In previous ages the great outbreaks of murrains only occurred at comparatively rare intervals, in regions more or less remote from those to which they were native; and then they generally owed their diffusion to the events of war, which sometimes carried them far beyond their ordinary boundaries. In modern times their extension has been greatly facilitated by the vastly improved means of communication. The movement of large numbers of animals through the channels of commerce and their rapid transport from one country to another, their concentration in markets, their incessant renewal, the mixing of native with foreign animals, a general indifference to the existence of contagious diseases and the losses they might inflict, the absence of anything like an organization to control and regulate this movement, carry out sanitary regulations, and investigate and suppress these murrains—all these have operated in rendering some of the most harassing and destructive scourges more or less cosmopolitan, spreading them from a very limited area in the middle of a continent to every quarter of the globe, where they flourish as vigorously and persistently as if indigenous to the soil.

The best-known murrains are discussed below.

1. Anthrax.,— This is one of the most diffused and interesting of murrains, affecting, as it does, wild as well as domesticated animals. It prevails, in one or more of its forms, over the entire surface of the globe. It at times decimates the reindeer herds in Lapland and the Polar regions, and is only too well known in the tropics and in temperate latitudes. It has been observed and described in Russia, Siberia, Central Asia, China, Cochin China, Egypt, West Indies, Peru, Paraguay, Brazil, Mexico, and other parts of North and South America, in Australia, and on different parts of the African continent, while for other European countries the writings which have been published with regard to its nature, its peculiar characteristics, and the injury it inflicts are innumerable. Countries in which are extensive marshes, or the subsoil of which is tenacious or impermeable, are usually those most frequently and seriously visited. Thus there are regions notorious for the prevalence of this murrain, such as the marshes of Sologne, Dombes, and Bresse in France; certain parts of Germany, Hungary, and Poland; in Spain it is severely felt in the half-submerged valleys and the maritime coasts of Catalonia, as well as in the Romagna and other marshy districts of Italy; while it is epizootic, and even panzootic, in the swampy regions of Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, and especially of Siberia, where it is known as the Sibir-skajajaswa (Siberian boil-plague), and where it sometimes happens that, in order to suppress its ravages, battalions of soldiers must be sent to bury or burn the carcases of infected animals which float in the canals or lie in the swamps, rendering the air and the water pestilent. The records of the anthrax go back to a very ancient date. It is supposed to be the murrain of Exodus. Classical writers allude to the anthrax as if it were the only cattle disease worthy of mention (see Virgil, Gwrg., iii.). It figures largely in the histories of the Early and Middle Ages as a devastating pestilence among animals, and through them to mankind; and our oldest Anglo-Saxon manuscripts contain many fantastic recipes, leechdoms, charms, and incantations for the prevention or cure of the “blacan blezene” (black blain) and the relief of the “elfshot” creatures. From these up to our own times it has attracted more and more attention, as even in the last and this century it has sometimes spread in an epizootic manner over the whole of Europe, from Siberia to France. It was in this malady that the presence of disease-producing germs (bacilli) was first discovered by Rollender and veterinary surgeon Brauell of Dorpat, and their real character afterwards verified by Davaine; and it has been in their experiments with this disease that Chauveau, Toussaint, and Pasteur have shown how to make the morbific poison its own antidote.

Symptoms.— These vary according as the disease runs its course as a general or localized affection. While death is usually rapid or sudden when the malady is general, constituting what is designated splenic apoplexy or anthrax fever, in the local form, marked by the formation of carbuncles before general infection occurs, it is more protracted. In the apoplectic form there is apparently no local manifestation, and dissolution may take place so quickly (in a few minutes) that there is no time to afford relief. One or more of the best-conditioned and perhaps robust animals in a herd or flock, which until then exhibited no sign of the disease, are suddenly struck down as if shot while grazing, feeding in the stable, or travelling, and rise no more. Or they commence all at once to tremble and stagger; the breathing becomes hurried and the pulse very rapid, while the heart beats violently; the internal temperature of the body is high; blood flows from the nose, mouth, and anus; the visible mucous membranes are almost black in tint; and death soon supervenes, being immediately preceded by delirium, convulsions, or coma. In some cases the animal rallies from a first attack, but soon a second ensues, to which it speedily succumbs, the creature in the interval remaining drowsy and showing muscular tremors. In the carbuncular form the tumours may appear in any part of the body, being preceded or accompanied by fever. When the tongue is affected, the disease is usually known as blain of the tongue, tongue evil, or glossanthrax.

The tumours or malignant pustules are developed in the subcutaneous connective tissue, where this is loose and plentiful, in the interstices of the muscles, and in the lymphatic glands. In the various animals affected they have their special affinities for certain regions, as between the branches of the lower jaw, upper part of the throat, lower portion of the neck, breast, behind the shoulders, back, flank, substance of the tongue, &c. If the part where an anthrax tumour is about to appear is covered with hair, this will be observed to become erect, and if the hand is passed over the part perhaps a slight crepitation will be felt; there is also increased sensibility. In many cases there soon appears a nodosity, simple or multiple, about the size of a small nut and circular or irregular in outline. Ordinarily this is little sensitive in itself, the pain the animal experiences being due to the increased sensibility of the surrounding parts. In other instances the tumour suddenly commences in the appearance of a soft cedematous swelling, crepitating and undefined. When the eruption takes this form the tumours are quickly developed, and in a few hours invade all the neighbouring parts, extending in every direction with equal rapidity,—the skin covering them becoming tense and hard like parchment, and crackling on pressure. As they extend they become cold and insensible, a variable number of phlyctaenae arise on their surface, and these quickly bursting give issue to a serous irritant fluid. If an incision is made in the swelling at this stage there is no symptom of pain, and a black or reddish serum escapes, extremely foetid and corrosive, which produces a noise as it flows like the crackling of paper or the bubbling of boiling water. Sometimes passive haemorrhage ensues after the incision is made, and continues until death.

In whatever form the tumours are developed, their course is always the same, being more rapid the earlier they appear. In from two to eight hours they attain a considerable size, and tlfβ tissues mortify as they are invaded. As they are developed the animal seems to become relieved, the fever abates, and the more urgent symptoms vanish. But, when they have attained certain proportions, general symptoms are manifested, and these vary according as the malady is to terminate favourably or otherwise. In some rare instances the matter which constitutes the tumours is suddenly absorbed, abundant sweats, an increased flow of urine, or a serous foetid diarrhoea ensue, and the animal promptly recovers. In other cases, by surgical intervention, the evolution of the tumours is limited to a certain extent; they reach the suppurative stage, and finally disappear. In ordinary circumstances, however, it happens that after the interval which follows the eruption, the organism being incapable of eliminating the morbid element, the tumours vanish; but this is only a transference, for the disease assumes all the grave characters of anthrax fever without local manifestations, the general symptoms reappear, and, running their course with marvellous rapidity, the animal perishes in a few hours.

A form of anthrax affects the horse more especially, and this by some authors has been designated anthrax typhus. It manifests itself locally and generally, and is very fatal (Fleming, Veterinary Sanitary Science and Police, vol. ii. p. 122).

In cattle there is a disease very fatal among young stock, and known to breeders and graziers by various names, the most common of which is “black quarter,” which had always been classed among the forms of anthrax until its nature was investigated by Arloing and Cornuvin, who have termed it symptomatic anthrax (Charbon symptomatique), while by others it has been named anthra-coid erysipelas, &c. This is at first a local disease, affecting usually one hind quarter, and occurring among young animals more especially, particularly those fed on rich food and thriving rapidly. It also occurs very suddenly, runs its course in a very brief space, and nearly always terminates fatally unless surgical and medical treatment is promptly resorted to. It is caused also by a bacillus or bacterium somewhat different from that of ordinary anthrax.

In splenic fever or splenic apoplexy, the most marked alterations observed after death are — the effects of rapid decomposition, evidenced by the foul odour, disengagement of gas beneath the skin and in the tissues and cavities of the body, yellow or yellowish-red gelatinous exudation into and between the muscles, effusion of citron-or rust-coloured fluid in various cavities, extravasations of blood and local congestions throughout the body, the blood in the vessels generally being very dark and tar-like. The most notable feature, however, in the majority of cases is the enormous enlargement of the spleen, which is engorged with blood to such an extent that it often ruptures, while its tissue is changed into a violet or black fluid mass.

Inoculation. — Anthrax in all its forms is an inoculable disease, transmission being surely and promptly effected by this means, and it may be conveyed to nearly all animals either by inoculation or through the digestive organs. The abraded skin is often the channel for the introduction of the bacilli; and persons who handle diseased animals or their products—as flesh, skin, wool, or hair—often die from anthrax, which presents similar symptoms in mankind to those it exhibits in animals. The bacillus of anthrax, under certain conditions, retains its vitality for a long time, and rapidly grows when it finds a suitable fluid in which to develop, its mode of multiplication being by scission and the formation of spores, and depending, to a great extent at least, on the presence of oxygen. The morbid action of the bacillus is indeed said to be due to its affinity for oxygen; by depriving the red corpuscles of the blood of that most essential gas, it renders the vital fluid unfit to sustain life. Others assert that the fatal lesions are produced by the enormous number of bacilli blocking up the minute blood-vessels, especially of the lungs, and thus inducing asphyxia.

It was by the cultivation of this micro-organism, or attenuation of the virus, that Pasteur has been enabled to produce a prophylactic remedy for anthrax, which has already been demonstrated to be very effective; and his discovery is likely to lead to most important results in procuring protective agents for other similar and fatal disorders in man and beast. Though his discovery was first made with regard to the cholera of fowls, a most destructive disorder which annually cames off great numbers of poultry, yet as applied to anthrax it has attracted most attention. This so-called attenuation or cultivation of the virus of the disease by Pasteur is effected by growing the bacillus in an albuminous fluid, the preference being given to chicken-broth which has been previously sterilized by being raised to a temperature of 115° C. This broth is inoculated with a drop of anthrax blood which has been taken with antiseptic precautions from an animal about to die of the disease; it is kept in pure air at a temperature of 42° to 43° C.; at 45° the process of cultivation will not go on. After a certain time another quantity of broth is inoculated with a drop of the first, and kept under the same conditions; and so this cultivation is carried on until a sufficient number of generations of the bacilli have been grown and the required degree of attenuation ensured. This is attained by attention to the temperature, allowing a certain interval to elapse between each inoculation of the broth and the number of generations cultivated. The resulting “vaccine,” as it has been improperly designated, when inoculated into the body of an animal liable to anthrax, confers immunity from the disease, if certain rules are attended to.

Toussaint had, previous to Pasteur, attenuated the virus of anthrax by the action of heat; and Chauveau has more recently corroborated by numerous experiments the value of Toussaint’s method, demonstrating that, according to the degree of heat to which the virus is subjected, so its innocuousness when transferred to a healthy creature. The attenuation of heat, according to this method, is a safer and readier way to obtain a protective virus than Pasteur’s broth cultivations.

2. Cattle-Plague or Rinderpest.— The next disease is that which has, since the commencement of the last century, been generally described as “the murrain,” but which is now better known as the “cattle-plague” or “rinderpest” (German). While anthrax is, with regard to species of animals attacked, the most universal of all diseases, being transmissible to nearly every living creature, including mankind, cattle-plague is limited to ruminants (oxen, sheep, goats, camels, buffaloes, yaks, deer, &c.). It is an Asiatic malady, and prevails frequently and with great severity in southern Russia (imported), Central Asia, Mongolia, China (south, west, and north), Cochin China, Burmah, Hindustan, Persia, Ceylon, and the islands in the Indian and Malay Archipelagos. It is only known in Europe as an exotic and imported malady, it has not yet appeared on the American continent, in Australia, in New Zealand, or on the African continent, except in Egypt, into which it has been carried on several occasions, and where, owing to the absence of sanitary measures, it now prevails constantly. It is one of the most infectious and fatal diseases of animals—a specific fever which runs its course so rapidly, and attacks such a large percentage of ruminants when it is introduced into a country, that from the earliest times it has excited terror and dismay.

It has been noted that its irruptions into Europe in the earlier centuries of our era always coincided with invasions of barbarous tribes in the east of Europe; and even at a later period the disease accompanied the events of war, when troops with their commissariat moved from the east towards the west, or cattle, when they were carried in the same direction. One of the earliest recorded irruptions of cattle-plague into western Europe occurred in the 5th century after the sanguinary invasion of the Huns under Attila, the expulsion of the Goths from Hungary, and the fierce internecine wars of the whole Germanic population. The disease appears then to have been carried from Hungary through Austria to Dalmatia, while by Brabant it obtained access to the Low Countries, Picardy, and so on to the other provinces of France. In the curious poem De Mortibus Bovum written by St Severus, who lived at that period, the course and destructiveness of the disease are specially alluded to. Many invasions of Europe are described, and in several of these Britain was visited by it —as in 809-810, 986-987, 1223-1225, 1513-1514, and notably in 1713, 1745, 1774, 1799. In 1865 and 1872 it was imported direct from Russia.

Symptoms.— Like some other general diseases, this does not offer any exclusive or pathognomonic symptoms, but is rather characterized by a group of functional and anatomical alterations. An exact knowledge of its symptoms and necroscopical appearances is of the utmost importance, as its extension and consequent ravages can only be arrested through its timely recognition and the immediate adoption of the necessary sanitary measures. Intense fever, diarrhoea or dysentery, croupous inflammation of the mucous membranes in general, sometimes a cutaneous papular eruption, and great prostration mark the course of the affection, which is frequently most difficult to diagnose during life, especially if its presence is not suspected. Its introduction and mode of propagation can, in many instances, be ascertained only at a late period, and when great loss may already have been sustained. In the majority of cases the examination of the carcase of an animal which has died or been purposely killed is the best way to arrive at a correct diagnosis. Indeed, this is practically the only certain means of concluding as to the presence of the malady, as in different invasions, and even in different countries and different individuals during the same invasion, there are observed considerable variations in the chief symptoms with regard to their intensity as well as in the secondary symptoms or epiphenomena.

Among cattle indigenous to the regions in which this malady may be said to be enzootic the symptoms are often comparatively slight, and the mortality not great. So much is this the case that veterinary surgeons who can readily distinguish the disease when it affects the cattle of western Europe, can only with difficulty diagnose it in animals from Hungary, Bessarabia, Moldavia, or other countries where it is always more or less prevalent. In these the indications of fever are usually of brief duration, and signs of lassitude and debility are, in some instances, the only marks of the presence of this virulent disorder in animals which may, nevertheless, communicate the disease in its most deadly form to the cattle of other countries. Slight diarrhoea may also be present, and a cutaneous eruption accompanied by gastric disturbance, shedding of tears, and infrequent cough. In the more malignant form the fever runs very high, sometimes to 107’6° Fahr., and all the characteristic symptoms of the disorder are well marked, the lesions during life being observed-in the cheese-like deposits on the gums, the presence of petechiae on the mucous membranes, discharges from the eyes, nose, and mouth, eruption on the skin, cough and laboured breathing, certain nervous phenomena, and dysenteric dejections. Death generally occurs in four or five days, the course of the disorder being more rapid with animals kept in stables than with those living in the open air, and in summer than in winter. After death the chief alterations are found in the digestive canal, and consist in evidence of inflammation of a more or less acute kind, with ulceration, extravasation of blood, gangrene, &c. The membrane lining the air-passages offers similar alterations; indeed, all the mucous membranes of the body appear to be involved, and the malady might almost be considered as a malignant infectious catarrhal fever.

Protective inoculation has often been advocated and practised (particularly in Russia) for this disorder, but the advantages derived have not been sufficient to compensate for the danger attending it. Quite recently, Semmer of the Dorpat veterinary school has made experiments with cultivated or attenuated virus, and so far the results have been encouraging.

3. Pleuro-Pneumonia or Lung-Plague.— The next murrain in importance, with regard to destructiveness, is the so-called “lung-plague” or contagious “pleuro-pneumonia” of cattle.

This disease is particularly interesting...