Prof. Salmon's Review of Objections. 30 



The following valublo essay is from the Country Gentleman of August 

 7,1879: 



Coutasted Dairy Questions. 



By D. E. Salmon, D. V. M. 



Several of our prominent dairy writers have been lately discussing the 

 more complicated questions of their department in a very energetic and 

 decided, if not in a scrupulously exact minner. Now, if tliese questions 

 are worth the time and space necessary for tlieir presentation at length, 

 they are certainly of suflicicnt importance to receive candid and perfectly 

 truthful treatment; and, though these writers may not have intended to 

 give wrong impressions, their teachings can hardly be considered, in sev- 

 eral respects, as representing the present condition of knowledge on these 

 points. 



Magne's Theory of the Escutcheon. — In Mr. Eastburn Reeder's essay 

 on the escutcheon — whicli is a valuable paper, though marred in the above 

 respects — there is an attempt at scientific argument in order to ridicule 

 the accepte:! value of the millc-mirror ; and the assumed facts on which 

 this argument is based, a^e presented in such a positive manner that they 

 will probably be accepted, without further investigation, by the majority. 

 of readers unless contested at once. The writer has hesitated to do this 

 in the hope that it would be done by some one else ; but the truth is of 

 too much consequence to allow the matter to pass entirely without notice. 



The first point to which I will call attention is the attempt to dispute 

 Hague's opinion that the hair turns in the direction in which the arteries 

 ramify, and that the reversed hair on the udder and adjacent parts indi- 

 cates the tarmination of the arteries which supply the udder with blood. 

 When these arteries are large, he holds, they extend through the udder 

 upward and onward, ramifying on the skin beyond the udder, and giving 

 the hair the peculiar appearance which distinguishes it from the rest of the 

 surface. If these arteries are very small, they are not likely to extend 

 much beyond the udder, and, hence, form a small escutcheon ; consequently, 

 a small escutcheon indicates a feeble supply of blood, and little material to 

 make milk of. 



Now how is this combatted ? The first argument is that " when Mr. 

 Hardin showed this paragraph to one of the most learned medical profes- 

 sors at Louisville, Kentucky, he at once wanted to know who this Magne 

 was, and declared his name unknown in the annals of medical science." 

 What are we to think of such a statement as that ? Magne — member of 

 the French Academy of Medicine, formerly director of the Alfort Veteri- 

 nary School and professor of Lyons — unknown in the annals of medicine 1 



We are then asked if the arteries are not the same in all cows, and are 

 told that we might as well expect more bones or muscles as more arteries. 

 If Mr. Reeder will turn to Chauveau's Anatorrj^ — one of the best authori- 

 ties in the world — he will find, in general remaiks on arteries, the follow- 

 ing statement, which I translate, not having the English edition : "Arter- 

 ies very ofcen present variations in their deposition, which the surgeon 

 should keep in mind. These variations ordinarily concern the number, 

 the point of origin, and the volume of the vessels." And if he will go 

 through the Lst of arteries, he will find examples given of each of these 

 variations. 



Again, he ask^, "how is it that the ramification of the arterial circula- 

 tion causes the hair to grow in one direction on one part of the cow's body, 

 and in the opposite on other parts ? " Not a very difficult question, if we 

 admit that arteries have such an effect, for they certainly do not all ramify 

 in the same direction. 



