480 SPORADIC DISEASES. 



Treatment. — The indications for treatment are the removal 

 of the toxic vegetable as quickly as possible; and, provided the 

 cause has been discovered by the history of the occurrence, or 

 the post mortem examination of the animal or animals already 

 dead, and seeing that vomition is induced with so much diffi- 

 culty, I see no objection to the performance of rumenotomy, in 

 order to remove all the contents of the rumen ; but before resort- 

 ing to such an operation, the practitioner should endeavour to 

 overcome the efiects of the poison by large and repeated doses 

 of stimulants, such as ammonia and alcohol, friction to the skin, 

 and warm clothing. Should this succeed, the operation may not 

 be necessary. At the same time, it must be remembered that, 

 even if the first effects be thus obviated, the animal will con- 

 tinue in danger until the poison has been expelled. The process 

 of rumination re-established will again subject the plant to the 

 action of the saliva ; its remaining toxic properties being thus 

 set free may induce a fatal collapse, while perhaps all has been 

 thought secure. Purgatives will be essential, and ought to be 

 administered without delay. 



MILK SICKNESS. 



A form of disease in which the milk and flesh become poison- 

 ous, and which, when partaken of by man or animals, induce a 

 violent and even fatal disease. 



It appears, as reported by Professor Law of Cornell Uni- 

 versity, that the disease has been observed by Professor Kerr 

 every summer in the mountains of the Blue Eidge, wliich runs 

 down to the western portion of North Carolina ; among the hills 

 farther south by Dr. Salmon; by Drs. Phillips and Schmidt on the 

 upper water of Scioto, Ohio ; and by Mr. Beardsley in Illinois, 

 and adjacent States. 



Etiology. — ]\Ir. Law says — "There is no uniform geological 

 condition in the different unhealthy districts to account for 

 their dangerous tendencies. Dr. Phillips says — * It is found in 

 localities among the Green Piver hills in Kentucky ; it occurs 

 in some localities along the Wabash Eiver in Indiana, as well 

 as here and there in our own heavily timbered uplands in 

 north-western Ohio.' And yet a constant condition of its pre- 

 valence is the unreclaimed state of the land on which it appears. 

 In the Carolinas and Georgia it is found only on the highest 



