244 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is coldness of tlic horns, nose and of the lower part of the limbs, — no moisture 

 upon the end of the nose. The breath is more hurried and perhaps irregular, 

 as if in pain, — the pulse bard and v,\vy, or perhaps normal. In a very short 

 time the animal staggers, and seeks, by lying down and rising, to change its 

 position often. After a few clianges, paralysis seizes tlie rear half of the body, 

 and altliough the effort to rise may be made, tlie animal gives up in despair. 

 The head is then usually thrown around toward the flank, the breathing be- 

 comes more labored, and unconsciousness follows. 



Saliva drools from tlie mouth and the paralysis gradually creeps forward until 

 the muscles tliat control deglutition are paralyzed. Medicines can only be 

 administered at this stage with the greatest difficulty, and if given in fluid 

 are liable to produce strangling, and the animal to be choked to death. 



The animal usually lies in this condition for a few hours, — the eyes staring, 

 the balls fixed in the socket, with no sense of sight. As soon as the first symp- 

 toms of paralysis are observed the digestion ceases, the normal secretion of the 

 kidneys is stopped, and neither liquid, nor solid excrement is voided. 



The secretion of milk is usually somewhat checked. There seems to be a 

 general blocking of the wheels of nature. Toward the very last the animal 

 will stretch itself prone upon the ground, and seems to be without power to lift 

 the head or scarcely to move. There -may or may not be an accumulation of 

 gases in the rumen or paunch, and in a short time death ensues. 



There is another phase of the same disease, where the symptoms are some- 

 what varied and a large amount of force is expended as soon as the animal falls 

 down and paralysis takes place. The cow will throw the head on either side 

 with such force as sonictimes to break the horns and bruise the llesh very 

 much, and this is kept up in spasms following in rapid succession until death 

 ensues. These symptoms follow each other in such rapid succession that the 

 animal may be paralyzed and unable to rise in one to two hours after the attack 

 is noticed, and death frequently puts an end to the scene in ten to twelve hours, 

 so rapid is its course. 



Kahwe of the Disease. 



As to the nature of the disease much has been written and many theories are 

 extant. Some of these are probably due to the fact that this disease has not 

 always appeared alone, but that there are complications often arising. Fre- 

 quently pneumonia may ensue from the lodging of substances in the air pass- 

 ages in giving medicines or in other ways. 



Another way in which its nature has been misjudged is in the fact that 

 many have mistaken two concurrent circumstances for cause and effect. For 

 example, a man who lost his cow found gravel stones in the reticulum, together 

 with some indigestible woody fiber of large cornstalks, and reasoned that they 

 were the primary cause of his cow's death. Another who calls it horn distem- 

 per, or if he does not treats it in the same manner, pours salt and vinegar into 

 the animal's ears, bores through the liorn, injects the decoction there, and 

 then, as if to balance up the account, cuts off a portion of the animal's tail 

 and binds that up with pepper and salt. Internally he gives pork, which 

 j)e}-haps may be good as far as it goes, as the suspension of digestion never lets 

 it get beyond the rumen, and all good it may do must be in the effect it may 

 have on the food and the gases there. To make this more plain let me speak 

 a little of the anatomy of the cow, 



[The professor then gave a short explanation of the anatomy of the bones, 



