DISEASES OF MEN AND ANIMALS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1378, 26 February 1861, Page 4

DISEASES OF MEN AND ANIMALS.

(From the Relations of Veterinary to to Social Sctenee, being tliß Inaugmal Addre&s delneied byPiofessor John Gamgee, Principal of the new Veterinary College, Edinburgh.) "In the first place, men and animals are subject to similar diseases — to diseases coinmumoable one to the other, and to diseases which spontaneously originate either in man, in some instances, or in the lower animals in others, and are transmitted from first to second, or second to first, without other means of development or propagation. The study of diseases, in their comparative lelations m different animals, constitutes the science of Comparative Pathology. It must be obvious to all that the amount of danger man incurs by living amongst animals, under diffeient circumstances, should be known, but on this important subject we need means of determining the spread of diseases in animals, their nature, and the extent to which they are committing ravages. That there are many unsuspected sources of disease in man, from the pievalence of disease in animals, is often suggested, but positive facts are with difficulty obtained. I must illustrate my meaning. In different parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, cattle are subject to anthrax, commonly known as quarter evil, or by the more ludicrous epithet, ' black leg.' We have to thank our northern latitude for the rare development, in these casess, of the virulent anthrax poison, which deshoys many human beings in warm climates. So destructive iB this poison, thai flies resting on the carcases of animals that have died of this disease, or even on the parts affected in the living animal, may fly on to a man's face or hand, induce malignant pustule, and death in a short time. Though such accidents are doubtless extremely rare amongst us, we must not take it for granted that they do not occur. Dr. Keith of Aberdeen related a case to me, where disease and death spread through the family of a man who dressed a caicase of an ox that had died of quarter-ill ; and had we better means of collecting information on these subjects, many similar instances would doubtless come to our knowledge, A cutaneous disease of very common occurrence in cattle, and which generally receives the name of ringworm, is a pustular eiuption communicable to man ; and I have often seen bad boils — a f urunculoid eruption — on the hands and arms of those attending these animals, which has led to considerable indisposition, and been difficult to cure. Again, I may mention the vesicular munain so prevalent in cows, attended with the development of a virus, which is often squeezed into the milk can as the cow is milked. Such, milk, drunk warm, will kill calves and pigs, and induce fever and cutaneous eruptions in men. Why shall it not be attended with dangerous and fatal consequences when partakeu of by the infantile portion of the population, which consume so large a quantity of the dairy produce ? But of late years considerable interest lias been excitod by the metamorphoses of pa-, rasites. In a piece of pork a few yellow specks or transparent vesicles, which do not appear of the slightest importance, may in reality bo tapewoims in one stage of development, for the desti uction of which we have to hope for prolonged boiling or efficient roasting. If the meat be eaten underdone, a parasite «t once developes in the human intestine, when it sometimes baffles human skill to displace. The veterinary surgeons throughout the length and breadth of our land should be accuiately acquainted with the parasitic diseases of animals ; and, however unattractive the study at first sight may appear, no scientific mind can fail to appreciate the advantages to be derived from a more extended rknowledge of Helminthology. Therefore, gentomen, the sources of disease in man which are to be discovered by studying the diseases of animals, are far from few and trifling, and facts regarding them should

claim the attention of the veterinarian. On this very interesting subject I have to recommend perusal of two veiy lucid and elaborate papers by Dr. Lindsay of Perth, and my esteemed friend, Dr. Richardson of London. Both these important contributions to comparative pathology were published in the first volume of the ' Edinburgh Veterinary Review' ; and I am proud to think that our annals of comparative pathology should contain the contributions of men so fitted to *ct as pioneers in the study of the Hciences to which that journal is devoted. Secondly, the diseases of men and animals are often due to similar causes. They aie the result of cognisable agencies which operate alike on all living things, and their investigation, though almost exclusively engaged in by the medical man, should occupy the tune and attention of enlightened veterinary suigeons. The evil results of over- work, over-ciowd-mg, absence of light in stables, as in dwellings, of artificial diet, of the nature of food as changed by modem cultivation, and the influence of such changes on animals, all constitute vast subjects for inquiry. The mysterious natuie and operation of enzootic ai of endemic influences, of epizootic as of endemic influences, of miasmata and contagion, should as constantly occupy the membeis of our piofession, devoted to the study of s>anitary subjects, as the members of thejprofession of human medicine. All these researches, and in fact, every part of veterinary science, has a bearing on agriculture. It is a fact woithy of notice, that the Medical Officers of Health of the City of London — amidst their most interesting and intricate reseat ches as to the influence of sewage emanations, and a host of similar causes that are to be observed in all crowded cities, contributing to fill our hospitals and swell mortality lists — specially allude to the injurious influence exerted by stables and byies. In these matters, backed by adequate authority, veterinarians should effect much good The ' Medical Times,' in an article on the development of sanitary medicine, commenting on a report by Dr. Lankester, says, ' Stables are necessary nuisances. Horses Qr donkeys we must have; but then we ought to take especial care that they be kept in a suitable and laudable manner — i.e., up to the level of scientific sanitary r'equhement'. But how seldom are they so kept ' Theie are,' writes the Doctor, ' few sources of nuisance which are more constantly complained of, than ill-kept and ill-diained stables ' In his own parish, he, Dr. Lankester, has waged great and Garibaldian (successful) waifare against these Augean quarters, and reports the abatement of 208 out of 268 stable nuisances complained of. Happily, as it appears, the owners of horses aie more readily woiked up to proper sanitary sentiments in behalf of their quadruped slaves, than householders usuaEy are in behalf of their biped tenants. As Dr. Lankester says, ' The reference to the notices of improvement in the stables showedythat the owners were quite alive to the value of the health of the animals that lived in them ; a response which it is sometimes difficult to arouse in behalf of the human occupants of houses needing .sanitary amendment.' Dr. Lankester's experience is encouraging, and it shows how, backed by the influence of authority, a person can accomplish that which, on the simple advice of professional men, can rarely be secured. Many of us have waged war against the denizens of filth and disease in which cows are kept, but we cannot boast of the success which has attended the assiduity of Dr. Lankester as Medical Oificer of Health. Sanitary reformers in considering the history of epidemics have of late years disregarded far too much, in my opinion, the contagious nature of diseases. Cholera, typhus, yellow fever, &c ' — undoubtedly most destructive under the influence of defective hygiene, — are maladies characterized by the development of a specific poison, which the Germans h*ve termed the contagiwm, or principle by which contagion is effected. The investigation into the nature of the contagium, of the many circumstances which influence and favour, or check it, presents to the veterinarian one of the most practical objects for inquiry that lam acquainted with. As Dr. Richaidson says, in the article before alluded to, the production of maladies by the discovery of their poison, which Dr. Lindsay accomplished in regard to choJera, is one of the best means to settle questions relating to the origin of disease ; and, by careful experiment, much is to be accomplished which has ever been regarded as obscure, and circumstances are reconciled, which, on a superficial obseivatiou, have been regarded as contradictory. I may be permitted here to quote the concluding sentences of Dr. Richardson's paper. He says .—. — '1. That by experiment it might be pioved, in what excreta of an affected animal the poisons of certain specific epidemics are located. 2. By what surfaces of the body such poisons may be received so as to excite their morbific effectj 3. Whether the virus of a disease acts in the production of the phenomena of the disease, primarily or secondarily, i.e. by its own lepioductioH and presence, or by the development of another agent. i. Whether the effect of climate, season, temperature, moisture, and the like, in their influence on the spiead of epidemics, act by modifying the poison which excites the epidemic, or by modifying the condition of the individual who is exposed to the poison. Whde the solution of any one of the problems suggested above would be a fact of the time, the inquiries themselves he open to the veterinarian even moie invitingly than to the physician. His oppoitumties aie greater for such lesearches, and his increasing science is leading his mind each day nearer to the appreciation of their woith.' That Dr Richardson, imbued as much as any man I know with a catholic spirit and keen appreciation of the value of knowledge, does not agree with Vegetius in leckomng veterinary science as secondary to and eonsequensly distinct from human medicine, is proved by the last paragraph of the essay so frequently referred to. He says : — " Recognising, as I do, the importance to medicine of eveiy addition to veterinary science and art, and the fact that medicine human and medicine veterinarian is as distinctly one as the animal creation is one, I feel gieatly honoured in having the opportunity of intioducing into this new hteraiy woik this biief and very incomplete paper.' " Though too modestly estimating his contribution to our first Scotch veterinary periodical, Dr. Richardson has proved, by much more than that short aiticle, how far and deep the veterinarian can, with great benefit to himself and direct benefit to others, dive into the mysterious woikmgs of nature."