762 SPORADIC DISEASES. 



hasten the fatal termination, and the only hope of recovery must 

 be based upon attempts to restore the diminished vital powers 

 by the administration of alcoholic stimulants, the removal of the 

 uterine and abdominal pain by opium and hot fomentations to 

 the loins and abdominal walls, and to destroy the septic pro- 

 perties of the contents of the uterus, and soothe its irritated and 

 inflamed mucous membrane by injections of warm water con- 

 taining opium and antiseptics, such as " Condy's Fluid," hypo- 

 sulphite of soda, or carbolic acid largely diluted. 



Amongst ewes, the disease is known by the term " inflamma- 

 tion," and great success has been obtained in its treatment by 

 the application to the inflamed uterus of carbolic acid one part, 

 olive oil ten parts. The same treatment is applicable to other 

 animals. 



Contagious Mammitis. — A disease rarely met with in Britain, 

 but said to prevail in other countries, and stated by Nocard 

 and Mollereau to be due to a rounded or ovoid micrococcus 

 1- 25 fjL. in length by 1 /u,. in thickness, and forming long 

 straight or sinuous chains, sometimes bilobed in way of division, 

 and found in the milk and the walls of the excretory ducts. 

 It is aerobic and anaerobic, and its growth in cultures is arrested 

 by weak solutions of boracic acid, and by a three per cent, 

 solution of carbolic acid, and it is recommended that the milkers 

 of cows thus affected should wash their hands previous to milk- 

 ing with this carbolic solution. 



Experimental inoculations with pure cultures into the teat 

 have reproduced the disease in the cow and goat. Even on the 

 first day the milk from the inoculated udders was swarming 

 with micrococci, had an acid reaction and a curdled appearance, 

 and finally the udder became inflamed. A fatal form of gan- 

 grenous mammitis is seen in milch ewes — said by Nocard to be 

 due to a microccocus • 24 /a. in diameter, associated in groups 

 of four or more, but never in chains, stainable by Gram's 

 method, anaerobic, coagulating the milk and turning it sour. 

 Curdling of milk, as well as other changes, viz., putrefaction, 

 viscous milk, blue milk, red milk, and yellow milk, are all due 

 to various microbes, and should be counteracted by cleanliness 

 and the application of antiseptics, such as boracic acid. 



