FARMERS" INSTITUTES. 97 



Nocard's conclusions are that bovine tuberculosis is transmissible to 

 man, and especially through, the milk from a tuberculous cow. 



I may say that Prof. Koch did not agree with Nocard, in this matter, 

 but at the same time did not object to the practice of boiling milk. 

 The burden of the proof seems to be against Prof. Koch's theory, but the 

 matter is not entirely settled. My advice would be, while the scientists 

 are disputing over this matter, not to take any chances, and if we have 

 a cow in the herd that we have any suspicion of being tuberculous, 

 to refrain from using the milk. 



MILK FEVER. 



I will now call your attention to some of the diseases of the dairy 

 <;ow peculiar to the period of lactation. 



First, I will mention one that causes more loss to the dairymen of 

 this State than all others combined. That is parturient paresis, com- 

 monly called milk fever, or parturient apoplexy. There is still some 

 doubt regarding the true pathology of this disease. In the twenty years 

 that I have been in practice as a veterinarian, several different ideas 

 of the pathology of the disease have been advanced and accepted by the 

 profession, only to be abandoned when a more reasonable theory' was 

 advanced. For instance, Percival Dobson, and some of the older writers 

 claimed that it was due to the blood that went to nourish the foetus, 

 being thrown back on the system at the time of parturition, and this 

 large amount of blood not being directed into the proper channel (viz., 

 the secretion of milk in the udder), caused a general overloading of the 

 blood, and congestion of the brain. 



Gamgee, a later and more progressive writer on cattle pathology, 

 claimed that it was due to a specific element in the blood, giving rise to 

 fever, and practically blood poisoning. Still another author thinks 

 it is due to such a derangement of the sympathetic nervous system as 

 seldom to admit of recovery until apoplectic lesions result. Treatment 

 based on any of these theories, seems to me only to prove their fallacy. 



Of late years, a German veterinarian conceived the idea of treating 

 the disease through the milk glands by injections into the udder. He 

 experimented with various drugs, until he discovered that potassium 

 iodide seemed to have the desired effect, from the fact that about ninety 

 per cent of the affected animals treated in this manner recovered, while 

 under the old methods of treatment forty or fifty per cent was a fair 

 average. 



I believe that the disease is due to a germ developed in the udder, a 

 ptomaine whose rapid multiplication and development cause lesions sim- 

 ilar to ordinary ptomaine poisoning; basing my opinion to some extent, 

 on the fact, that any reliable antiseptic, or germicide, that can be used 

 of sufficient strength without causing irritation to the udder, seems to 

 bave the desired effect, the arrest and control of the disease not being 

 dependent upon iodide of potassium alone. Any other germicide that 

 can be used without irritating the sensitive structure of the milk glands, 

 brings about the same satisfactory results. 



The symptoms of this disease are characteristic. In the early stage 

 (which is generally a few hours after the calf is born) the animal may 

 be noticed shifting its weight from one hind leg to the other and if 

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