Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

198 CATTLE.
and treatment of many of the maladies to which these animals are
subject. These epidemics, although dependent on, and produced by,
some atmospheric agency, required a predisposition in the animal
be afflicted by the disease.
to
While the blain sometimes assumes an epidemic character, there
can be no doubt of its being contagious, and especially under the
malignant form. The disease is not communicated by the breath
but there must be actual contact. The beast must eat from the same
manger, or drink from the same trough, or be in such a situation that
the saliva, in which the niras seems to reside, shall be received on
some abraded or mucous surface. The malady is readily communicated
when animals graze in the same pasture. The farmer should
be aware of this, and should adopt every necessary precaution. This
is one of the maladies which may be communicated from the brute
to the human subject. The danger, however, so far as it can be
ascertained, is trifling, and easily avoided ; and a man may attend on
a hundred of these animals .without injury : he has to take care tltat
the saliva or discharge from the mouth does not touch any sore place, or
lodge upon the lips ; and if he should fear that it may have come
into contact with any little wound or sore,' he has only to apply lunar
caustic over the part, and there will be an end of the matter.
The treatment of blain is very simple ; and, if adopted in an
early period of the disease, effectual in a great majority of cases.
Blain is, at first, a local malady, and the first and most important
means to be adopted will be of a local character. It is inflammation
of the membrane of the mouth, along the side of and under the tongue,
and characterized by the appearance of vesicles or bladders ; perhaps
pellucid at first, but becoming red or livid, as the disease advances
These vesicles must be freely lanced from end to end. There will not
be much immediate discharge ; the bladder was distended by a
substance imperfectly organized, or of such a glairy or thick nature
as not readily to escape. If this operation be performed when the
saliva first begins to run from the mouth, and be'fore there is any
unpleasant smell or gangrenous appearance, it will usually effect a
perfect cure. If the mouth be examined four-and-twenty hours afterward,
the only vestige of the disease will be an incision, not looking
very healthy at first, but that will soon become so and heal.
If the disease has made considerable progress, and the vesicles
begin to have a livid appearance, or perhaps some of them have
broken, and the smell is becoming very offensive, the mouth must be
carefully examined, and any bladders still remaining whole, or new
ones beginning to rise, must be deeply and effectually lanced, and
the ulcers washed half-a-dozen times in the day, or oftener, with a
diluted solution of the chloride of lime (a drachm of the powder to
a pint of water.) By means of a syringe or piece of sponge, this
may be brought into contact with every part of the ulcerated surface
;