A VOICE PROM SOUTH AFRICA AS TO PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 967, 15 February 1862, Page 3

A VOICE PROM SOUTH AFRICA AS TO PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

A correspondent writes the following to the Sydney Morning Herald: —

" Having repeatedly seen in the Australian papers the ravages, that scourge amongst cattle, the pleuropneumonia, has been, and still is committing; and having also seen a report in the Melbourne papers wherein it is stated that the disease has baffled all attempts at cure, I will not allow further time to elapse without communicating to the stockholders of your colony the ' perfectly' successful cure we have discovered in this colony for that dreadful disease; and although I do not claim to have been "the discoverer of it, still I,was, I believe, the first who tried it and proved its efficacy. The cure is simply by inoculating every head of cattle on the farm with the diseased lung of the first animal that has either died of it or (having evidently the disease) has been killed for it. Various modes of inoculation have been adopted; the first time it showed itself in my herd I lost 160 cows and heifers, when I had all the cattle driven into the yard, and with a sharp-pointed penknife punctured the skin at the very point of the tail till I saw blood, the point of the penknife being well moistened with • the matter' of the diseased lung. The disease instantaneously stopped ; and although I lost one or two after that, it was owing entirely to the enormous size the}' had swelled, particularly at the root of the tail and all about the rump, completely preventing the animal from dunging. Whenever this happens now we make an incision, and by fomenting prevent all fatal consequences. Some of the inoculated cattle lose their tails, and some only the points, whilst the great majority don't appear to suffer at all. Two years ago the disease broke out again in my herd, and several had it before I was aware of it ; .but the moment I inoculated, it stopped. A few months ago it appeared again amongst some oxen I purchased, but by inoculating all on the farm there was an immediate end of it. Then, diseased oxen had been running with my herd of cattle for a considerable time, and not a single animal that was inoculated two years ago caught it; only two or three I had since then purchased, got affected. In short, the efficacy of inoculating is as much believed in amongst the stockholders in the colony, as vaccination for the small-pox. It is no uncommon thing-, at a sale, for the auctioneer to warrant the oxen to have been inoculated to enhance their value. ' " I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, "P. L. Cloete. " Biindoliet, Cape of Good Hope, Aug. 10. " My son, the Gold Commissioner for the Southern Gold Fields, can substantiate the losses I have suffered."