314 PAKTUKIENT APOPLEXY IN COWS. 



is accounted for by the better quality of food reared, but per- 

 haps more by the changes in the cow trade within the last 

 few years. Cows are preferred in high condition, to be fit 

 for the butcher whenever attacked by pleuro-pneumonia, and 

 they are forced on to suit the markets. However good a 

 milker a lean cow may be, the town cow-feeder knows that 

 he had better pay more and get an animal fit at any moment 

 to be slaughtered. 



Distributed over the country there are many select stocks 

 kept up in a high condition for the purposes of shows, and 

 amongst these parturient fever is very common. Large 

 quantities of artificial food are used; steaming, pulping, or 

 boiling are resorted to, and the best crops of hay are devoted to 

 the dairy. The cows that calve in spring, having been forced 

 during winter with an extra allowance of rich food, die in 

 great numbers. As the summer advances, and grass alone 

 is used, and especially if cows are kept constantly in the 

 field, the disease is not so severe or so common ; but during 

 good seasons every precaution must be used to counteract the 

 deadly influence of the forcing system. 



As we have referred to artificial food, it is necessary to 

 state that the highly nitrogenised varieties are the most 

 dangerous. Oilcake in moderation tends probably to pre- 

 vent the disease, but draff or dreg, boiled barley, steamed 

 hay, and turnips, are not used to excess with impunity. 



Milk fever in cows rarely, but occasionally, occurs before 

 calving. It is almost invariably seen immediately after par- 

 turition, and this is no doubt owing to the rush of blood to 

 the head when the womb contracts, and there is no call for 

 an excess of nourishment for the calf. That the blood is then 

 diverted is proved by the checked secretion of milk during 

 the disease. When a cow has once suffered from milk fever 

 she is liable to it ever after, and it is most important to pre- 



