Dog history

Dogs are not only subjects of veterinary care, they are also subjects of cultural history. An interesting example may be found in an essay about the history of bloodhounds around 1900 by Neil Pemberton.

I copy the summary, and, as an appetizer, the introduction of the article. Pemberton makes extensive use of newspaper articles.

The bloodhound's nose knows? dogs and detection in Anglo-American culture

Neil Pemberton,  Endeavour 37, 196–208

Summary

The figure of the English bloodhound is often portrayed both positively and negatively as an efficient man-hunter. This article traces the cultural, social and forensic functions of the first attempts to use bloodhounds for police investigation, and argues that the analysis of these developments, which took place at the turn of the twentieth century, further our understanding of the diverse practices and cultures of fin de siècle forensics. Arguing that their dogs could trail tracks of human scent, English pedigree bloodhound breeders promoted and imagined novel ways of detecting and thinking forensically, with which they made claims to social authority in matters of crime and detection. Yet, English bloodhounds were unstable carriers of forensic meaning making their use for tracking criminals deeply problematic: for example, the name of the breed itself invoked a long-line of social and cultural associations. In showing this, we can see how the practices of canine forensics had their roots in a complex history, involving genteel leisure, changing cultural understandings of scent, and shifting dog-keeping mores.

Introduction: a murder mystery at Gorse Hall

From the late 1880s onwards stories of the pursuit of criminals with bloodhounds, whether successful or unsuccessful, made dramatic copy for a penny press on both sides of the Atlantic, eager to fill their pages with narratives that thrilled, shocked and horrified readers. One such article was published in the popular illustrated London weekly the Daily Sketch on the 3 November 1909, in which the bloodhound was characterised as possessing an insatiable curiosity – a dog that pursues even the faintest of scent traces with all the zest of a born detective. The day before, a Lancashire mill owner, George Starres, was found dead at his mansion, Gorse Hall near Stalybridge; he had been shot. Unable to find any actionable crime scene evidence or witnesses to the murder, the police investigators called upon the services of the renowned private dog breeder and trainer, Colonel E.H. Richardson.

In the Daily Sketch's coverage of the investigation, Richardson's sleuthing was much applauded: he was praised as a knowledgeable and trustworthy hunter, who practised the art of detection in a fundamentally different way from other police detectives, whose essential approach to crime solving relied on relating physical evidence to oral testimony. Richardson instead solved criminal mysteries through the recovery of invisible traces of a criminal's scent, employing the reputedly sensitive nose of an English bloodhound. Tracing scent by working with a hound enabled him to reconstruct the genus and movements of human quarry through space. After a long drive in the rain from his London residence, Richardson had arrived at Gorse Hall with two of his bloodhounds, who on arrival had been presented with the murder weapon found at the scene of the crime, in the hope that the dogs would detect the culprit's scent and locate a trail.

In this case however Richardson and his bloodhounds failed to find the culprit for the murder at Gorse Hall. Although the dogs picked up a scent trail at the crime scene, they lost the trail on the surrounding moors, due in large part to the rain, which apparently dispersed what had been a traceable trail. As in the Sherlock Holmes story, in which he demonstrates the forensic productivity of being attuned to canine abilities and behaviour, sometimes the most significant thing is that the dog did not bark. Thus, taking my lead from Holmes's acute attentiveness to canine behaviour, this historical account of using dogs to solve crime avoids documenting either the historical successes or the failures or shortcomings in a specific period, thereby resisting a straightforward listing of criminal cases in which canines ‘barked,’ or not.

In search of the cause of mastitis

Although Nocard and Mollereau had demonstrated in 1884 that cocci could be held responsible for mastitis, the nature of the real cause of the disease troubled many for a long time after.

Here is a report, published in 1892 in the Receuil de Médécine Vétérinaire (vol 69 p.494-495)

by a veterinarian, J.Joquan, from Vitré, who thought that he had made a step forward in the knowledge of the cause of mastitis. This text has been published recently in Dutch in Argos, 49, 2013, 324.

“Sur une cause probable de la mammite infectieuse de la vache.”

“About a year ago I was consulted for a case of mastitis of a cow in the municipality of Vitré. Following a painful swelling the udder of this cow had returned to approximately the normal volume, but she kept giving small quantities of milk that was putrid, watery and unfit for consumption. In vain I looked for the cause of this change and I decided to give the following advice, that did not satisfy me at all: ‘The cow is too fat, she should see the butcher and another one should be bought.’ This was done accordingly. After four or five months the new cow was affected in exactly the same way as the first, but this cow lacked the fat condition, and did therefore not allow me to bring this in association with an unfortunate mastitis.This forced me to go deeper into the case and to look elsewhere for the starting-point of the infection of these two cows. After a tour through the stables, a little bit of searching and asking some questions of the cattle-maid I found out  […] that the bedding of the stables had been taken from the straw-mattresses, used by the numerous and various boarders. Probably my enemies must be found here. Therefore I made them give up the use of this straw and made it replaced by more natural bedding, namely fresh straw that had not served anyone. I treated the cow: she recovered.

I should not have published this notice if I had not been supported by the next, third fact; some time ago I was called to a small farm close to town to treat a mastitis of the same nature as the preceding ones. I did not fail to ask of the bedding: that had its origin in the purchase of straw, made by the infantry regiment of the garrison of Vitré, and it had served too for straw-mattresses for the military men. I don’t want to comment on it.

[…]

Until now I have accused all kinds of more or less vague causes, which are known and have been described as coincidental causes. Now I think I can blame one, if not a general, then at least a frequent, cause of this disease: the infectious nature of bedding that has served as the fillings of straw-mattresses.”

It is noteworthy to read how cautious Joquan has formulated the general discussion at the end: it is the infectious nature of the straw, used in the mattresses, that has to be blamed.

Mastitis and epidemiology

Some provocative arguments about epidemiology by Alex Broadbent, a philosopher of epidemiology in Johannesburg (SA), on his epidemiology blog.

“(1) It is hard to use results which one reasonably suspects might soon be found incorrect.”

“(2) Often, epidemiological results are such that a prospective user reasonably suspects that they will soon be found incorrect.”

“(3) Therefore, often, it is hard to use epidemiological results.”

 “I think that (1) does not need supporting: it is obviously true (or obviously enough for these purposes). The weight is on (2), and my argument for (2) is that from the outside, it is simply too hard to tell whether a given issue – for example, the effect of HRT on heart disease, or the effect of acetaminophen (paracetamol) on asthma – is still part of an ongoing debate, or can reasonably be regarded as settled. The problem infects even results that epidemiologists would widely regard as settled: the credibility of the evidence on the effect of smoking on lung cancer is not helped by reversals over HRT, for example, because from the outside, it is not unreasonable to wonder what the relevant difference is between the pronouncements on HRT and the pronouncements on lung cancer and smoking. There is a difference: my point is that epidemiology lacks a clear framework for saying what it is.”

 (Alex Broadbent on his Philosophy of Epidemiology Blog, 2 september 2012) 
ttp://philosepi.wordpress.com/author/philosepi/page/2/

Do these arguments affect the epidemiological results of mastitis investigations?

There were no comments on Broadbent’s blog, and I do not think mine will raise comments either, but feel free if you want.

Mastitis and fraudulent cattle traders

In the nineteenth century mastitis was thought to be caused by, among others, swelling of the udder. The swelling itself needed an external cause for explanation, which was looked for in inadequate animal husbandry. Sloppy milkmaids and fraudulent cattle traders are frequently found in the literature throughout most of the century. Two examples of the latter are given here.

Auguste Jourdier [calls himself farmer at Vert-Galant, but is a veterinarian],

‘Foire a moutons de la Pomponne’, Journal d’Agriculture Pratique, de Jardinage et d’Economie Domestique, 7 (1852) 236-237

[Describes the prices at the market of horses, sheep and cattle]

“Milk cattle reached a price of 150-250 fr [per kilogram]. The sellers, mostly small farmers, have the deplorable habit of not milking the cows long before, in order to make the udder look much bigger. This is a serious mistake, because this barbarous actions may cause severe diseases: a more or less intense mastitis, an obstruction of milk [galactophores] canals, frequently resulting in loss by the beast of one or two teats. Sometimes it makes them ill-natured and difficult to milk, due to the suffering they have endured, and which has been excited by the noise of the crowd or the blows.”

Th.Kitt, [prosector and lecturer at the Veterinary Highschool of Munich]

‘Untersuchungen über die verschiedene Formen der Euterentzünding.’ Deutsche Zeitschrift für Thiermedicin 12 (1885) 7-8

[Describes the etiology of mastitis in relation to different pathological-anatomical changes]

“…  Frequently there are, in high- or moderate-producing milk cows, e.g. by a too late milking-out (which is often deliberately put into practice by traders, to demonstrate a fraudulent milk profit), conditions in which milk droplets adhere abundantly [to the teat] …”

It should be noted that Kitt was discussing the route of entrance of infectious agents.

I found at least four times in the literature remarks on the fraudulent behaviour of cattle traders or sellers of cows as contributing to cases of mastitis.

A cat in a pathology lab

A remarkable case of “anthroponosis”, published in the Journal of Comparative Pathology, 1, 60-62, 1888, translated from a French publication:

A CASE OF TRANSMISSION OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS FROM MAN TO THE CAT

Communicated to the Societé de Médécine Pratique, Decvember 1887.

By Drs FILLEAU and LÉON PETIT

Translated from the Journal de Médécine de Paris, Jan.1888

[………..]

  "We had in our laboratory a cat that evinced a very marked taste for phtisical sputum.  It followed the patients about, and as soon as they expectorated on the ground it greedily devoured the sputum. Gradually this taste became a passion; the cat watched with interest all the manipulations which were made in the laboratory in the microscopic exmination of sputa, knowing well that the refuse from the operation was destined for it.

  Submitted to this regime, the animal soon became emaciated, its coat stared, its eyes were bleared, it had a muco-purulent secretion from the nose, violent sneezing, and cough sometimes followed by vomition. It crawled with difficulty; in short, it presented all the symptoms of a very advanced stage of some chronic, grave disease.

  I need hardly say that we followed day by day the progress of this malady, and the more so because in the bacillary examination of the nasal discharge, which in reality came from the bronchi,  we had on several occasions proved the presence of Koch’s bacillus. We waited then, not without impatience, the natural termination of this pulmonary tuberculosis, in the expectation of an interesting autopsy.

  After about two months and a half we were much surprised to see the morbid symptoms rapidly abate. The violent cough became less frequent, the purulent discharge quickly disappeared, the general state improved considerably, the animal’s spirit returned, and it seemd on a fair way to recovery. It continued, nevertheless, to consume sputum with the same avidity. I confess that our first conviction at this time was considerably shaken.

  But the cat gradually gave evidence of pregnancy, and at the normal period gave birth to seven well-developed kittens. It suckled one of these for five months, and it did not present any symptom of cachexia; but a slight, dry, hacking cough nevertheless persisted. Six months after the act of parturition, on account of its contact with a mad dog, the cat was killed as a sanitary measure."

……………

Next followed the autopsy of the cat, confirming that it had contracted a real tuberculosis.

This publication shows some light on the state of good laboratory practice, of the role of companion animals in society and of sanitation in pathology laboratories in the last decades of the 19^th century.

Magic and Mastitis

The Swiss veterinarian Gattiker (1848) was the first to give a description of problems of mastitis in a scientific veterinary journal [1]. 

The disease was called “gelber Galt” because the milk that was produced by those cows is yellow (”gelb”) and the amount is considerably reduced (“Galt”). In his paper he discussed what he thought could be the causes of the disease but first  he described what he called an interesting case of superstition.

“ In approximately 8 subsequent years all the cows, four in total, of an owner in Schönenberg, in a high mountanous region, were affected by this disease [i.e.gelber Galt], forcing him each summer to sell a few of his most beautiful cows to the butcher, with rather great financial loss. Then this owner came to think that his cattle was bewitched. A fortune-teller […] advised him to go to a referee [Scharfrichter] in Schwyz to get help, because an old neighbour-woman might be the witch. The referee ordered the owner of the cows to pray in the stable, together with the fortune-teller and a certain N.N. […] at witching hour, at midnight, and to fasten a leather belt around the abdomen of the cows, and to proceed several nights with this ceremony. A veterinarian may have advised to go on with it until the old woman were prayed to death. By chance I came to this remarkable performance, made this otherwise sensibnle man reproaches about his superstition, told him that his cattle could be cured in an entirely natural way if he should make a change in the diet and also that his stables were in a poor condition.”

Gattiker described that he proposed a therapy of salts and herbs.

“ After a short time the milk secretion started again and the leather belts could be discarded.

Late in the autumn the old neighbour-woman died; the people believed she had been prayed to death.”

Gattiker went on to discuss other causes, such as cold; but he seriously doubted whether contagion might be the cause.

1. [-] Gattiker, ‘Beschreibung der Krankheit der Kühe, welche in einigen Gegenden der Schweiz unter dem Namen “gelber Galt”, auch Gelti, bekannt ist.’ Archiv fürTierheilkunde 10 (1848) 1-5.

The failing health of German vets

The edition of July 15, 1889 of the Receuils de Médécines Vétérinaires opens with  a reminder, by Edouard Nocard, secretary of the organizing comittee of the V^me Congrès International de Médécine Vétérinaire.

“We remind the readers of the Receuil that the international veterinary congress will have its meetings in the main building of the Societé de Géografie, 184 Boulevard Saint-Germain, from 2 to 8 september forthcoming.

…

Among the numerous veterinarians from abroad who have joined the congress no Germans are counted. The few German veterinarians that had made a registration directly in the beginning later declared themselves unable to come for reasons of health (sic) [italics in original text]. The real motive for this general absence most be looked for elsewhere. It seems that the catchword given to the whole of Germany has been not to participate in any international congress, scientific or otherwise, that will be held in Paris on the occurrence of the World Exhibition.

In relation to this follows here an example of the parlance that was used in the German veterinary journals:

 ‘We trust that our German colleagues refrain completely from participating in this congress; the actual circumstances, the place where it is held and the occasion to which it is connected are sufficient motives for allowing absence .. ‘ (Berliner Wochenschrift, april 1889).

Even if the German veterinarians do not participate in the congres, it is fortunately not the same with veterinarians from Switserland,  Belgium, England, Italy, Holland, Russia, Romania, etc.

…

The preceding congresses were brilliantly succesful; there is no need that, the systematic absence of the Germans notwithstanding, our congress will be inferior to these.”

It is clear that feelings of national pride prevailed over scientific interests. The actual circumstances in the German appeal cited by Nocard may have had to do with the commemoration of the French revolution and the rise of revanchist ideas in France in that year with regard to the outcome of Prussian-French war of 1870-71. In this sense it corresponds to the nationalistic sentiments in the controversy of the bacteriological schools of Koch and Pasteur.