets and blind alleys; and within these close, hot, and steaming receptacles the miserable cows, pressed against each other, without ever moving a limb, waste away and become phthisical in a very short space of time. We may readily imagine what a prey to the contagion must be afforded by these animals, already more or less ailing, some of which are fed in a great measure on malt, so sour and acrid that the very smell of it is intolerable. The milk from these cows is, moreover, of so wretched a quality, that in a cowhouse containing 48 of these poor creatures, at Kensington, I found only one, the milk of which exhibited the taste and quality fit for a sick child, for whom I ordered a milk diet.
It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the present epizootia, during this late tropical season5 especially, should have met with all the conditions most conducive to its development and propagation.
When the cattle distemper first broke out, the graziers, not suspecting its gravity, attempted to treat the animals themselves, but soon afterwards perceiving the fruitlessness of all their remedial measures, they felt that the best thing they could do was to turn their sick beasts to whatever account they could, by driving them to market or to the slaughter-houses, an expedient which they were the more disposed to adopt, inasmuch as the diseased cows had ceased to give milk. And then, the removal of these animals, in various stages of the disorder, became the most rapid means of disseminating the contagion, which, had it been concentrated and pent-up at first within its narrow focus, would otherwise have spread with less fearful havoc.6
In the meanwhile the sick cows being commingled with thousands of heads of cattle exposed for sale at the different markets, communicated far and wide the principle of the disease; and as a certain number of these animals remaining unsold were driven back to the farms, into stalls until then removed from every cause of contagion, they introduced among their sound companions the fatal germs of the distemper; and as, again, this effectual means of propagating the evil was repeated several times in the same week, the consequence was that, by the end of July – a little more than a month after the outbreak – the whole of the south of England was in some sort contaminated. Thence the contagion extended to the north of the kingdom, and passed into Scotland; so that, at present, the cattle-typhus has spread its ramifications over a great number of the counties of Great Britain.7
In the first instance, the contagion spread from animal to animal by means of an infecting influence in some degree direct, among cattle sheltered beneath the same roof, or collected in swarms within the same markets. But very soon the air itself was impregnated and polluted by the vaporization and diffusion of the typhic miasma; and herds of cattle which had no contact, either direct or indirect, with infected animals, were seen to be tainted with the distemper. Whether this contamination was produced by the passage of attainted cattle along the public roads (having fields on the right and left), or otherwise, nothing but an absolute isolation, an utter impossibility of contact, appeared to offer a perfect immunity against the spread of the evil.
The miasma, condensed by the fogs and transported in all directions by the winds, now began to overleap every natural or artificial barrier, and the favoured herds, ruminating at their ease in the manorial farms of the wealthy patricians, in their well-kept parks and amid every luxury, were suddenly smitten with an evil which in their case seemed an anomaly. In such peaceful homes these innocent creatures were tended by intelligent and benevolent hands, which understood and felt for their frail constitutions; food of the best quality was lavishly supplied to them, and whatever they could wish for lay around them in abundance; richly reared, they had themselves become so many ornaments within these scenes of beauty, and all men thought that here, at least, were plots of rural ground which the genius of epizootia would not invade, and in which the healthy herds were invulnerable to contagion.
It was under these circumstances that the fine farms of Earl Granville, at Golder's Green, skirting the Finchley Road,8 containing as many as 130 milch cows, were suddenly and fiercely attacked amidst their seeming immunity, and struck down in great numbers.
"When I left England a month ago," said the noble lord, "there were about 130 milch cows in four sheds; in the two largest and best managed I found only one cow yesterday, September 4th."
The park of Holly Lodge,9 which is partly bounded by the main road along which pass and repass files of cattle going to and coming from the markets, was visited by the same unsparing scourge. Now certainly, the noble and beneficent lady of the manor, who secured to her cattle every attention, and who, confiding in the resources of medical science, attempted every means to save these stricken creatures doomed to an inevitable death; she whose enlightened mind, equally open to the claims of science as to those of misfortune, desired that experiments should be made which might tend to throw any light on this devastating malady; she, at any rate, one would think, might have escaped the common lot without exciting wonder or envy at the privilege which she enjoyed. But this fell and sweeping epizootia, inexorable in its latitudinarian march, entered those shady bounds, and decimated those orderly sheds with the same impartiality as it did that of the poor man, Cutting, whose whole fortune was stored up in the two milch cows whose death he had to deplore.
This epizootia threatens to invade, one by one, all the European States, like the awful scourge of 1750, to which we have already drawn attention. For even now Holland and Belgium10 have been smitten; and the alarm it has excited has for a time superseded the panic which the stealthy advance of the cholera to the west had kindled. Some imagine that it might have been kept out of Great Britain, or have been checked in its outbreak. But, in spite of all the safest precautions and the soundest measures of preparation, it would most likely have baffled human skill, and neither been held aloof nor stifled in its focus. But how painful it is, to have to write and to think that ignorance, carelessness, revolting cupidity, and the most wanton violation of the laws, have all contributed to extend the evil, with the foulest premeditation and the blindest disregard!
To feel one's self a stranger in a country, and to be able to rejoice at one's connexions with it, and at the same time to be obliged to give publicity to certain truths distasteful to those to whom they are told, is a most painful task. But, as it would be to swerve from that duty and loyalty which the national interests as well as those of science impose upon a writer, not to speak out with impartial justice in a matter of so vital an importance, we beg permission to consider, without reserve, this delicate question: – the causes which have contributed to propagate the complaint.
V
England, so long spared by that wasting scourge, which had so often extended its ravages over France and other kingdoms during the last sixty years, was taken by surprise; and the regulations and laws necessary to stifle without delay the distemper in its focus – that is to say, in the metropolis – not being in readiness, the outbreak of the disease found her helpless and unarmed.
On the other hand, the organic forms of the English Government and municipal bodies, the reserve of the Cabinet during the vacation, the limited power of the Lord Mayor and his civic counsellors, the subdivision of London into parishes and vestries, as in the good times of the middle ages, the loose scattering of the shambles and meat markets through the many streets of the huge town, the right asserted by each man to be absolutely independent and free, the sanctity of the Englishman's home, &c., &c., all concurred to let loose and propagate the contagion, instead of keeping it within bounds.
Indeed, whilst the competent authorities, with all the energy which could be expected of them on so grave a matter, were meeting and discussing the best measures to be taken, and the interesting debates at the Mansion-house were throwing the first light upon the question, the insidious malady pursued its destructive progress, diffusing new terror and alarm. When at length the Privy Council issued their orders, prescribing the public declaration of sick cattle, and that no affected beast was to be conveyed either by rail or by ship, whilst all the necessary means of purification and disinfection were to be employed, &c., it was unfortunately too late, the dreadful calamity having taken root and multiplied its stem like the upas-tree.
What a field for reflection there is in these cases, which originating with the imperfect state of the laws and institutions, have fostered and encouraged the disease! But this is a subject which it would not behove us to discuss, and we prefer to show by the notes which will be found appended to the end of this work, and which are produced as attesting documents, that cattle proprietors, by their own confession, too often sacrifice the interests of the public to their own private advantage.11
Nor have we been able to participate in the thoughts and reflections of so many sensible and judicious persons, on the impotence and dilatoriness of the public authorities, and also, let us say, on the inadequate pecuniary means proposed by a people so lavish of its wealth when useful and great undertakings are designed, without paying a natural tribute of regret, to the memory of a Prince who took so deep an interest in the progress of agriculture, and who, had he still been living, would have known how to direct with a firm and steady hand, the right measures to be taken amidst so many intricacies and embarrassments.
Sometimes allusion has been made to France in the speeches delivered at these meetings, presided over by that active magistrate, the Lord Mayor. In the course of these remarks the speakers have praised and held up to admiration the advantages of her system of centralization, the decrees of her sanitary police, and the promptness with which she executes the measures which the public interests require. That is true. France is certainly in a state to resist the scourge with very effectual means to arrest its progress; but if in this matter, as in some others, she have acquired a superiority, it has only been by an experience dearly purchased, these epizootics having returned more than once to destroy her flocks and herds. Politically, the same might be said of her revolutions, those great moral epidemics.
An orator, a writer, went so far as to say, in one of his numerous letters, the one dated the 24th of August: "I regret to say some of our neighbours laugh at our expense."12
No, your neighbours will not laugh at your misfortunes. They sympathize at present both in your joys and sorrows, and if I have taken up my pen on this occasion, it has only been because I could not look with indifference on your too just anxieties, when I flattered myself that I might write some useful pages to mitigate and relieve them.
As most newspaper readers are aware,13 and as everybody may easily ascertain, the diseased cattle, in spite of reiterated orders to destroy them immediately, were, nevertheless, driven to the markets to be sold for what could be got for them; or when their tainted condition was too glaring they were at once sent off to the private shambles, the owners of which, in order to disguise the accusatory proof of the misdemeanor, hastened to sell the body of the animal. It would be quite impossible to mention all the violations of the law, which every day continue to fill the columns of the public journals. One graceless wretch, who deserved to be hanged for it, if his ignorance do not excuse him, was so infamous as to introduce a sick cow into a shed not yet attainted, in his criminal desire of propagating the disease there.14
Thus, then, independently of the causes inherent to the typhus itself, which served of necessity to diffuse it, other causes proceeding from the defective state of the law, and the perfidy of individuals, have contributed to its dissemination. And yet the Government circulars, the newspapers, and the reports of veterinary doctors have made known that the slightest omissions and inattentions were serious – that the want of ventilation and cleanliness in the stables, the overcrowding of the cattle, and their abiding near their own droppings, or dung-heaps – that the keeping of dead bodies close to farms, cowsheds, enclosed grounds, and fields – that the hasty and imperfect burial of cattle – that the collection and transit of their fragments, bones, horns, and skins – that the driving on the public roads of any animal either tainted itself, or having lived among those that were sick – that the clothes of persons and stable utensils, soiled with putrid liquids – that all these, and similar causes, were capable of propagating or aggravating the disease.
But whilst we must loudly condemn the voluntary misdeeds of those who drove their sick cattle to market, it must likewise be allowed that, to conform one's self rigidly to the given injunctions, was sometimes attended with serious embarrassments. How great, indeed, must have been the perplexity of any grazier who, being the owner, for instance, of forty head of cattle, and having seen ten of them perish under his eyes, without knowing where to dispose of them, was threatened with the loss of the remaining thirty within a few days! How could he calmly and patiently resign himself to suffer so large a quantity of animal matter to accumulate and putrefy around him, when, suddenly ruined, and destitute of every resource, the authorities held back instead of coming to his assistance.
The prime cause of all the transgressions committed in despite of the Privy Council's orders, may therefore be referred in part to the want of compensation to be granted to the owners of infected cattle. It all might be almost reduced to a question of money. For let us suppose for a moment, that inspectors entrusted with adequate powers, had been authorized, after a close examination, to point out the tainted cattle; to fix a moderate price on them by way of compensation; to have them slaughtered, carried away, and immediately buried, would not such a course have diminished the generation of contagious miasma in a considerable proportion?
Moreover, some cattle-breeders and farmers exposed themselves to the imposition of fines and penalties without any evil designs; for when they drove their beasts to market they were only in the stage of incubation, at the preliminary period, when it is really no easy task to distinguish the distemper. The following fact will exemplify this.
At each market, in spite of continual warnings, the inspectors pick out and despatch to the slaughter-houses a certain number of sick cattle, not only those affected with typhus, but with other disorders. One cannot help wondering, on seeing the poor, lean, sickly condition of some of these creatures, how their owners could have been so mad as to expose them for sale; but in their number there are a few which, although sick, appear in good health to the common observer.
About a fortnight ago, during one of our visits to the great Metropolitan Market, Mr. Tegg, the veterinary inspector, whose intelligence and earnestness are quite equal to the very difficult charge with which he is entrusted, ordered to be seized and removed to a secluded fold near the slaughter-houses, a dozen diseased animals. When once these cattle had been thus collected in a body, it was easy to submit them to a still closer examination. Most of these beasts, adult cows and oxen, were lean, panting, feverish, dispirited, and remained motionless where they stood. But among them was a cow, with a brisk and lively look, a quick open eye, which watched us with anxiety, and fled at our approach every time we passed by her. The turn came for this cow to be examined. Mr. Tegg, strong and handy – as every good veterinary doctor should be – seized hold of one of her horns, but he was quickly shaken off; other persons came up to assist him; the fiery animal was suddenly seized by both horns, by the nostrils, and the tail; but so strong and spirited was the animal, that she defended herself with advantage against all her adversaries, and once more shook herself free.
It was necessary, however, to master the creature, so they surrounded her again, pressing her back this time into a corner of the pen, to overpower her. But lo! the animal takes a sudden spring, and leaps over the bars. Assuredly this cow, for a beast suspected of the typhus taint, had given a proof, if not of health, at least of extraordinary vigour; and her owner, who had seen her condemned with much vexation, now thought he saw ample reason to reclaim her, and drive her back to the market for sale. However the cow, on taking such a leap, and under conditions so unfavourable, came down with all her weight upon her limbs, fracturing one of her forelegs.
After this accident, we were able to prosecute the examination we desired, and Mr. Tegg showed us a row of little glandular swellings on the ridge of the gums, and livid spots on the vaginal mucous membrane, which confirmed his diagnosis. The owner of this cow, nevertheless, still discredited the diseased state of the beast; so to convince him, she was driven off at once to the slaughter-house to be struck down; but, unfortunately, three or four others filled the required area, so that the poor cow was forced to witness the execution of her fellow-creatures before being killed herself. The look and posture of this cow, her excited yet terrified glance as she surveyed this scene of carnage, was one of those pictures which no pencil could draw; and although we acknowledge that man possesses an incontestable right to apply to his own use the dead or live matter of animals for his food and sustenance, we could not help feeling for the poor victim, slipping over the blood, and thus scenting death before receiving the stroke.
We are not excessively sensitive; we have seen a hundred horses bleeding from the incisions made by veterinary pupils, and scores of oxen slaughtered; we ourselves have practised numerous experiments on animals; but the affecting sight of that animal witnessing the slaughter of others, and waiting her turn to die, touched us deeply. We could not help asking ourselves, how it was that man could dispense with compassion and good feeling even in that bloody toil, and why he did not bandage the eyes of the doomed creatures he was going to sacrifice? These dumb animals that we treat like inert matter are sensitive like ourselves; they are very conscious of pain; and if it be our privilege to compute the number of our days, we ought not to forget that they are, like us, endowed with intelligence, so that when they are thus detained at the place of execution, all their senses and faculties being concentrated on their destroyer, they are fully conscious of the cruel fate which awaits them.
At last it was the poor beast's turn to be slaughtered, and ten minutes afterwards we opened her entrails, and had proof that Mr. Tegg's judgment was exact, for already the stomach and intestines offered to view indubitable signs of the typhus at its first period.
The owner of the cow was then convinced and brought to reason, but he still very fairly asserted the goodness of his motives, about which none present doubted at all, and applied for compensation to the full value of the beast, both as butcher's meat and offal, which application was granted.
Judge, therefore, by this particular example, how many tainted cattle there must have been which have propagated this distemper, some with and some without the knowledge of their owners; and, "horresco referens!" how much of this tainted meat must have been purchased and eaten by the public, since this cow had all the appearance of health and vigour, and the real diseased condition might not have been detected at all, but for the experience and sagacity of Mr. Tegg, the inspector.
VI
In this consideration of the causes of the contagious typhus in bovine cattle, we have deemed it essential to invite attention both to those which are generally recognised and admitted, and to those which, though they may have been settled in the minds of observant and experienced men, may yet appear hypothetical to certain readers.
Besides which, in every scientific work, allowance must be made for the past and future; and here we have two vital distinctions. If the man who undertakes this task does not go on, he falls back; and it was to avoid incurring this reproach that we have passed our old boundaries and visited new avenues. We are aware that more than one objection might be urged against the opinions and theories which we have exposed, in order to account for the outbreak of typhus in England; we might anticipate, we might reply to these objections; but we would rather recapitulate our inquiry into the causes, in the tangible form of practical propositions.
From the general considerations above given, we think we may conclude,
1st. That the causes which generate the cattle typhus on our globe are permanent and unceasing, not only on the banks of the great rivers which empty themselves into the Black Sea, but also in other countries – in America, in Africa, &c.; wherever, in a word, exist the conditions, not of race (the race of the animal in this case being but secondary), but of climate and of the organic elements which are indispensable to the formation and development of typhic miasma.