What Is Murrain?

Rinderpest, also called steppe murrain, cattle plague, or contagious bovine typhus, an acute, highly contagious viral disease of ruminant animals, primarily cattle, that was once common in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East. Rinderpest was a devastating affliction of livestock and wildlife, and for centuries it was a major threat to food production for societies that depended heavily on livestock.

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6249 The malignant eputcmic influenza is X pularly called the murrain or pest and has at various made terrible havoc among cattle Ancient history affords ample proof of its long existence and the accounts handed down it does not seem to have varied its types materially In 1757 it visited Britain producing extreme fatality among our kine From 1710 to 1714 it continued to rage on the with unabated fury LancisPs Disputatio Historica de Bovilla Peste The years 17 30 1731 and from 1744 to 1 46 witnessed its attack and produced many written descriptions of it which stand pre eminent that of Sauvages the celebrated professor of medicine at Montpe The British visitation of the malady in 1757 elicited an excellent work from the pen of Dr Layard physician of London which was afterwards translated into several other languages

62j0 Symptoms of the murrain Dr Layard describes it as commencing by a difficulty of swallowing itching of the ears shaking of the head with excessive weakness and staggering gait which occasioned a continued desire to lie down A sanious foetid discharge invariably apjwared from the nostrils eyes also The cough was frequent and urgent Fever exacerbating particularly at night when it produced quickened pulse There was a constant scouring of green fcetid dung after the first days which tainted every thing around even the breath perspiration and urine were highly fcrtid tumors or boils were very commonly felt under the skin and if about the seventh or ninth day eruptions become larger and boils or buboes appeared with a lessened discharge of faxes they roved critical and the animal often recovered but if on the contrary the scouring continued and the reath became cold and the mouth dark in color he informs us mortality followed Sauvages described murrain as shewing itself by trembling cold shivers nose excoriated with an acrid discharge from it after the first two days but previous to which there was often costivenc&s Great tenderness the spine and withers was also a characteristic with emphysema or a blowing up of the skin by air underneath it

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