Part 28
Before disease can attack, and develop itself in the bodies of men or animals, the existing equilibrium of the vital powers must be disturbed; and the most common causes of this disturbance we have already alluded to. In reference to the milk, butter, cheese, &c., of infected animals, and their adaptation to develop disease in man, and in other locations than those referred to, we observe, that when a quantity, however small, of contagious matter is introduced into the stomach, if its antiseptic properties are the least deranged, the original disease (milk sickness) is produced, just as a small quantity of yeast will ferment a whole loaf. The transformation takes place through the medium of the blood, and produces a body identical with, or similar to, the exciting or contagious matter. The quantity of the latter must constantly augment; for the state of change or decomposition which affects one particle of the blood is imparted to others. The time necessary to accomplish it, however, depends on the amount of vital resistance, and of course varies in different animals. In process of time, the whole body becomes affected, and in like manner it is communicated to other individuals; and this may take place by simply respiring the carbonic acid gas, or morbific materials from the lungs, of diseased animals in the infected districts.
We are told that the latent condition of the disease may be discovered by subjecting the suspected animal to a violent degree of exercise. This is a precaution practised by butchers before slaughtering animals in any wise suspected of the poisonous contamination;[29] for according to the intensity of the existing cause, or its dominion over the vital power, it will be seized with tremors, spasms, convulsions, or even death. The reader is, probably, aware that an excess of motion will sometimes cause instant death; for both men and animals, supposed to be in excellent health, are known to die suddenly from excessive labor. In some cases of excess of muscular exertion, the active force in living parts may be entirely destroyed in producing these violent mechanical results: hence we have a loss of equilibrium between voluntary and involuntary motion, and there is not sufficient vitality left to carry on the latter. Professor Liebig says, "A stag may be hunted to death. The condition of metamorphosis into which it has been brought by an enormous consumption both of force and of oxygen continues when all phenomena of motion have ceased, and the flesh becomes uneatable." A perfect equilibrium, therefore, between the consumption of vital force for the supply of waste, protecting the system from encroachments, and for mechanical effects, must exist; the animal is then in health: the contrary is obvious.
_Treatment._--The greatest care must be taken to secure the patient good nutritious food, pure air, and water. The food should consist of a mixture of two or more of the following articles, which must be cooked: linseed, parsnips, shorts, carrots, meal, apples, barley, oats, turnips, slippery elm, oil cake, &c. We again remind the reader that no single or compound medicine can be procured that will be suitable for every stage of the disease; it must be treated according to its indications. Yet the following compound, aided by warmth, moisture, and friction, externally, will be found better than any medicine yet known. It consists of
Powdered charcoal, 8 ounces. " sulphur, 2 ounces. Fine salt, 3 ounces. Oatmeal, 2 pounds. Mandrake, (_podophyllum peltatum_,) 1 ounce.
After the ingredients are well mixed, divide the mass into fourteen parts, and give one night and morning.
_Special Treatment with reference to the Symptoms._--Suppose the animal to be "off her feed," and the bowels are constipated; then give an aperient composed of
Extract of butternut, 2 drachms. Powdered capsicum, one third of a tea-spoonful. Thoroughwort tea, 2 quarts.
To be given at a dose, taking care to pour it down the throat in a gradual manner; for, if poured down too quick, it will fall into the paunch. If the rectum is suspected to be loaded with excrement, make use of the common soap-suds injection.
If the animal appears to walk about without any apparent object in view, there is reason to suppose that the brain is congested. This may be verified if the _sclerotica_ (white of the eye) is of a deep red color. The following will be indicated:--
Mandrake, (_podophyllum peltatum_,) 1 table-spoonful. Sulphur, 1 tea-spoonful. Cream of tartar, 1 tea-spoonful. Hot water, 2 quarts.
To be given at a dose. At the same time apply cold water to the head, and rub the spine and legs (below the knees) with the following counter-irritant:--
Powdered bloodroot or cayenne, 1 ounce. " black pepper, half an ounce. Boiling vinegar, 1 quart.
Rub the mixture in while hot, with a piece of flannel.
If a trembling of the muscular system is observed, then give
Powdered ginger, } " cinnamon, } of each half " golden seal, } a tea-spoonful.
To be given at a dose, in half a gallon of catnip tea. Aid the vital powers in producing a crisis by the warmth and moisture, as directed in the treatment of colds, &c.
It is necessary to keep the rectum empty by means of injections, forms of which will be found in this work.
The remedies we here recommend can be safely and successfully used by those unskilled in medicine; and, when aided by proper attention to the diet, ventilation, and comfort of the patient, we do not hesitate to say (provided, however, they are resorted to in the early stages) they will cure forty-nine cases out of fifty, without the advice of a physician.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] The American farmers are just beginning to wake up on this subject, and before long we hope to see our pasture lands free from all poisonous plants. Dr. Whitlaw says, "A friend of mine had two fields cleared of buttercups, dandelion, ox-eye, daisy, sorrel, hawk-weed, thistles, mullein, and a variety of other poisonous or noxious plants: they were dried, burnt, and their ashes strewed over the fields. He had them sown as usual, and found that the crops of hay and pasturage were more than double what they had been before. I was furnished with butter for two successive summers during the months of July and August of 1827. The butter kept for thirty days, and proved, at the end of that time, better than that fresh churned and brought to the Brighton or Margate markets. It would bear salting at that season of the year."
[29] Unfortunately, they do not all practise it. Dr. Graff says, "There is a murderous practice now carried on in certain districts, in which the inhabitants will not themselves consume the butter and cheese manufactured; but, with little solicitude for the lives or health of others, they send it, in large quantities, to be sold in the cities of the west, particularly Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Louis, Missouri. Of the truth of this I am well apprised by actual observation; and I am as certain that it has often caused death in those cities, when the medical attendants viewed it as some anomalous form of disease, not suspecting the means by which poison had been conveyed among them. Physicians of the latter city, having been questioned particularly on this subject, have mentioned to me a singular and often fatal disease, which appeared in certain families, the cases occurring simultaneously, and all traces of it disappearing suddenly, and which I cannot doubt were the result of poisoned butter or cheese. This recklessness of human life it should be our endeavor to prevent; and the heartless wretches who practise it should be brought to suffer a punishment commensurate with the enormity of their crime. From the wide extent of the country in which it is carried on, we readily perceive the difficulties to be encountered in the effort to put a stop to the practice. This being the case, our next proper aim should be to investigate the nature of the cause, and establish a more proper plan of treatment, by which it may be robbed of its terrors, and the present large proportionate mortality diminished."
BONE DISORDER IN COWS.
We have frequently seen accounts, in various papers, of "bone disorder in milch cows." The bony structure of animals is composed of vital solids studded with crystallizations of saline carbonates and phosphates, and is liable to take on morbid action similar to other textures. Disease of the bones may originate constitutionally, or from derangement of the digestive organs. We have, for example, _mollities ossium_, (softening of the bones;) the disease, however, is very rare. It may be known by the substance of the bones being soft and yielding, liable to bend with small force.
We have also _fragilitas ossium_, (brittleness of bones.) This is characterized by the bony system being of a friable nature, and liable to be fractured by slight force. We have in our possession the fragments of the small pastern of a horse, the bone having been broken into seventeen pieces, by a slight concussion, without any apparent injury to the skin and cellular substance; not the slightest external injury could be perceived.
There are several other diseases of the bones, which, we presume, our readers are acquainted with; such as _exostosis_, _caries_, &c., neither of which apply to the malady under consideration. We merely mention these for the purpose of showing that the bones are not exempt from disease, any more than other structures; yet it does not always follow that a lack of the phosphate of lime in cow's milk is a sure sign of diseased bones.
Reader, we do not like the term "_bone disorder_:" it does not throw the least light on the nature of the malady; it savors too much of "_horn ail_," "_tail ail_"--terms which only apply to symptoms. We are told also that, in this disease, "_the bones threaten to cave in--have wasted away_." If they do threaten to cave in, the best way we know of to give them an outward direction is, to promote the healthy secretions and excretions by a well-regulated diet, and to stimulate the digestive organs to healthy action. If the bones "have wasted away," we should like to have a few of them in our collection of morbid anatomy. That the bones should waste away, and be capable of assuming their original shape simply by feeding bone meal, is something never dreamt of in our philosophy.[30] Besides, if the cows get well, (we are told they do,) then we must infer that the bones possess the properties of sudden expansion and contraction, similar to those of the muscles. It may be well for us to observe, that not only the bones, but all parts of animal organization, expand and contract in an imperceptible manner. Thus, up to the period of puberty, all parts expand: old age comes on, and with it a gradual wasting and collapse. This is a natural result--one of the uncompromising laws of nature, over which human agency (bone meal included) has not the least control. If the bones are diseased, it results either from impaired digestion or a disproportion between the carbon of the food and the oxygen respired; hence the "bone disorder," not being persistent, is only a result--a symptom; and as such we view it. As far as we have been able to ascertain the nature of the malady, as manifested by the symptoms, (_caving in_, _wasting_, _absence of phosphate of lime in the milk_, &c.,) we give it as our opinion,--and we think our medical brethren will agree with us, (although we do not often agree,)--that "bone disorder" is a symptom of a disease very prostrating in its character, originating in the digestive organs; hence not confined to the bones, but affecting all parts of the animal more or less. And the only true plan of treatment consists in restoring healthy action to the whole animal system. The ways and means of accomplishing this object are various. If it is clearly ascertained that the animal system is deficient in phosphate of lime, we see no good reason why bone meal should not be included among our remedial agents; yet, as corn meal and linseed contain a large amount of phosphate, we should prefer them to bone dust, although we do not seriously object to its use.
The value of food or remedial agents consists in their adaptation to assimilation; in other words, an absence of chemical properties. These may be very complex; yet, if they are only held together by a weak chemical action, they readily yield to the vital principle, and are transformed. Atoms of bones are held together by a strong chemical affinity; and the vital principle, in order to convert bone dust into component parts of the organism, must employ more force to transform them than it would require for the same purpose when corn meal or linseed were used, their chemical affinity being weaker than that of bones.
In the treatment of any disease, we always endeavor to ascertain its causes, and, if possible, remove them; and whatever may be indicated we endeavor to supply to the system. Thus, if phosphates were indicated, we should use them. In cases of general debility, however, we should prefer linseed or corn meal, aided by stimulants, to bone dust. Why not use the bone dust for manure? The animal would then have the benefit of it in its fodder.
In reference to a deficiency of phosphate of lime in the milk, we would observe, that it may result either from impaired digestion, (in such cases, a large amount of that article may be expelled from the system in the form of excrements,) or the food may lack it. We then have a sick plant, for we believe that the phosphate of lime is as necessary for the growth of the plant as it seems to be for animal development. If the plant lacks this important constituent, then its vitality, as a whole, will be impaired. This is all we desire to contend for in the animal, viz., that the disease is general, and cannot be considered or treated as a local affection.
It has been observed that successive cultivation exhausts the soil, and deprives it of the constituents necessary for vegetable development. If so, it follows that there will be a deficiency of silecia, carbonate of lime,--in short, a loss of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, not of phosphate of lime alone.
The fields might be made to produce the requisite amount of nutriment by replacing every year, in the form of animal excrement, straw, wood-ashes, and charcoal, as much as we remove from them in the form of produce. An increase of crop can only be obtained when we add more to the soil than we take away from it.
"In Flanders, the yearly loss of the necessary matters in the soil is completely restored by covering the fields with ashes of wood or bones, which may, or may not, have been lixiviated. The great importance of manuring with ashes has been long recognized by agriculturists as the result of experience. So great a value, indeed, is attached to this material in the vicinity of Marburg, and in the Wetterau,--two well-known agricultural districts,--that it is transported, as a manure, from the distance of eighteen or twenty-four miles. Its use will be at once perceived, when it is considered that the ashes, after being washed with water, contain silicate of potass exactly in the same proportion as in the straw, and that their only other constituents are salts of phosphoric acid."
It is well known that phosphate of lime, potass, silecia, carbonate of lime, magnesia, and soda are discharged in the excrement and urine of the cow; and this happens when they are not adapted to assimilation as well as when present in excess. If it is clearly proved that the bones of a cow are weak, then we should be inclined to prescribe phosphates; if they are brittle, we should prescribe gelatinous preparations; but not in the form of bone dust: we should use linseed, which is known to be rich in phosphates. At the same time, the general health must be improved.
It is well known that some cows cannot be fattened, although they have an abundance of the best kind of fodder. In such cases, we find the digestive organs deranged, which disturbs the equilibrium of the whole animal economy. The food may then be said to be a direct cause of disease.
The effects of insufficient food are well known; debility includes them all. If there is not sufficient carbon in the food, the animal is deprived of the power of reproducing itself, and the cure consists in supplying the deficiency. At the same time, every condition of nutrition should be considered; and if the function of digestion is impaired, we must look to those of absorption, circulation, and secretion also, for they will be more or less involved. If the appetite is impaired, accompanied by a loss of cud, it shows that the stomach is overloaded, or that its function is suspended: stimulants and tonics are then indicated. A voracious appetite indicates the presence of morbid accumulations in the stomach and bowels, and they should be cleansed by aperients; after which, a change of diet will generally effect a cure. When gas accumulates in the intestines, we have evidence of a loss of vital power in the digestive organs; fermentation takes place before the food can be digested.
The cure consists in restoring the lost function. Diarrhoea is generally caused by exposure, (taking cold,) or by eating poisons and irritating substances; the cure may be accomplished by removing the cold, and cleansing the system of the irritants. Costiveness often arises from the absorption of the fluids from the solids in their slow progress through the intestines; exercise will then be indicated. An occasional injection, however, may be given, if necessary. General debility, we have said, may arise from insufficient food; to which we may add the popular practice of milking the cow while pregnant, much of which milk is yielded at the hazard of her own health and that of her foetus. Whatever is taken away from the cow in the form of milk ought to be replaced by the food. Proper attention, however, must be paid to the state of the digestive organs: they must not be overtaxed with indigestible substances. With this object in view, we recommend a mixed diet; for no animal can subsist on a single article of food. Dogs die, although fed on jelly; they cannot live upon white bread, sugar, or starch, if these are given as food, to the exclusion of all other substances. Neither can a horse or cow live on hay alone: they will, sooner or later, give evidences of disease. They require stimulants. Common salt is a good stimulant. This explains why salt hay should be occasionally fed to milch cows; it not only acts as a stimulant, but is also an antiseptic, preventing putrefaction, &c.
A knowledge of the constituents of milk may aid the farmer in selecting the substances proper for the nourishment of animals, and promotive of the lacteal secretion; for much of the food contains those materials united, though not always in the same form. "The constituents of milk are cheese, or caseine--a compound containing nitrogen in large proportion; butter, in which hydrogen abounds; and sugar of milk, a substance with a large quantity of hydrogen and oxygen in the same proportions as in water. It also contains, in solution, lactate of soda, phosphate of lime, (the latter in very small quantities,) and common salt; and a peculiar aromatic product exists in the butter, called butyric acid."--_Liebig._
It is very difficult to explain the changes which the food undergoes in the animal laboratory, (the stomach,) because that organ is under the dominion of the vital force--an immaterial agency which the chemist cannot control. Yet we are justified in furnishing the animal with the elements of its own organization; for although they may not be deposited in the different structures in their original atoms, they may be changed into other compounds, somewhat similar. Liebig tells us that whether the elements of non-azotized food take an immediate share in the act of transformation of tissues, or whether their share in that process be an indirect one, is a question probably capable of being resolved by careful and cautious experiment and observation. It is possible that these constituents of food, after undergoing some change, are carried from the intestinal canal directly to the liver, and that there they are converted into bile, where they meet with the products of the metamorphosed tissues, and subsequently complete their course through the circulation.
This opinion appears more probable, when we reflect that as yet no trace of starch or sugar has been detected in arterial blood, not even in animals that have been fed exclusively with these substances.
The following tables, from Liebig's Chemistry, will give the reader the difference between what is taken into the system and what passes out.
FOOD CONSUMED BY A COW IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.
+------+------+-------+---------+-------+---------+-------- |Weight|Weight| | | | | Salts Articles |in the|in the|Carbon.|Hydrogen.|Oxygen.|Nitrogen.| and of food. |fresh | dry | | | | |earthly |state.|state.| | | | |matters. ------------+------+------+-------+---------+-------+---------+-------- Potatoes, | 15000| 4170| 1839.0| 241.9 | 1830.6| 50.0 | 208.5 After grass,| 7500| 6315| 2974.4| 353.6 | 2204.0| 151.5 | 631.5 Water, | 60000| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 50.0 ------------+-------------+-------+---------+-------+---------+-------- Total, | 82500| 10485| 4813.4| 595.5 | 4034.6| 201.5 | 889.0 ------------+------+------+-------+---------+-------+---------+--------
EXCRETIONS OF A COW IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.
|Weight|Weight | | | | | Salts Excretions.|in the|in the |Carbon.|Hydrogen.|Oxygen.|Nitrogen.| and |fresh | dry | | | | |earthly |state.|state. | | | | |matters. -----------+------+-------+-------+---------+-------+---------+-------- Excrements,| 28413| 4000.0| 1712.0| 208.0 | 1508.0| 92.0 | 480.0 Urine, | 8200| 960.8| 261.4| 25.0 | 253.7| 36.5 | 384.2 Milk, | 8539| 1150.6| 628.2| 99.0 | 321.0| 46.0 | 56.4 -----------+------+-------+-------+---------+-------+---------+-------- Total, | 45152| 6111.4| 2601.6| 332.0 | 2082.7| 174.5 | 920.6 -----------+------+-------+-------+---------+-------+---------+-------- Total of | | | | | | | first part | 82500|10485.0| 4813.4| 595.5 | 4034.6| 201.5 | 889.0 of this | | | | | | | table, | | | | | | | -----------+------+-------+-------+---------+-------+---------+-------- Difference,| 37348| 4374.6| 2211.8| 263.5 | 1951.9| 27.0 | 31.6 -----------+------+-------+-------+---------+-------+---------+--------
FOOD CONSUMED BY A HORSE IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.