NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X 497 
entrance of bacterial ferments floating in the filthy atmosphere of the 
stable, or from the entrance of the volatile chemical products of fer- 
mentation. 
In addition to the dangers coming through the milk, the calf suf- 
fers in its digestive powers from any temporary illness, and among 
others from the excitement attendant on the cutting of teeth, and 
impaired digestion means fermentations in the undigested masses and 
the excessive production of poisonous ptomaines and toxins. 
Whatever may be the starting or predisposing cause of this malady, 
when once established it is liable to perpetuate itself by contagion and 
to prove a veritable plague in a herd or a district. 
Symptoms. — The symptoms of diarrhoea may appear so promptly 
after birth as to lead to the idea that the cause already existed in the 
body of the calf, and it usually shows itself before the end of the 
second week. It may be preceded by constipation, as in retained mecon- 
ium, or by fetid eructations and colicky pains, as in acute indigestion. 
The tail is stained by the liquid dejections, which are at first simply 
soft and mixed with mucus with a sour odor, accompained by a pecu- 
liar and characteristic fetor (suggesting rotten cheese), w^hich con- 
tinually grows worse. The amount of water and mucus steadily in- 
creases, the normal predominance of fatty matters becoming modified 
by the presence of a considerable amount of undigested casein, which 
is not present in the healthy feces, and in acute cases death may 
result in one or two days from the combined drain on the system and 
the poisoning by the absorbed products of the decomposition in the 
stomach and bowels. When the case is prolonged the passages, at 
first five or six per day, increase to fifteen or twenty, and pass with 
more and more straining, so that they are projected from the animal 
m a liquid stream. The color of the feces, at first yellowy becomes a 
lighter grayish yellow or a dirty white (hence the name white scour), 
and the fetor becomes intolerable. 
At first the calf retains its appetite, but as the severity of the dis- 
ease increases the animal shows less and less disposition to suck, 
and has lost all vivacity, lying dull and listless, and, when raised, 
walking weakly and unsteadily. Flesh is lost rapidly, the hair stands 
erect, the skin gets dry and scurfy, the nose is dry and hot, or this 
condition alternates with a moist and cool one. By this time the 
mouth and skin, as well as the breath and dung, exhale the peculiar 
penetrating sour, offensive odor, and the poor calf has become an 
object of disgust to all that approach it. At first, and unless inflam- 
mation of the stomach and bowels supervene (and unless the affection 
has started in indigestion and colic), the belly is not bloated or painful 
on pressure, symptoms of acute colicky pains are absent, and the 
bowels do not rumble, neither are bubbles of gas mingled with the 
feces. The irritant products of the intestinal fermentations may, how- 
ever, irritate and excoriate the skin around the anus, which becomes 
red, raw, and broken out in sores for some distance. Similarly, the 
rectum, exposed by reason of the relaxed condition of the anus, or 
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