Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

442 CATTLE.
tear the skin and flesh horribly. This is a disease, primarily, of the
stomach, affecting the brain and the head generally. The remedy
must be applied promptly, and,- as in all inflammations, copious bleeding
must be resorted to; and then should follow active medicine.
The treatment prescribed for this disease at pages 313, 314, 315,
316 and 317, must be followed. The main reliance will be a thorough
washing of the manifolds with water, administered by the
pump.stomach-
Homoeopathic treatment.-r-T\\\& will consist of, first, aconitum, and
then belladonna, to be followed by veratrum album. These are to
be given to abate the secondary effects of the disease. As to the
cause, it can only be removed as prescribed at page 313 and the
following ones ; and the means are
and mercurius vivus may be given
mainly mechanical. Sulphur
if there be costiveness ; nux
vomica if the faeces be hard ; opium and argilla when nothing passes
and plumbum where the constipation is very obstinate.
LICE.
Connected with mange, the usual accompaniment, and probably
the occasional cause of it, is the appearance of vermin on the skin.
It cannot be supposed that they are originally produced by any- dis-
ease or state of the skin; ( but the ova (eggs)' of these animalculas,
floating in the atmosphere, find in the skin of cattle, under certain
circumstances, and under those alone, a proper nidus, or place where
they may be hatched into life. A beast in good health and condition
will not have one of those insects upon him unless he mixes
with lousy cattle ; but if he be turned out in the straw-yard in winter,
and is half-starved there, and his coat becomes rough, and matted,
and foul, they will soon swarm upon him. By the constant irrita-
tion which they excite, they will predispose the skin to an attack of
mange from other causes, if they do not actually produce it.
He who had not personal observation of the fact, would hardly
believe how numerous they soon become. There are myriads of
them on the hide of the ill-fated beast. They keep him in a constant
state of torment, and are, in a manner, devouring him before
his time. It cannot be surprising that they rapidly spread from one
animal to another. The slightest contact, the lying on the same
lair, or the feeding on the same pasture, is sufficient to enable them
to be communicated from the infected beast to all the rest. The
animalcule thrives everywhere, although the ovum did not find a
proper nidus on the skin of the healthy beast ; and the vermin, once
established there, soon change the character of the skin, and cover
it with scurf and mange.
Various powders and lotions have been recommended for the destruction
of these parasites. A powder can scarcely be brought
;