The American Reformed Cattle Doctor Part 1

The American Reformed Cattle Doctor.

by George Dadd.

INTRODUCTION.

There is no period in the history of the United States when our domestic animals have ranked so high as at the present time; yet there is no subject on which there is such a lamentable want of knowledge as the proper treatment of their diseases.

Governor Briggs, in a recent letter to the author, says, "You have my thanks, and, in my opinion, are ent.i.tled to the thanks of the community, for entering upon this important work. While the subject has engaged the attention of scientific men in other countries, it has been too long neglected in our own. Cruelty and ignorance have marked our treatment to diseased animals. Ignorant himself both of the disease and the remedy, the owner has been in the habit of administering the popular remedy of every neighbor who had no better powers of knowing what should be done than himself, until the poor animal, if the disease would not have proved fatal, is left alone, until death, with a friendly hand, puts a period to his sufferings: he is, however, often destroyed by the amount or destructive character of the remedies, or else by the cruel mode of administering them. I am persuaded that the community will approve of your exertions, and find it to their interest to support and sustain your system."

The author has labored for several years to subst.i.tute a safer and a more efficient system of medication in the treatment of diseased animals, and at the same time to point out to the American people the great benefits they will derive from the diffusion of veterinary education.

That many thousands of our most valuable cattle die under the treatment, which consists of little else than blood-letting, purging, and blistering, no one will deny; and these dangerous and destructive agents are frequently administered by men who are totally unacquainted with the nature of the agents they prescribe. But a better day is dawning; veterinary information is loudly called for--demanded; and the farmers will have it; _but it must be a safer and a more efficient system than that heretofore practised_.

The object of the veterinary art is not only congenial with human medicine, but the very same paths that lead to a knowledge of the diseases of man lead also to a knowledge of those of brutes.

Our domestic animals deserve consideration at our hands. We have tried all manner of experiments on them for the benefit of science; and science and scientific men should do something to repay the debt, by alleviating their sufferings and improving their condition. We are told that physicians of all ages have applied themselves to the dissection of animals, and that it was by a.n.a.logy that those of Greece and Rome judged of the structure of the human body. For example, the Greeks and Arabians confined themselves to the dissection of apes and other quadrupeds.

Galen has given us the anatomy of the ape for that of man; and it is clear that his dissections were restricted to brutes, when he says, that "if learned physicians have been guilty of gross errors, it is because they neglected to dissect animals." We advocate the establishment of veterinary schools, and the cultivation of our reformed system of veterinary medicine, on the broad principles of humanity. These poor animals are as susceptible to pain and suffering as we are. Has not the Almighty given us dominion over them, and placed them under our protection? Have we done our duty by them? Can we render a good account of our stewards.h.i.+p?

In almost every department of science the spirit of inquiry is abroad, investigation is active; yet, in this department, every thing is left to chance and ignorance. Men of all professions find it for their interest to protect property. The merchant, previous to sending his vessel on a voyage to a distant port, seeks out a skilful navigator to pilot that vessel into her desired haven with safety. He protects his property. We protect our property against the ravages of fire by insurance--we defend our houses from the lightning by conducting that fluid down the sides of the building into the earth. And shall we not protect our animals? Is not property invested in live stock as valuable, in proportion, as that invested in real estate? Can we permit live stock to degenerate and die prematurely from a want of knowledge of the fundamental laws of their being? Can we look on and see their heart's blood drawn from them--their flesh setoned, burned, and blistered--simply because it was the misguided custom of our ancestors?

We appeal to the American people at large. They have great encouragement to educate young men in this important branch of study; for the beneficial results will be, that the diseases of all cla.s.ses of domestic animals will be better understood, and the great losses which this country sustains will, in a few years, be materially diminished. This is not all. The value of live stock will be increased at least twenty-five per cent!

Look for a moment at the amount of capital invested in live stock; and from these statistics the reader will perceive that not only the farmers, but the whole nation, will be enriched. There are in the United States at least 6,000,000 horses and mules; these, at the rate of $50 per head, amount to $300,000,000. It is also estimated that there are 20,000,000 of neat cattle; reckon these at $25 per head, and we get the snug little sum of $500,000,000. We have also 20,000,000 sheep, worth the same number of dollars. The number of swine have been computed at 24,000,000; and these, at $3 per head, give us $72,000,000. Hence the reader will see that the capital invested in this cla.s.s of live stock reaches the enormous sum of $892,000,000. Add the 25 per cent. just alluded to, and we get a clear gain of $223,000,000. This sum would be sufficient to build veterinary schools and colleges capable of affording ample accommodations to every farmer's son in the Union. Hence we entreat the farming community to ponder on these subjects. They have only to say the word, and schools for the dissemination of veterinary information shall spring up in every section of the Union.

Does the reader wish to know how the _farmers_ can accomplish this important object? We answer, there are four millions of men engaged in agricultural pursuits. Their number is three times greater than that of those engaged in navigation, the learned professions, commerce, and manufactures. Hence they have the numerical power to control the government of these United States, and of course can plead their own cause in the halls of congress, and vote their own supplies for educational purposes.

When the author first commenced a warfare against the lancet and other destructive agents, his only hopes of success were based on the cooperation of this mighty host of husbandmen; he well knew that there were many prejudices to be overcome, and none greater than those existing among his brethren of the same profession. The farmers have just begun to see the absurdity of bleeding an animal to death, with a view of saving life; or pouring down their throats powerful and destructive agents, with a view of making one disease to cure another!

If the cattle doctors, then, will not reform, they must be reformed through the giant influence of popular opinion. Already the cry is, and it emanates from some of the most influential agriculturists in the country,--"_No more blood-letting!_" "_Use your poisons on yourselves._"

To the cattle-rearing interest, at the hands of many of whom the author has received aid and encouragement, the following pages are dedicated; they are intended to furnish them with practical information, with a view of preventing disease, increasing the value of their stock, and restoring them to health when sick.

In reference to our reformed system of veterinary medication, it will be sufficient, in the present place, just to glance at the fundamental principles. In the succeeding pages these principles will be more fully explained. We contemplate the animal system as a complicated piece of mechanism, subject to the uncompromising and immutable laws of nature, as they are written upon the face of animate nature by the finger of Omnipotence.

All our intentions of cure being in accordance with nature's laws, (viz., promoting the integrity of the living powers,) we have termed our system a _physiological_ one, though it is sometimes termed _botanic_, in allusion to the fact that most of our remedial agents are derived from the vegetable kingdom. We recognize a conservative or healing power in the animal economy, whose unerring indications we endeavor to follow; considering nature the physician, and the doctor her servant.

Our system proposes, under all circ.u.mstances, to restore the diseased organs to a healthy state, by cooperating with the vitality remaining in those organs, by the exhibition of sanative means, and, under all circ.u.mstances, to a.s.sist, and not oppose, nature in her curative processes. Poisonous substances, blood-letting, or processes of cure that act pathologically, cannot be used by us. The laws of animal life are physiological: they never were, nor ever will be, pathological.

The agents we use are just as we find them in the forest and the field, compounded by the Great Physician. Hence the reader will perceive that our aim is to depart from the popular debilitating and life-destroying practice, and approach as near as possible to the sanative.

G. H. D.

THE

AMERICAN

REFORMED CATTLE DOCTOR.

IMPORTANCE OF SUPPLYING CATTLE WITH PURE WATER.

In order to prevent many of the diseases to which cattle are liable, it is important that they be supplied with pure water. Cattle have often been known to turn away from the filthy fluid found in some troughs, which abound in slime and decayed vegetable matter; and, indeed, the common stagnated pond water is no better than the former. Such water has, in former years, proved itself to be a serious cause of disease; and, at the present day, death is running riot among the stock of our western, and also our northern farmers, when, to our certain knowledge, the cause exists, in some cases, under their very noses. The farmers ofttimes see their best stock sicken and die without any apparent cause; and the cattle doctors are running rough-shod through the _materia medica_, pouring down the throats of the poor brutes salts by the pound, castor oil by the quart; aloes, lard, and a host of kindred trash, follow in rapid succession, converting the stomach into a sort of apothecary's shop; setons are inserted in the "dewlap;" the horns are bored, and sometimes sawed off; and, as a last resort, the animals are blistered and bled. They sometimes recover, in spite of the violence done to the const.i.tution; yet they drag out a low form of vitality, living, it may be said, yet half dead, until some friendly epidemic puts a period to their sufferings.

The author's attention was first called to this subject on reading an article in an English work, the substance of which is as follows: A number of working oxen were put into a pasture, in which was a pond, considered to abound in good water. Soon after putting them there, they were attacked with scouring, upon which they were immediately removed to another field. The scouring continued. They still, however, drank at the same pond. They were s.h.i.+fted to another piece of very sweet pasture without arresting the disease. The farmer thought it evident that the pastures were not the cause of the disease; and, contrary to the advice of his friends, who affirmed that the spring was always noticed for the excellence of its water, fenced his pond round, so that the cattle could not drink; they were then driven to a distance and watered. The scouring gradually disappeared. The farmer now proceeded to examine the suspected pond; and, on stirring the water, he found it all alive with small creatures. He now stirred into the water a quant.i.ty of lime, and soon after an immense number of animalculae were seen dead on the surface. In a short time, the cattle drank of this water without any injurious results.

There is no doubt but that inferior kinds of water produce derangement of the digestive organs, and subsequently loss of flesh, debility, &c.

We have frequently made _post mortem_ examinations of animals that have died from disease induced by debility, and have often found a large number of worms in the stomach and intestines, which, we firmly believe, had their origin either primarily from the water itself, or subsequently from its effects on the digestive function.

All decayed animal and vegetable matter tends to corrupt water, and render it unfit for the purposes of life. Now, if the farmer has the best spring in the world, and the water shall flow from it, as it sometimes does, through whole fields of gutter or dike, abounding in decayed filth, such water will be impregnated with agents that will more or less affect its purity.

REMARKS ON FEEDING CATTLE.

Many of the most complicated diseases of cattle originate from the food: for example, it may be given in too large quant.i.ties--more than is needed to build up and repair the waste that is constantly going on. The consequence is, the animals get into a state of plethora, which is known by heaviness, dulness, unwillingness to move; there is a disposition to sleep, and they will lie down and often go to sleep in damp places. A chill of the extremities, or collapse of the capillaries, takes place, resulting in diseases of the lungs and pleura. At other times, if driven a short distance, and made to walk fast, they are liable to disease of the brain and other organs, which frequently terminates fatally.

The food may be of such a nature as shall be very difficult of digestion, such as cornstalks, foxgra.s.s, frosted turnips, &c. The clover and gra.s.ses may abound in woody fibre, in consequence of being cut too late; they will then require more than the usual amount of gastric fluids to insalivate them, and more time to masticate, and, finally, extract their nutrimental properties. The stomach becomes overworked, producing sympathetic diseases of the brain and nervous structures. The stomach not being able to act on fibrous matter with the same despatch as on softer materials, the former acc.u.mulates in its different compartments, distends the viscera, interferes with the motion of the diaphragm, presses on the liver, seriously interfering with the bile-secreting process. In order to prevent the gra.s.s and clover from becoming tough and fibrous, it should be mowed early, and while in flower, and should be afterwards almost constantly attended to, if the weather is favorable; the more it is scattered about, the better will it be made, and the more effectually will its fragrance and other good qualities be preserved.

The food may also be deficient in nutriment. The effects of insufficient food are too well known to need much description: debility includes them all; it invades every function of the animal economy. And as life is the sum of the powers that resist disease, if disease is only the instrument of death, it follows, of course, that whatever enfeebles life, or, in other words, produces debility, must predispose to disease.

Many cattle, during the winter, live on bad hay, which does not appear to contain any of that saccharine and mucilaginous matter which is found in good hay. When the spring comes, they are turned out to gra.s.s, and thus regain their flesh. Many, however, die in consequence of the sudden change.

It has been satisfactorily proved that fat cattle, of the best quality, may be produced by feeding them on boiled food.

Dr. Whitlaw says, "On one occasion, a number of cows were selected from a large stock, for the express purpose of making the trial: they were such as appeared to be of the best kind, and those that gave the richest milk. In order to ascertain what particular food would produce the best milk, different species of gra.s.s and clover were tried separately, and the quality and flavor of the b.u.t.ter were found to vary very much. But what was of the most importance, many of the gra.s.ses were found to be coated with silecia, or decomposed sand, too hard and insoluble for the stomachs of cattle. In consequence of this, the gra.s.s was cut and well steamed, and it was found to be readily digested; and the b.u.t.ter, that was made from the milk, much firmer, better flavored, and would keep longer without salt than any other kind. Another circ.u.mstance that attended the experiment was that, in all the various gra.s.ses and grain that were intended by our Creator as food for man or beast, the various oils that enter into their composition were so powerfully a.s.similated or combined with the other properties of the farinaceous plants, that the oil partook of the character of essential oil, and was not so easily evaporated as that of poisonous vegetables; and experience has proved that the same quant.i.ty of gra.s.s, steamed and given to the cattle, will produce more b.u.t.ter than when given in its dry state. This fact being established from numerous experiments, then there must be a great saving and superiority in this mode of feeding. The meat of such cattle is more wholesome, tender, and better flavored than when fed in the ordinary way." (For process of steaming, see Dadd's work on the Horse, p. 67.)

A mixed diet (boiled) is supposed to be the most economical for fattening cattle. "A Scotchman, who fattens 150 head of Galloway cattle, annually, finds it most profitable to feed with bruised flaxseed, boiled with meal or barley, oats or Indian corn, at the rate of one part flaxseed to three parts meal, by weight,--the cooked compound to be afterwards mixed with cut straw or hay. From four to twelve pounds of the compound are given to each beast per day." The editor of the Albany Cultivator adds, "Would it not be well for some of our farmers, who stall-feed cattle, to try this or a similar mode? We are by no means certain that the ordinary food (meaning, probably, bad hay and cornstalks) would pay the expense of cooking; but flaxseed is known to be highly nutritious, and the cooking would not only facilitate its digestion, but it would serve, by mixing, to render the other food palatable, and, by promoting the appet.i.te and health of the animal, would be likely to hasten its thrift."

Mr. Hutton, who has long been celebrated for producing exceedingly fat cattle at a small cost, estimates that cost as follows:--

s. d.

"13 lbs. of linseed, bruised, or 2 lbs. per day for six days, and 1 lb. for Sunday, 1 9

32 lbs. of ground corn, or 5 lbs. per day for six days, and 2-1/2 lbs. for Sunday, at 1 d. per lb., 2 8

35 lbs. of turnips, given twice a day for six days, and thrice on Sunday, 1 6

Oats, 1-1/2 d.: labor on each beast, 6 d., 7-1/2 --------- Total cost of each beast per week, 6 6-1/2