DISEASES OF CATTLE 221 



of the gummy solution. All the milk given must be boiled, and if 

 that does not agree, eggs' made into an emulsion with barley water 

 may be substituted. Small doses (tablespoonful) of port wine are 

 often useful from the first, and as the feces lose their watery char- 

 acter and become more consistent, tincture of gentian in doses of 

 2 teaspoonfuls may be given three or four times a day. Counter- 

 irritants, such as mustard, ammonia, or oil of turpentine, may be 

 rubbed on the abdomen when that becomes tender to the touch. 



[A treatment that is most excellent for this trouble consists in giving 

 one teaspoonful of a mixture of one-half ounce of Formalin in fifteen and 

 one-half ounces of water in each pint of milk fed to the calf.] 



ACUTE CONTAGIOUS SCOURING IN THE NEWBORN. 



The most violent and deadly form of diarrhea in the newborn 

 calf deserves a special mention. This may appear immediately after 

 birth, and shows itself almost invariably within the first or second 

 day. The most intense symptoms of white scour are complicated- 

 by great dullness, weakness, and prostration, sunken eyes, retracted 

 belly, short, hurried breathing, and very low temperature, the calf 

 lying on its side, with the head resting on the ground, lethargic 

 and unconscious or regardless of all around it. The bowel dis- 

 charges are profuse, yellowish white, and very offensive. As a rule, 

 death ensues within twenty-four to thirty-six hours. 



A marked characteristic of this form of illness is that it attacks 

 almost every calf born in the herd, or in the building, rather, and 

 if the calf escapes an attack in the first two or three days of its life 

 it usually survives. Those that recover from an attack, however, 

 are liable to suffer from an infective inflammation of the lungs one 

 or two weeks later. The infection clings to a stable for years, ren- 

 dering it impossible in many cases to preserve and raise the calves. 

 It has frequently coincided with abortions and failures to conceive 

 in the same herd, so that it has been thought that the same in- 

 fective germ produces one type of abortion. On the other hand, 

 the removal of the calving cow from the herd to calve in a separate 

 building, hitherto unused and therefore uninfected, usually secures 

 the escape and survival of the offspring. 



Prevention. The disease is so certainly and speedily fatal that 

 it is hopeless to expect recovery, and therefore prevention is the ra- 

 tional resort. 



When a herd is small, the removal of the dam to a clean, un- 

 used stable a few days before calving and her retention there for a 

 week usually succeeds. But it is in the large herd that the disease is 

 mainly to be dreaded, and in this it is impossible to furnish new 

 and pure stables for each successive group of two or three calving 

 cows. The thorough disinfection of the general stable ought to suc- 

 ceed; yet I have seen the cleanest and purest stable repeatedly dis- 

 infected with corrosive sublimate without stopping the malady. It 

 would appear as if the germ lodged on the surface or in the bowels 

 of the cow and tided the infection over the period of stable disin- 

 fection. But though insufficient themselves, the supply of separate 

 calving boxes and the frequent thorough cleaning and disinfection 



