On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment — Reading Notes

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Authors: Bourguignon, Honoré Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2011 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Cattle -- Diseases Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 80,908

Reading time 352 min

Text sections 11

This digital edition of On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment — Reading Notes is described by source-level measurements including 80,908 words, 5 hr 52 min estimated reading time, and 11 detected text sections.

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Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Cattle -- Diseases,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #36496

Bourguignon's 1869 treatise on contagious typhus in cattle combines clinical description, historical epizootic analysis, and advocacy for international regulation and inoculation, drawing on his French medical authority and firsthand observation.

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ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE: OR, Contagious Typhus in Horned Cattle.

ITS HISTORY, ORIGIN, DESCRIPTION, AND TREATMENT.

Doctor of the Faculté de Paris, Fellow of the Société de Médecine de Paris; Laureate of the Institute of France, Member of the Legion of Honour, etc.

"Scribo nec ficta, nee picta, sed quæ ratio, sensus et experientia docent."

PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. LONDON: J CHURCHILL & SONS. 1869.

TO MISS BURDETT COUTTS.

The numerous services which you have rendered, and the interest you have shown in the calamitous epizootic which at this moment decimates the noble herds of England, have prompted me to dedicate the following pages to you, satisfied that I am only giving public expression to the homage felt for you by many of your fellow-countrymen.

I have the honour to be, Madam,

With respect, your obedient servant,

Nations, during the successive phases of their evolution on the globe, in which they advance from a state of infancy and barbarism to one of virility and civilization, from civilization to decadence or senility; and from decadence to their final extinction, are liable to numberless calamities.

These calamities are produced by moral causes, and are then called social Revolutions; and in other instances from physical causes, and then they are termed Cataclysms, Epidemics, or Epizootics.

In these crises, the initiative and devotion of individuals, the public administration, and the application of knowledge acquired in the Arts and Sciences, afford collectively an infallible criterion for ascertaining the position which a nation occupies in the scale of civilization, and the value of its religious, social, and political institutions.

Calamities always leave behind them disasters and victims, but they bequeath also a precious legacy. Nations which are called upon for fresh and progressive efforts, find in the experience they have gained a new source of strength and means of future greatness. I am convinced that this will be the case with England; though, helpless for the moment, and unable to stay the Cattle Plague which now ravages her entire extent, she will in future be found better prepared to resist the inroads of such a direful enemy.

No branch of human knowledge has been more rudely tested during the present epizootic than medical science. Many persons have been astounded at its helplessness; but if they had reflected at what a distance medicine has to follow in the wake of the exact sciences by which it is furnished with instruments for prosecuting its researches,--that organic chemistry progresses but slowly,--that the Cattle Plague was entirely unknown to the present generation of medical men in England,--and that the means for its scientific and practical study have been therefore wholly wanting, they would have been less surprised to find that it is as difficult to cure the Cattle Plague as it, is to cure phthisis, cancer, hydrophobia, and the cholera, against which medicine but too often is of little avail.

In times of great national calamity it behoves every one to contribute in proportion to his talents, fortune, or abilities, to alleviate the effects of the common misfortune. The poor man's mite, and the honest intention of the most insignificant, when added to the budget of common efforts, have their relative value; and it is for these reasons that I have published the following monograph on the Cattle Plague.

If it assists in any way to the extinction of the present epizootic, or if it serve to point out the necessity of combining the study of comparative pathology with that of medicine, I shall feel that I have contributed something which may favour my claim to be enrolled among the citizens of England.

This book, as may easily be seen, was originally written in my native language. A few kind and obliging friends--more particularly Mr. Taylor Sinnett, Drs. Clapton and Gervis, of St. Thomas's Hospital, and Mr. Berridge, of the British Museum--have rendered me the greatest assistance in the translation. Without the guidance of such competent auxiliaries I could not have performed my arduous task.

I therefore beg to return to those gentlemen, and to all those who have assisted me on this occasion, my sincerest and most grateful thanks.

The History of the Contagious Typhus of the Ox, from the remotest Times down to the Present Day 5

CHAPTER I.--On Typhus Disease in general, and the Typhus which affects the Ox in particular 72

CHAPTER II.--The Origin and Causes of the Ox-Typhus 84

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Bourguignon opens his treatise with a dedication to Miss Burdett Coutts, acknowledging her services during the cattle plague then ravaging England. The preface frames the epizootic as a national crisis that tests civilization itself, comparing it to social revolutions and cataclysms. He insists that calamities leave a precious legacy of experience, and he predicts England will emerge better prepared. The author's Latin epigraph—'I write not fictions nor pictures, but what reason, sense, and experience teach'—announces a clinical, empirical stance. Throughout the excerpts, Bourguignon alternates between detached pathological description and urgent policy advocacy, revealing a physician who sees medicine as one part of a broader administrative and scientific response.

A Physician's Rhetoric of Crisis

Bourguignon's prose in the preface is deliberately elevated, casting the cattle plague as a phase in the 'evolution of nations' from barbarism to civilization and then to decadence. This sweeping historical frame is unusual for a veterinary manual; it suggests he aims to persuade not just farmers but statesmen. He writes that 'the initiative and devotion of individuals, the public administration, and the application of knowledge' together form a criterion for a nation's place in civilization. The diction is moral and almost prophetic: calamities 'bequeath a precious legacy.' Yet when he turns to specific measures, his tone becomes pragmatic and regulatory. He calls for 'a scientific congress' to study conditions on the spot, and for 'heavy penalties' on those who break quarantine rules. This shift from grand narrative to concrete prescription is the book's characteristic rhetorical move.

Observation and Inference in Disease Description

The excerpts show Bourguignon reasoning from limited evidence. He notes that the cattle plague was 'entirely unknown to the present generation of medical men in England,' and that organic chemistry 'progresses but slowly.' He does not claim to have seen the disease's origin; instead, he infers that the bovine species of Hungary and Russia, 'thanks to a special organization, was alone capable of generating the typhus.' This is a cautious, geographically specific claim. He repeatedly uses phrases like 'since we know, then, in what conditions this disease is developed' to build a logical chain from observed patterns to proposed interventions. The text does not provide a full clinical description in these excerpts, but the method is clear: Bourguignon assembles scattered reports, acknowledges gaps, and proposes systematic study.

The Case for Inoculation and International Regulation

Bourguignon devotes considerable space to arguing for inoculation, which he says 'has met with complete success in some of the governments of Russia.' He envisions a system where cattle for export must be marked as inoculated or carry a permit of health, and where importing countries refuse unmarked animals—as Italy had sometimes done. He acknowledges that these are 'very complicated questions' and that in a book they may seem 'simple and easy.' His language is that of a reformer: he calls for 'regulations' to be 'carried out and practised under the superintendence of public functionaries, armed with sufficient power and authority.' The emphasis on enforcement and penalties reflects his belief that voluntary measures have failed. He also notes that some breeders already use rock salt and arsenical preparations, but 'without method,' underscoring his demand for standardized practice.

The Limits of the Text: What the Excerpts Do Not Reveal

The excerpts are drawn from the preface and early chapters; they do not contain the detailed pathological descriptions or treatment regimens promised in the title. Bourguignon's clinical voice—how he describes lesions, symptoms, or post-mortem findings—is absent here. The reader cannot yet assess whether his therapeutic recommendations are based on personal experience or compiled from other authorities. Similarly, the excerpts give no sense of how he structures the bulk of the work: whether it proceeds systematically from history to symptoms to treatment, or whether it digresses into comparative epizootiology. The dedication and preface establish his credentials and his sense of urgency, but the scientific core of the book remains to be examined. Any judgment on the work's originality or accuracy must await the full text.

Bourguignon's treatise is best approached as a document of its moment—an 1869 response to a devastating epizootic that crossed European borders. Readers interested in the history of veterinary medicine, international disease control, or nineteenth-century public health will find a text that blends clinical ambition with political advocacy. The author's French academic pedigree and his appeal to English philanthropy give the work a distinctive cross-channel perspective. To evaluate his claims, one must read past the preface into the clinical chapters, where the promised 'description and treatment' presumably unfold.

I remember Bourguignon’s On the Cattle Plague, how gently he tended to sick herds, listening to their breath as one might a friend’s worry. That same quiet patience lives in The practice of osteopathy — A Closer Reading, a different fever, perhaps, but the same careful hands. Both know that healing is mostly attentiveness, and I have always loved that shared whispering.