An essay on the cattle murrain and poleaxe murder, or Science and art in the 19th century : including a brief statement of the comparative meaning of the terms rinderpest, plague, and the more appropriate word murrain, and succinct remarks on the origin, nature, property, character, type, theory, pathology, symptoms, cause, effect, and treatment by preventive and curative remedies : dedicated, by permission, to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London / by William Webber.

  • Webber, William, 1800-1875.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the cattle murrain and poleaxe murder, or Science and art in the 19th century : including a brief statement of the comparative meaning of the terms rinderpest, plague, and the more appropriate word murrain, and succinct remarks on the origin, nature, property, character, type, theory, pathology, symptoms, cause, effect, and treatment by preventive and curative remedies : dedicated, by permission, to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London / by William Webber. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Rinderpest/1 but goats have died (at the Veterinary College I am credibly informed) of the murrain, as I have before mentioned, and hundreds of sheep have been destroyed by it. Then there is the fact that “ the genitive and urinary organs were free from disease/1 Thus it will clearly appear, I think, that a very little analogy exists between the Rinderpest (which it is also said in the report referred to “ was never likely to reach our shores 11) and the far more intract- able and terrible murrain which has somehow unfortunately come amongst us. Equally extraordinary is it that the professor offers no mode of treatment, not even palliative, in his Rinderpest report, nor in the present distemper; and, that after ten or twelve weeks of reliance at head-quarters upon the flimsy relationship and false bearings of the disease there described and taken as the guide in the murderous slaughter which has been perpetrated during that period, it now turns out that the cases differ materially in almost every particular save one, by no means remarkable, viz., mucitis of the alimentary sur- face, which is not very uncommon. The report being then a matter of the past, throwing no light upon the present state of things, it must be cast aside as merely the tale of a pleasant trip, affording no other proof of the worth of its cost than simply a mapped record of foreign matters, perfectly useless in the emergency before us, and very mischievous in the consequences it has given rise to. It is much to be deplored, that, instead of trusting to a single adviser,—taking a prejudiced and erroneous view of the case, based upon false premises, and ending in abortive counsel—the Govern- ment, which has thereby lost an irrecoverable start, and become grievously outrun by the scourge, did not when it found itself at fault, offer a prize of 200 or 300 guineas, as I ventured to suggest at a local meeting, for the best essay on the nature and treatment of this anomalous distemper. Eor, marvellous to say, up to this moment neither in the yards of the professor's speeches (a mere echo of the stale Rinderpest report), Government orders, nor in the Thudichum (long and unfathomable cable) code, is any other treat- ment than murder prescribed ! Well may empiricism flourish and crow; but it is safest, as Mr. Abernethy used to say, if you know nothing to do nothing. Murder therefore cannot be justified, because, as