Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/65

MURPHY MURRAIN 57 celebrated satirical work is entitled Von dem grossen lutheriscken Narren (Strasburg, 1522). MURPHY, Arthur, a British dramatist, born at Clooniquin, county Roscommon, Ireland, Dec. 27, 1727, died in London, June 18, 1805. He was educated at the Roman Catholic college of St. Omer, spent some years in a banking house in London, and in 1756 was admitted to Lin- coln's Inn. He conducted for two years a weekly paper, the " Gray's Inn Journal." In 1758 appeared his first dramatic production, " The Upholsterer," a farce, followed by " The Orphan of China," "The Way to Keep Him," u All in the Wrong," " The Citizen," " The Old Maid," &c. In 1762 he was called to the bar, but at the end of 15 years quitted his profes- sion, and devoted the remainder of his life to literary pursuits. In 1786 appeared an edition of his works in 7 vols. 8vo, containing, in ad- dition to the dramatic pieces above mentioned, his " Three Weeks after Marriage," " Zenobia," " The Grecian Daughter," &c. Some of his plays long kept possession of the stage. In 1792 he published an essay on the life and ge- nius of Dr. Johnson, in 1793 a translation of Tacitus in 4 vols. 4to, and in 1801 a life of Garrick. His translation of Sallust, completed by Thomas Moore, appeared in 1807. At va- rious times in his life he engaged in political controversies, and edited journals opposing Mr. Fox, the first Lord Holland, and Wilkes's " North Briton." In his old age he was made a commissioner of bankrupts, and for the last three years of his life he received a pension of 200. A life of Murphy by Jesse Foot was published in 1811. MIHRALV (Span, morrifia, from Lat. mori, to die ; or Gr. papaivsiv, to waste, to destroy), a term applied to various fatal contagious epizoo- tics, and therefore an equivalent to some extent of the Greek Ao^of, Latin pestis, and English pest and plague. The diseases most commonly included under this term are Russian cattle plague, aphthous fever, lung fever, and malig- nant anthrax. The first three are true plagues, spreading widely by contagion and irrespective of the influences of season, climate, &c. ; the fourth appears to arise from unhealthy local con- ditions, but in hot, damp, insalubrious years will assume an unusual virulence and spread far be- yond its native limits. From the earliest ages these affections have spread widely and dis- astrously in the track of belligerent armies, being propagated in their herds of supply; and thus on the occasion of any great European war the ravages of pestilence and famine have been superadded to the horrors of fire and sword. The yearly losses of individual coun- tries in such cases were to be counted by hun- dreds of thousands of stock, while the losses to the continent by a single epizootic are com- puted at hundreds of millions. 1. Russian Cat- tle Plague, or Steppe Murrain (Ger. Binder- pest, Fr. la, peste bovine, &c.), is a contagious fever of cattle and other ruminants, supposed to arise spontaneously in the Kirghiz steppes and the government of Kherson in southern Russia, characterized by congestion, excessive growth and degeneration of epithelium, slough- ing, and ulceration of all the mucous mem- branes, but especially of those of the alimentary canal. It has spread over western Europe in connection with every great general war, from the irruption of the Huns, about A. D. 375, to the recent Franco-German contest, after which both belligerent countries suffered severely. After the taking of Paris the plague anticipated the famished inhabitants in destroying the cattle set apart for their relief, and out of 10,000 to 12,000 reserved for the troops 800 died in one night. From 1711 to 1769 it destroyed over 200,000,000 head of cattle in Europe; from 1793 to 1796, 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 in Italy; in 1842 it killed 300,000 head of cattle in Egypt, and died out two years later for want of more animals to destroy; and in 1865-'6 it proved fatal to about 500,000 head in Great Britain within 18 months. Excepting in its supposed birthplace on the steppes, this malady is propagated only by contagion, and in ordi- nary cases passes over exclusively breeding dis- tricts into which no strange cattle nor their products are brought. Thus Belgium almost entirely escaped in the recent French outbreak. Austria and Prussia habitually protect them- selves by a supervision and quarantine on their frontiers, and only suffer when such barriers are broken down under the exigencies of war. The poison, which exists in all parts of the body, and is given off in the secretions and exhalations, does not spread far on the atmos- phere, but may remain in a frozen or dried condition for many months, without losing its virulence. When this poison has been intro- duced into the system by inoculation, it re- mains latent for over 36 hours. At the end of the second day there is a marked elevation of the bodily temperature (2 to 3), and the following day the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, and vulva are suffused by a deep livid blush. At this time, or even earlier, there appear on the gums or lips whitish aph- thous-like elevations, formed of epithelium, which are granular or even approaeh the characters of pus cells in their deeper layers. On the fourth day there is dulness, appetite and rumination are impaired, and the secre- tions generally are lessened. On the fifth day illness is recognized by any one, in the great depression, half-closed watery eyes, retracted ears, the dry, hard, and scanty dung coated with mucus, the want of appetite, irregular breathing, and small, weak, and often accel- erated pulse. Next day all the symptoms are exaggerated ; the bowels are relaxed and dysen- teric, the faeces passed with much straining, and the everted gut of a deep red ; the back is arched, the abdomen tense and tender, the mouth covered with raw sores from the sepa- ration of the white crusts, the muzzle dry, cracked, and raw, the pulse weak and rapid, and the breathing checked with a clucking