animals." The prevalence of these and of various microphytes or "disease organisms," animal or vegetable, in animals, is usually the result of the artificial conditions established by man. We are to seek riddance from such destructive animal pests, not by finding specifics for disease, which do not exist, but by finding our way back to natural methods of dealing with animals, and so preventing those immense losses to agricultural and stock-rearing industries, which are so rapidly increasing. Thorough and enforced cleanliness for all domestic animals is for the interests of their owners, because for the welfare of the animals. Impure water, spoiled foods, poor ventilation, filth or imperfect care generally, will tell upon man or upon beast, and, unfortunately, the innocent owner must suffer with the ignorant and the careless. This and every other epizootic or enzootic prevailing among animals should lead to a careful study of the indications as to food, habits, care, and all that contributes to their most perfect health.

CIRCULAR XLIX.

OF THE

NEW JERSEY STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

TRENTON, December 1st, 1884.

(H. AS TO ANIMALS.)

HUSK OR HOOSE AND TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE.

HUSKS OR HOOSE IN CATTLE.

Among the various forms of parasites that infest the lower animals, are those belonging to the nematoda (round worms.) Some of them are common to men and animals. Others are not, in any of their forms of life, transferable from the one to the other.

Cobbold says the nematodes of the ruminants (cud-chewing animals) are both numerous in and destructive to their bearers, those infesting the lungs being productive of a parasitic bronchitis, termed husk or hoose. In cattle, the lung-worm (strongylus micruris) is particularly fatal to calves, while strongylus filaria attacks sheep, and

especially lambs. A larger but less common lung strongyle (S. rufuscens) is sometimes found associated with the latter. In 1875 I conducted experiments with the view of finding the intermediate hosts of strongylus micruris, and I arrived at the conclusion that the larvæ of this parasite are passively transferred to the digestive organs of earth-worms. The growth and metamorphoses which I witnessed in strongyloid larvæ taken from earth-worms (into which I had previously introduced embryos) were remarkably rapid.

The strongylus micruris is quite similar to the strongylus filaria, the parasite found in the lungs of lambs and sheep. To the affection, as found both in lambs and in calves, the names husk or hoose, phthisis pulmonalis verminalis, and parasitic bronchitis are given. It is better, however, since the worm itself is somewhat different, to give different names. Neither should be called phthisis pulmonalis verminalis, since phthisis has come to be so exclusively applied to consumption, or wasting due to tuberculous deposit. The name "parasitic bronchitis" is the best, if a general term, applicable to all animals thus affected, is used.

The bronchial cough of the calf makes the name husk or hoose quite distinctive for it. The parasite strongylus micruris gains access to the pulmonary tissue and bronchial tubes through the circulation, the ova being absorbed from the digestive canal. The seat of the irritation is indicated by a bronchial cough, "husk or hoose," loss of flesh, a varying degree of constitutional disturbance and death by suffocation, if the sufferer is not relieved. If any mucus be coughed up and examined, the parasites may be discovered. Bronchial irritation occurring in calves during summer or autumn, should always be looked upon with suspicion, and its source thoroughly inquired into. The disease is rarely found in cows and oxen, although cases of it do occur in these. It is said to be most frequent where calves are exposed to dews and pastured on wet pasture or low, ill-drained lands, or where, in dry summers and scarcity of water, they are supplied by stagnant pools which eventually become dry. It is most common in the late summer and fall. Most of the veterinarians of the Board have had occasion to distinguish between it and pleuro-pneumonia, it is often confounded therewith.

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The treatment recommended is as follows: "The calves are to be warmly housed if the nights be cold; the affected animals are, upon all occasions, to be removed from the healthy-not that the disease is

contagious in itself, but that the parasites, or their ova, are apt to gain access in the bodies of the healthy-and, for the same reason, the healthy should be removed to fresh pasture and to dry situations, as the fields upon which the disease has prevailed will, for a time at least, be tainted by the parasites and ova." In treatment, chief reliance is placed on the inhalation of fumes, either of sulphur or chlorine, as both sulphurous acid and chlorine gas will kill the parasite. The mode of using these is the same as in the disinfection of dwellings, and the details can be given by any competent veterinarian.

Generally three or four inhalations, of fifteen minutes each day, will much limit the disease and finally cause it to disappear. Salt, turpentine, lime-water, etc., have been found useful.

"The enclosures in which the animals have been temporarily housed should be thoroughly scoured with boiling hot water impregnated with salt." The free use of commercial sulphuric acid, one pint to eight gallons of water, sprinkled over the yard and thorough whitewashing, add to the security against the recurrence of the disease.

TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE.

The existence of tuberculosis in animals, and especially in cattle, has long been recognized. Several circumstances have of late led to a closer inquiry as to it. The disease has seemed to be largely on the increase. Villemin and others have established its communicability, both by the exposure of animals thereto and by the test of inoculation. Fleming has given facts in support of its probable spread by infection and to show that the disease may, in exceptional circumstances, be conveyed from diseased to healthy animals.

Creighton and others claim to have shown that human and bovine tuberculosis are so nearly the same disease as to be interchangeable. Gerlach claimed, from his feeding experiments, that the flesh and milk of tuberculous animals must be excluded from human food, since by using it in its raw or half-cooked state tuberculosis is liable to be reproduced in man. The hereditary tendency of the disorder seems to be established. The possible communicability of consumption in some cases has also given a new interest to bovine tuberculosis. These various views by competent and skilled observers, even if not yet accepted as conclusive, cannot but lead to the most earnest inquiry, since the health and welfare of man and of all other animals is directly involved.

In the report of the New Jersey State Board of Health, 1881, T. B. Rogers, D.V.S., thus refers to it:

"Tuberculosis is not uncommon. In one autopsy made last spring the tubercular deposits extended to almost every tissue of the body. The first noticeable trouble in this case was mammatis, the post-mortem showing that the hardening of the mammae was due to tubercular deposit and not to common or ordinary causes of the trouble. Practitioners, in view of this, will do well to exclude tubercle before pronouncing this affection local and harmless. Whether the milk from a tuberculous animal is fit for human food, or her flesh fit for beef, is a question which should receive grave consideration from your Board. My own opinion on this subject is very decided, and I strongly advocate the slaughter and burial of these cases wherever found."

During the last summer a series of cases came under the examination of this Board. Cases having occurred in a valuable herd in this State, it became our duty to consider whether it was to be regarded as subject to the law relating to the contagious diseases of animals. At that time, with the advice of the veterinarians in attendance, it was decided that no prohibitory action was required, but that full inquiry as to the extent and character of the malady would be desirable. As a result, it must be stated that there is a growing conviction on the part of veterinary authorities that the disease is not infrequently communicated from animal to animal; that, in some cases, both the meat and the milk may become unfit for food, and that stables in which it has occurred may become so permeated with the infection as to give it to the animals not in direct contact with the diseased ones. Within the last year, one owner in New York State of a herd of Jerseys, has been compelled, after other losses, to slaughter forty-five of his cattle. If the views of its communicability are accepted, it must be remembered that it is not claimed as a diffusive contagion, or that the meat is always unfit for use, or that the milk is harmful, unless the udder itself is diseased. The Board, however, thinks it proper to issue a circular which shall give some description of the disease, of its alleged causes, and a statement as to the precautions to be taken for its prevention, or as to herds in which it is found to exist.

"It is characterized by the deposition of tubercular matter in serous membranes, in the lungs and other organs, wasting of the tissues and other signs of imperfect or malnutrition, which lead more or less rapidly to a fatal termination; the tubercular matter undergoing various

characteristic changes, according to the length of time it has been deposited, and modifying the symptoms accordingly." (Fleming.)

Prof. Walley speaks of the serous membranes, such as the pleura and the lining membrane of the abdomen, as showing tubercular lesions oftener than any other structure.

The most usual form seen with us can be thus described: "The tubercle at first is very small, about the size of a pin's head, then that of a pea and a hazel-nut. In the course of time these become converted into small, hard, globular nodules, of the color of connective tissue; gradually, however, they become gray and somewhat translucent in sections, and constitute the so-called gray or fibrous tubercle. These gray miliary nodules may remain discreted and scattered over the surface of the membrane like millet seeds; they may become connected together by delicate bands of new connective fibrous tissue, forming the so-called grapes of England, the angleberries of Scotland; or they may become aggregated together and form immense masses, which may degenerate in particles or en masse, or they may remain fibrous.

The "grape" or "angleberry" appearance is, perhaps, better described by the German name of "perlsucht" or pearl disease. This post mortem appearance, so often seen, is very diagnostic.

Besides the serous membranes, tuberculosis of the lungs, tubercular infiltration of the lymphatic and mesenteric glands, tubercle in the liver and in the alimentary tract are not rare. Fortunately, tuberculosis of the mammary gland or udder is not so frequent as of other glands.

Where there is tubercular deposit in the digestive tract the fæces are not infrequently tinged with blood. Ulcers are found here and there. Prior to irruption of the ulcer, in chronic cases, the mucous membrane is elevated by the tuberculous nodule, which is readily distinguished by its yellow color. These nodules are found in various parts of the intestinal tract.

Tuberculosis of the lungs, when occurring in animals, has not a few of the symptoms which characterize the same disease in man. In these cases, cough is a more prominent symptom and the diagnosis from pleuro-pneumonia, especially in the chronic stages, is not always

easy.

In whatever form tuberculosis attacks cattle, the animal does not thrive. With some, the symptoms are loss of appetite, scouring, and