The cause, prevention, and treatment of the cattle plague / by John Parkin.

  • Parkin, John, 1801-1886.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cause, prevention, and treatment of the cattle plague / by John Parkin. 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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    PREVENTION. If the agent productive of disease be contained in the atmosphere, the best means of preventing an attack would be to shut up the animal in a close, or, in an air-tight, box, only that animals, like men, cannot live without air, and without having a constant and fresh supply. But then it is to be remembered, that only a limited quantity is required daily; and that quantity so small that, when shut up in a stable or a shed, with the doors and windows closed, animals experience no inconvenience in consequence. Bearing this fact in mind, it will be in our power to exclude the external air to a considerable extent, whenever it appears desirable to do so. That will evidently be required in the instance under consideration. When, therefore, the epidemic is prevailing in the neighbourhood, and more particularly if it has broken out among the herd, they should be kept under shelter as much as possible during the day, and entirely so at night. Experience has shown that individuals exposed to the night air, during epidemic periods, are more liable to attacks than others. The reason, as we may infer, is, that the poison productive of all diseases, the same as that well-known sub- stance called malaria, possesses a specific gravity greater than that of atmospheric air. Becoming rarified by the warmth of the sun, it rises into the higher regions of the air during the day, but again falls to the earth, when its rays are withdrawn. Although present in the atmosphere, the poison, as previously remarked, is not equally diffused in this fluid ; it is in a state of greater concentration in one situation than in another. Hence it is, that those living near the source of the extrication of the poison become affected, while those at a distance escape; the poison, by its diffusion and dilution in the surrounding air, becoming innocuous beyond certain limits—hence the limitation of range of epidemic diseases. The fact is still more apparent with endemic diseases ; for we not only know the source whence the poison (malaria) is extricated, but the extent of its range. The source is all low, marshy, and alluvial soils, so that higher grounds are either par- tially, or, entirely, exempted from its deleterious influences. Thus it is, that, in tropical climates, the severest form of fever the continued—will be found on the plains below; remittent, on the