Back when I was growing up, the elders sometimes announced when not feeling perky, "I think I've got the epizootic," using a word not heard often these days. I ran into it again while scanning back issues of The Chariton Patriot from the 1872 holiday season the other day, and decided to look it up, finding the result above with Google.
This was a little embarrassing --- the root word "zoo" should have told me even without reading further that the reference could not have been to Aunt Maude's potential influenza, but instead to some disorder affecting her horse (or another critter).
It was in that context that the epizootic was a cause for considerable concern in Lucas County as Christmas, 1872, approached.
The Patriot of Dec. 18 announced, "The epizootic seems to be at its height. The livery stables remain closed, and but few horses are to be seen on the street."
And further, "The epizootic is all over the county. We have heard of but few deaths from it. Something of the same nature is affecting the human family, and coughs and colds abound fearfully."
Whatever was going on here seems to have spread into southern Iowa from the East, becoming a cause for concern during late November.
Also on Dec. 18, The Patriot published the following medical advice while, of course, encouraging farmers to bring their families to Chariton to holiday shop anyway:
"We find in one of our exchanges a long and exhaustive article on the epizootic, made up from data furnished by the best veterinary surgeons of the land, which concludes as follows:
1. There is nothing in itself dangerous in the disease.
2. The disease is only dangerous when the horse is neglected.
3. Keep your stables clean and well ventilated.
4. Keep your horse out of a draft of air.
5. Let your horse rest as long as he is sick.
6. Avoid strong remedies.
7. The disease is not catching --- it is in the air and cannot be escaped.
8. The best preventatives are a clean stable and humane care of the horse --- but these are not sure preventatives."
A week later, the situation seemed to be improving. "The epizootic is gradually disappearing," The Patriot reported, adding however that "Gregg Hatcher lost one of his fine matched horses by the disease."
As late as Jan. 1, epizootic issues remained. The following was among the top local news stories in the Patriot of that date:
"A Sudden Death --- Last Friday, young Mr. Thorne, from near Russell, came to town on horseback and on arriving hitched his horse at the southeast corner of the square and went into the barber shop to get shaved. He was in the shop but a short time when he returned to his horse and to his surprise the epizootic had got the better of him and the poor equus was no more. The animal had been affected with the prevalent disease but was not thought to be dangerous. It may have died from some other cause, but it might be better for horse owners to be on the safe side and not over exercise those having this distemper."
Despite the serious nature of the problem, The Patriot editor was not above having a little fun by moving the disorder into another breed of critter, as follows:
"Inasmuch as the chicken disease, chickizoot or henflewenza, prevails throughout this part of the country, this may be of value: This complaint is the same as was known to the ancients under the name of ornifluviatic conchifera. By observing the change of color of the parotica, the cerois and the regia opthalmioa, and noticing a glandular swelling of the jugulum, the pectus and the galls, you may conclude the symptoms have set in. A case may be deemed fatal when dessication of the cuticle extends to the interscapulum of the uropygiump and the acrotarsium."
After that, there were few further references to epizootic, so apparently the outbreak had abated --- for 1872-73 at least.
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