

INOCULATION AS A PEEVEXTION OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 29 



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Period of development, . . 9 to 14 days. 



„ maturation, . . . 4 to 7 days. 



„ decline and healing up, . 14 to 21 days. 



Calves and young stock have never in my experience required 

 any attention after the operation ; they get over it very easily, 

 and very often without the loss of any portion of the tail. 

 Bullock's come next in point of ease with which they pass 

 through it, so that it may be taken that it is milking cows 

 chiefly that require watchfulness and careful treatment from the 

 hands of the operator ; but I would here remark, if I have not 

 already done so, that it is surprising how well they do in most 

 cases from beginning to end of the process. They rarely, as I 

 have said, miss a feed, are rarely affected in their milking, and 

 they always feed and milk even Ijetter, after it is all over, than 

 they did before the operation. 



The unfavourable conditions, where the operation is in the 

 liands of a careful person, should be very few, and consist in 

 the inoculative action locating itself in some organ or part of the 

 body where its presence and consequences arising therefrom, 

 often proves fatal. They arise chiefly from neglect of some of 

 the necessary precautions I have pointed out, and frequently as 

 a result of injury after the operation. We have sometimes 

 spreading of the inoculative action up the tail, in so rapid a 

 manner, that before the operator can arrest its progress by 

 amputation, the mischief is done and the process has spread 

 from the head of the tail to the parts adjacent. The symptoms 

 of this condition are a swollen, cold, deadened, limp condition of 

 more or less of the tail. This is sphacelus, or death of the tail, 

 arising from the intensity of the local action, leading to plugging 

 of the blood-vessels. It may be known by its coldness, loss of 

 sensation, and the bluish black colour of the skin. It mav be 

 arrested, and prevented from spreading to tlie rump, by free 

 amputation and the application of the hot iron to the stump. 

 There must be no false delicacy in handling such cases, and let 

 there be no mistake about the portion removed — better remove 

 two or three inches of good sound tail, than leave tlie smallest 

 portion whose life has begun to go. I have saved lots of such 

 cases, and liave never scrupled al)out removing the whole tail 

 even if I thought it necessary to do so. Better no tail (again) 

 than no beast, and its loss does not seem to put them much about. 



In other ca.ses a circumscribed swelling occurs in some part of 

 the body, Imt most usually on the point of the ischium, on either 

 side of the head of the tail. These swellings are always the 

 result of a blow received just before or after the operation, and 

 depend upon the localisation of the inoculative action in tlie 

 parL A hard swelling, hot and painful, and frecpiently pro- 

 ductive of lameness, is formed, which, if it is going to run a 

 favourable course, does not spread, but in process of time 



