542 DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



HYSTERITIS OR METRITIS. 



Inflammation of the womb appears to be no uncommon 

 disease in cows, but one of rare occurrence in mares : at least 

 this is the inference we may fairly draw from the great deal 

 we hear about the one, and the little, or comparatively 

 nothing, we hear or know concerning the other. Indeed, 

 it is only to such veterinarians as are engaged in practice in 

 parts of the country where breeding is carried on, that cases 

 of hysteritis are likely to occur ; since we know of no other 

 causes for inflammation of the womb save such as are directly 

 or indirectly connected with utero-gestation and parturition. 

 The following case, published in ' The Veterinarian ■' for 

 1833, by Mr. Barker, V.S., Stokesly, Yorkshire, is interesting, 

 as well from its rarity as from its characteristic and strongly- 

 marked symptoms and result, notwithstanding the account 

 is but a brief one : 



" Sept. 3d, 1833,'^ says Mr. Barker, " I was sent for to a 

 mare that had been ill all day. The principal symptoms 

 were, lying down and getting up ; lifting one hind leg and 

 then the other; with a discharge of bloody fluid from the 

 vagina. Pulse 80. She had been bled ; but I took away 

 eight quarts of blood more. I gave her an opiate enema, 

 containing four ounces of tincture of opium, and two ounces 

 of spirit of nitrous ether, in gruel ; and an hour afterwards 

 she had a ball, containing three drachms of aloes, with ten 

 grains of calomel. — Sept. 4th. Pulse 75. I again bled her, 

 and gave her a laxative ball, containing two drachms of 

 aloes : a laxative enema was also administered. — Sept. 5th. 

 Pulse 48. Give two drachms of aloes. — Sept. 6th. She 

 is well, and gone to grass. ^^ 



Were I to venture an opinion on a case I had never seen, 

 I should say that, in the treatment of the one above related, 

 2ifuJl dose of cathartic medicine might, with advantage, have 

 been administered in the first instance: in other respects, 

 the management of the case appears to me extremely judi- 

 cious. 



