This disease consists in the acc.u.mulation of fluid in a cavity of the body, as the abdomen or belly, the chest, and ventricles of the brain, or in the cellular membrane under the skin. As the treatment of the several forms of dropsy requires that the same indications shall be fulfilled,--viz., to equalize the circulation, invite action to the surface, promote absorption, and invigorate the general system,--so it matters but little whether the effusion takes place under the skin, producing anasarca, or within the chest or abdomen. The popular treatment, which comprehends blood-letting, physicking, and the use of powerful diuretics, has proved notoriously unsuccessful. Blood-letting is charged as one of the direct causes of dropsy: how then can it be expected that a system that will produce this form of disease can ever cure it? In reference to physicking, if the bowels are forced to remove the excess of fluids in a short time, they become much exhausted, lose their tone, and do not recover their healthy power for some time. Dr.

Curtis says, "May we not give diuretics and drastic cathartics in dropsy? I answer, if you do, and carry off the fluids of the body in those directions, as you sometimes may, you have not always removed the cause of the disease, which was the closing of the surface, or stoppage of some natural secretion, while you have rendered the patient liable to other forms of disease, quite as much to be dreaded as the dropsy which was exchanged for it." Mild diuretic medicines may, however, be given, provided attention he paid at the same time to the lungs and external surface. The kidneys, lungs, and external surface const.i.tute the great outlets through which the excess of fluids finds egress; and if one of these functions be excited to dislodge an acc.u.mulation of fluid, without the cooperation of the rest, the excessive action is sure to injure the organ; hence it is an injurious practice, and ought to be rejected.

_Causes._--Dropsy will occasionally be produced by the sudden stopping of any evacuation; for example, if a diarrhoea be checked too suddenly, it frequently results in dropsy of the belly. In pleurisy, and when blood-letting has been practised to any extent, dropsy of the chest will be the consequence. Exposure, poor diet, diseases of the liver and spleen, want of exercise, and poisonous medicines are among the general causes of dropsy.

_Treatment._--It is a law of the animal economy that all fluids are determined to those surfaces from which they can most readily escape.

Now, instead of cramming down nauseous and poisonous drugs, with a view of carrying off the fluid by the kidneys, we should restore the lost function of the external exhalents, by warmth, moisture, friction, and the application of stimulating embrocations to the general surface. The following embrocation may be applied to the spine, ears, belly, and legs:--

Oil of cedar, 1 ounce.

Oil of juniper, 1 ounce.

Soft soap, 1 pound.

A portion of the above should be rubbed in twice a day.

The best medicine is the following:--

Powdered mandrake, 1 ounce.

" lobelia, 1 ounce.

Poplar bark, 2 ounces.

Lemon balm, 4 ounces.

Boiling water, 3 quarts.

Let the whole stand in a covered vessel for an hour; then strain, and add a gill of honey. Give half a pint every third hour. If the animal be in poor condition, the diet must be nourishing and easy of digestion.

Flour gruel and scalded meal will be the most appropriate. A drink made by steeping cleavers, or hyssop, in boiling water may be given at discretion.

If there is not sufficient vitality in the system to equalize the circulation, (which may be known by the surface and extremities still continuing cold,) the following drink will be found efficacious:--

Hyssop tea, 2 quarts.

Powdered cayenne, (African,) 1 tea-spoonful.

" licorice, 1 ounce.

Mix. To be given at a dose, and repeated if necessary. Should inflammatory symptoms make their appearance, omit the cayenne, and subst.i.tute the same quant.i.ty of cream of tartar.

The treatment of all the different forms of dropsy is upon the plan here laid down. They are one and the same disease, only located in different parts; and from predisposing causes the fluid is sometimes found in the thorax, at others in the abdomen. Whenever costiveness occurs in dropsy, the following laxative may be given:--

Wormwood, 2 ounces.

Boiling water, 2 quarts.

Set them over the fire, and let them boil for a few moments; then add two ounces of castile soap and a gill of mola.s.ses or honey. The whole to be given at one dose.

The operation of tapping has been performed, but with very little success; for, unless the function of the skin be restored, the water will again acc.u.mulate. If, however, the disease shall be treated according to the principles here laid down, there is no good reason why the operation should not prove successful. It may be performed for dropsy of the belly in the following manner: Take a common trocar and canula, and after pinching upwards a fold of the skin, about three inches from the line, (_linea alba_,) or centre of the belly, and about seven from the udder, push the trocar through the skin, muscles, &c., into the abdominal cavity; withdraw the trocar, and the water will flow.

The operation is usually performed on the right side, taking care, however, not to wound the milk vein, or artery.

HOOVE, OR "BLASTING."

When cattle or sheep are first turned into luxuriant pasture, after being poorly fed, or laboring under any derangement of the digestive organs, they are apt to be hoven, blown, or blasted.

_Treatment._--Should the symptoms be very alarming, a flexible tube may be pa.s.sed down the gullet. This will generally allow a portion of gas to escape, and thus afford temporary relief, until more efficient means are resorted to. These consist in arousing the digestive organs to action, by the following stimulant and carminative drink:--

Cardamom seeds, 1 ounce.

Fennel seeds, 1 ounce.

Powdered charcoal, 1 table-spoonful.

Boiling water, 2 quarts.

Let the mixture stand until sufficiently cool; then strain, and administer in pint doses, every ten minutes.

The following clyster should be given:--

Powdered lobelia, 2 ounces.

" charcoal, 6 ounces.

Common salt, 1 table-spoonful.

Boiling water, 2 quarts.

When cool, strain, and inject.

If the animal is only blasted in a moderate degree, this treatment will generally prove successful. Some pract.i.tioners recommend puncturing the rumen or paunch; but there is always great danger attending it, and at best it is only a palliative: the process of fermentation will continue while the materials still remain in the paunch. Some cattle doctors make a large incision into the paunch, and shovel out the contents with the hand; but the remedy is quite as bad as the disease. For example, Mr.

Youatt tells us that "a cow had eaten a large quant.i.ty of food, and was hoven. A neighbor, who was supposed to know a great deal about cattle, made an incision into the paunch; the gas escaped, a great portion of the food was removed with the hand, and the animal appeared to be considerably relieved; but rumination did not return. On the following day, the animal was dull; she refused her food, but was eager to drink.

She became worse and worse, and on the sixth day she died."

In all dangerous cases of hoove, we must not forget that our remedies may be aided by the external application of warmth and moisture; flannels wrung out in hot water should be secured to the belly; at the same time, the legs and brisket should be rubbed with tincture of a.s.safoetida. These remedies must be repeated until the animal is relieved. Steady and long-continued perseverance in rubbing the abdomen often succeeds in liberating the gas. If the animal recovers, he should be fed, very sparingly, on scalded food, consisting of equal parts of meal and shorts, with the addition of a few grains of caraway seeds. A drink composed of the following ingredients will aid in rapidly restoring the animal to health:--

Marshmallows, 2 ounces.

Linseed, 1 ounce.

Boiling water, 2 quarts.

Set the mixture near the fire, and allow it to macerate for a short time; after straining through a sieve or coa.r.s.e cloth, it may be given and repeated at discretion.

_Remarks._--As prevention is much more convenient and less expensive than the fashionable system of making a chemical laboratory of the poor brute's stomach, the author would remind owners of stock that the practice of turning the latter into green, succulent pasture when the ground is damp, or permitting them to remain exposed to the night air, is among the direct causes of hoove. The ox and many other animals are governed by the same laws of nature to which man owes allegiance, and any departure from the legitimate teachings, as they are fundamentally ingrafted in the animate kingdom by the Omnipotent Creator, is sure to subject us to the penalty. We are told that, during the night, noxious gases and poisonous miasmata emanate from the soil, and that plants throw off excrement.i.tious matters, which a.s.sume a gaseous form, and are more or less destructive. Now, these animals have no better powers of resisting the encroachments on their organization (through the agency of these deleterious gases) than we have; they must have atmospheric air to vitalize the blood; any impurity in the air they breathe must impair their health. Still, however, the powers of resistance are greater in some than in others; this explains the reason why all do not suffer.

Sometimes, the gases are not in sufficient quant.i.ties to produce instant death, but only derange the general health; yet if an animal be turned into a pasture, the herbage and soil of which give out an excess of nitrogen and carbonic acid, the animal will die; just as a man will, if you lower him into a well abounding in either of these destructive agents. From these brief remarks, the farmer will see the importance of housing domestic animals at night.

JOINT MURRAIN.

This malady, in its early stages, a.s.sumes different forms; sometimes making its appearance under a high grade of vital action, commonly called inflammatory fever, and known by the red appearance of the sclerotica, (white of the eye,) hurried breathing, expanded nostrils, hot tongue, and dry muzzle, pulse full and bounding, manifestations of pain, &c. &c. Different animals show, according to local or const.i.tutional peculiarities, different symptoms.

This disease, in consequence of its a.s.suming different forms during its progress, has a host of names applied to it, which rather embarra.s.s than a.s.sist the farmer. We admit that there are numerous tissues to be obstructed; and if the disease were named from the tissue, it would have as many names as there are tissues. If it were named from the location, which often happens, then we get as many names as there are locations; for example, horn ail, black leg, quarter evil, joint murrain, foot rot, &c. In the above disease, the whole system partakes more or less of const.i.tutional disturbance; therefore it is of no use, except when we want to avail ourselves of local applications, to decide what particular muscle, blood-vessel, or nerve is involved, seeing that the only rational treatment consists in acting on all the nerves, blood-vessels, and muscles, and that this can only be accomplished through the healthy operations of nature's secreting and excreting processes. The indications of cure, according to the reformed principles, are, to relax spasm, as in locked-jaw, stoppages of the bladder or intestines, obstructed surfaces, &c.; to contract and strengthen weak and relaxed organs, as in general or local debility, diarrhoea, scouring, lampas, &c.; to stimulate inactive parts, as in black leg, joint murrain, quarter ill, foot rot; to equalize the circulation, and distribute the blood to the external surface and extremities, as in congestions; to furnish the animal with sufficient nutriment for its growth and development. No matter what the nature of disease may be, the treatment should be conducted on these principles.

The farmer will overcome a host of obstacles, that might otherwise fall in his way, in the treatment of joint murrain, when he learns that this malady, together with black leg, quarter ill or evil, black quarter, and dry gangrene are all a.n.a.logous: by the different names are meant their grades. In the early or mild forms, it consists of congestion in the veins or venous radicles, and effusions into the cellular tissue. When chemical action overpowers the vital, decomposition sets in; it then a.s.sumes a putrid type; mortification, or a destruction of organic integrity, is the result.

_Causes._--Its proximate causes exist in any thing that can for a time interrupt the free and full play of any part of the vital machinery. Its direct cause may be found in over-feeding, miasma, exposure, poisonous plants, poor diet, &c. The milk of diseased cows is a frequent cause of black leg in young calves. The reason why the disease is more likely to manifest itself in the legs is, because they are more exposed, by the feet coming in contact with damp ground, and because the blood has a kind of up-hill work to perform.