PAETUEIEXT APOPLEXY IN COWS. 317 



occurred shortly before calving, in an animal that had had 

 parturient apoplexy twice or thrice previously. Such a case 

 is rare, and it is usual for the attack only to occur within 



ree days after parturition, and especially when the act has 

 been prompt, and attended with very little inconvenience or 

 disturbance. 



Many animals suffering from this disease are slaughtered, 

 and their flesh sold as human food. This practice tends to 

 render dairymen careless as to the adoption of means for the 

 cure or prevention of parturient apoplexy. 



The malady is amenable to treatment, and I have the 

 greatest success by having recourse to blood-letting in the 

 earliest stages, before coma and paralysis have supervened. 

 This is to be followed up by the administration of a full 

 dose of purgative medicine, and should it be too late to 

 bleed, the physic is still of great service. Ice is applied con- 

 stantly to the head and neck. Liquor ammonite is given to 

 counteract the tympanitis. Warm water injections are used, 

 and the catheter passed to relieve the distended bladder. The 

 limbs and the mammae are rubbed, and the body kept warm. 

 Linseed tea is given frequently during the day with a 

 stomach pump, as deglutition is imperfect, and there is great 

 danger of suffocating the animal. By these means and very 

 careful attendance the mortality is very trifling. 



Prevention affords even greater prospect of success : at- 

 tending carefully to the animal's diet before and after calving, 

 administering two or three doses of purgative medicine at 

 intervals of about ten days or a fortnight before parturition, 

 relieving the udder often and effectually after parturition, &c. 



It cannot be said, then, that the stock-owner is compelled 

 by unavoidable losses to sell cows suffering from the disease 

 to the butchers, and yet I have known them taken to the 

 Edinburgh slaughter-houses, dressed, and sold in this city. 



