472 HANDT-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



"'Cows in very high condition, and cattle removed from low 

 keeping to high feeding, are the most liable to puerperal fever. 

 It occurs most frequently during the hot weather of summer, 

 and then it is most dangerous. When it occurs in winter, cows 

 sometimes recover. In hot weather they usually die. 

 " Milk fever may be induced by the hot drinks often given after 

 calving. A young cow at her first calving is rarely attacked 

 with it. Great milkers are most commonly subject to it ; but 

 all cows have generally more or less fever at calving. A little 

 addition to it, by improper treatment or neglect, will prevent 

 the secretion of milk ; and thus the milk, being thrown back 

 into the system, will increase the inflammation. 

 " This disease sometimes shows itself in the short space of two 

 or three hours after calving, but often not under two or three 

 days. If four or five days have passed, the cow may generally 

 be considered safe. The earliest symptoms of this disease are 

 aS' follows : — 



"The animal is restless, frequently shifting her position ; occa- 

 sionally pawing and heaving at the flanks. Muzzle hot and 

 dry, the mouth open, and tongue out at one side ; countenance 

 wild ; eyes staring. She moans often, and soon becomes very 

 irritable. Delirium follows ; she grates her teeth, foams at the 

 mouth, tosses her head about, and frequently injures herself. 

 From the first the udder is hot, enlarged, and tender ; and if 

 this swelling is attended by a suspension of milk, the cause is 

 clear. As the case is inflammatory, its treatment must be in 

 accordance ; and if is usually subdued without much difficulty. 

 Mr. Youatt says : ' The animal should be bled, and the quantity 

 regulated by the impression made upon the circulation, — from 

 six to ten quarts often before the desired effect is produced.' 

 He wrote at a time when bleeding was adopted as the universal 

 cure, and before the general reasoning and treatment of diseases 

 of the human system was applied to similar diseases of animals. 

 The cases arc very rare, indeed, where the physician of the pres- 

 ent day finds it necessary to bleed in diseases of the human 

 subject ; and they are equally rare, I apprehend, where it is 



