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.