304 Veterinajy Medicine. 



the colostrniu operates as an irritant and purgative. Is it won- 

 derful that, in the parturient cow, with a high state of plethora, 

 a highly susceptible state of the nervous system, and the various 

 concurrent conditions already referred to above, a direct poison- 

 ing of the nerve centres should appear ? It is worthy of notice 

 that the absorption from the mammae takes place without any 

 metabolic change, such as occurs in the stomach and liver in the 

 case of materials digested. It is to be presumed that the hypo- 

 thetical mammary poison is delivered in the brain in its pristine 

 condition and pos.ses.sed of its full force. 



The doctrine is corroborated even more strongly by the successful 

 results of treatment b}^ the injection of a solution of potassium 

 iodide into the udder. The iodide .solution may presumably act 

 in one or more of several ways. It is unquestionably an anti- 

 septic, and would tend to arrest or control microbian growth and 

 activity, thus preventing the further formation of toxins. It has 

 a potent deobstruent action on glandular tissue, tending not only to 

 dry up the milk, but to hold in check the leucocytic function of pro- 

 ducing dangerous leucomaines. There is reason to believe that 

 with regard to some poisonous ptomaines iodine acts as a direct 

 antidote, probably uniting with the.se and forming new and com- 

 paratively harmless compounds. It manifestly acts in this way 

 in the case of cryptogamic diuresis, and in cerebral congestions 

 ari.sing from spoilt fodder. The iodide tends further to act as a 

 calmative to the nerve centres, and as a diuretic, serving to elim- 

 inate the poison that may be present in the blood. 



Microbian Infection or Intoxication. The doctrine has been 

 advanced that the disease is either a microbian infection of the 

 nerve centres or a process of poisoning by the ab.sorbed toxins of 

 microbes. Of the two hypothesis the latter is the more acceptable, 

 in view of the fact, that cows in a condition of coma will some- 

 times recover with extraordinary rapidity. This is more likely 

 to occur in connection with the elimination or exhaustion of a 

 transient narcotic poison, than with a deadl}'^ microbe colonized 

 in the brain. This hypothesis is in full accord with the ac- 

 knowledged success of the iodide injections; with the obser- 

 vation of Bissange, which I can endorse, that certain villages 

 and hamlets habitually furnish cases of parturition fever, while 

 neighboring ones, with the .same breeds and apparently the same 



