DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 191 



didn't have definite and well defined names. When we find the name 

 ^''QiiercKS Eubra" in a work on botany or a government report or 

 anywhere we know exactly what is meant ; it is the red oak of New 

 England. A disease, therefore, must have a specific name applied 

 to it, that shall represent just that thing and nothing else ; otherwise 

 when discussing these matters with another we don't know what he 

 is talking about. So let us first have the true definition of the trouble 

 in question. Milk fever is a disease of the parturient female. The 

 male cannot suffer from it, nor the cow at any other time than when 

 she comes in. Hence the term, a fever which accompanies the in- 

 coming of milk ; hence milk fever. A similar disease is seen in the 

 human female under a different name ; but the swollen limb which 

 sometimes accompanies the disease, in the case of a woman, is called 

 a milk-leor. The scientific name for milk fever is one which vou 

 should always remember, for it is the name which is used in scientific 

 journals and veterinary treatises. It is parturient apoplex}'. An 

 apoplexy that is incident to the time of calving cannot occur in the 

 male, of course. It is a disease of the nervous system, a rush of 

 blood and a broken blood vessel, a capillary or one of larger size as 

 the case may be, a clot formed in the brain and not absorbed ; and 

 death by paralysis usually' follows. As a rule, there is not a rupture 

 of any ver}' large vessels. The capillaries, as you are aware, from 

 the word capillus^ which means a hair, are the small, hair-like vessels 

 which connect the arteries with veins all over the body ; they are the 

 finest ramifications of the blood vessel system. Here, then, is a 

 congestion. The word congestion is from the Latin words, ''Con,'' 

 together, and ^'•gero^" I bear : it is a bringing together of the blood, 

 a rush of blood to any given place, and those vessels are surcharged. 

 This congestion is in the brain, the pressure becomes so great that 

 one of these little vessels gives wa}', a clot is formed, known as an 

 apoplectic clot. That clot, if it is large, cannnot be absorbed, and 

 it will, therefore, undergo change to that degree that it will set up a 

 diseased condition ; and if it is large, 3'ou will comprehend at once 

 'Hhe dropping after calving." Remember this expression — it is a 

 Scotch phrase — the cow has fallen and cannot get up. So much for 

 definitions. Now for the s3'mptoms. Good cows in poor condition 

 rarel}' have the disease, and poor cows in any condition are rarelj" 

 affected. I mean poor milkers. ^'Deep milkers," as the expression 

 goes, and those in fine condition are the subjects of parturient 

 apoplexy. Puerperal fever is the term for the disease in the human 



