812 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



easily counted by the heaving of the chest. Some practice, however, 

 will be required to make one a first-rate judge of the sound obtained by 

 percussion, which, in health, is always clear and resonant. Percussion 

 consists in placing the foretinger of the left hand upon the chest, and 

 striking it smartly with the ends of the first three fingers of the right 

 hand. 



The temperature, in all animals, is a vital index of unsurpassed value. 

 It can be approximately measured by feeling the skin, ears and legs, — in 

 cattle the horns also, at their root. But what is termed the "clinical 

 thermometer," which is so shaped that its bulb can be conveniently inser- 

 ted into the rectum, (to remain two or three minutes), is infinitely better, 

 as it gives results so much more exact. Its use has established the im- 

 portant fact that different febrile disea.-^es have different ranges or tem- 

 perature, each having its own "dead-line," beyond which recovery is im- 

 possible. Thus, a horse with cerebro-spinal meningitis will certainly diti 

 soon after reaching a temperature of 104 ® ; yet 108 ° or even 109 ^ 

 by no means indicate a fatal termination, in a case of pneumonia. 



VH. Other Special Signs of Disease. 



A "staring coat," as it is termed, in which the hairs stand out like 

 bristles, is an obvious symptom, and sometimes the only one, of a low 

 state of health. Shivering, when the animal is exposed to only modeiv 

 ate cold or to none at all, challenges immediate attention ; for it is, infal- 

 libly, the ushering in of an attack of some disease, usually severe. Cold 

 sweat coming out on the skin of an animal severely ill indicates a desper- 

 ate, if not fatal, condition. The posture when standing, the method of 

 lying down or getting up, the action in moving around, — these are all 

 significant, and should be noted carefully. 



The countenance, and especially the eye, if observed closely, will betray 

 the distress and pain which the dumb sufferer cannot express in words. 

 The muzzle, which in health is moist, (or covered with "dew," as many 

 call it), in disease, especially in fever, becomes unnaturally hot and dry 

 or cold, and sometimes changed in color — sometimes paler, but more 

 commonly injected with blood. One of the earliest signs of serious con- 

 stitutional disturbance, as well as of certain special disorders, in the case 

 of cattle, IS the suspension of rumination, — that is, ceasing to chew the 

 cud. A nearly coincident general symptom, in cows, is the drying up of 

 the milk. 



