DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 195 



to give drastic physic, and this ma)' be done at the same time you 

 are rubbing the legs, and then the bowels and the legs will be call- 

 ing the blood awa}' from the head at the same time. By perse ver- 

 ino; in these you mav relieve the cow without the lancet ; but if all 

 these fail, then with the lancet open the vital stream and take blood 

 enough from the system that a rupture of a blood vessel may not 

 occur. 



The usual dose of ph3'sic for a cow in milk fever is a pound of 

 Epsom salts, dissolved in thoroughwort tea, which is familiar to you 

 all, a good remedy, and a grand mixture for cattle. Steep it as 3'ou 

 would common tea ; put it in cold water and let it come slowly to a 

 boil, and it is then as strong as you can make it ; and this decoction 

 is much stronger than an infusion which is made wuth cold water. 

 If you want to increase its virtue add West India molasses, a pint 

 for a dose, take also some sweet oil or lard to help it on. With 

 the syringe give a similar injection, or one of castile soap-suds. If 

 necessary, take awa}" the faeces, but that is rarely called for in the 

 cow, although I have been obliged to do it in order to give a cow an 

 injection. The faeces that come from the lower bowels will be hard, 

 dr}' and impacted. Give one injection and then another, pausing 

 onl^' a few minutes between, until you have used a wash-tub full of 

 the liquid, if necessary. Don't be afraid of it ; it will do no harm. 

 Don't use it too warm so as to scald the mucous membrane. Melted 

 lard may also be given, or sweet oil, bj* injection, but castor oil is 

 much more efficient. But if all this fails and the eyes are becoming 

 glass}' and even set, so that you can open the lid and touch the cor- 

 nea without her winking, then resort to more effectual remedies. 

 Give calomel in sixtj' grain doses and as a last resort give twenty 

 or thirty drops of croton oil in some sweet oil. That is a very pow- 

 erful medicine ; half a drop is a dose for a human being. Death is 

 prett}' near if you do not hear from that. To show 3'OU how this will 

 work to advantage man}' times, I will give you an illustration. Mr. 

 Henry Holland, a grocer in Amherst, had a cow taken with parturient 

 apoplexy and I was called to see her ; within a few hours the cow's eyes 

 were nearly set and she could not get up. We commenced to dose 

 her in the manner I have described, and for three days we followed 

 it up. I was there four or five times a day and late at night. I gave 

 that cow five pounds of salts, five gallons of thoroughwort tea, 180 

 grains of calomel in three doses of a dram each, five pints of sweet 



