240 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



COWS next them by lashing Avith the soiled tail. If milkers handle 

 retained afterbirth or vaginal discharge, or unhealthy wounds, or 

 assist in a difficult and protracted parturition, they should wash the 

 hands and arms thoroughly with soap and warm water and then rub 

 them with the corrosive-sublimate solution, or if not, at least with 

 one of carbolic acid. Clothes stained with such offensive products 

 should be thoroughly washed. 



The general treatment of contagious mammitis does not differ from 

 that of the simple form, except that antiseptics should be given by 

 the mouth as well as applied locally (hyposulphite of soda, one-half 

 ounce daily). 



COWPOX. 



This is another form of contagious inflammation of the udder which 

 does not spread readily from animal to animal except by the hands 

 of the milker. It is held to occur spontaneously in the cow, but this 

 is altogether improbable, and so-called spontaneous cases are rather 

 to be looked on as instances in which the germs have been preserved 

 dry in the building-s or introduced in some unknown manner. It is 

 not uncommon in the horse, attacking the heels, the lips, or some 

 other inoculated part of the body, and is then easily transferred to 

 the cow, if the same man grooms and dresses the horse and milks the 

 cow. It may also appear in the cow by infection, more or less direct, 

 from a person who has been successfully vaccinated. Many believe 

 that it is only a form of the smallpox of man modified by passing 

 through the system of cow or horse. It is, however, unreasonable to 

 suppose that this alleged modified smallpox could have been trans- 

 mitted from child to child (the most susceptible of the human race) 

 for 90 years, under all possible conditions, without once reverting 

 to its original type of smallpox. Chauveau's experiments on both 

 cattle and horses with the virus of smallpox and its inoculation back 

 on the human subject go far to show that in the climate of western 

 Europe, at least, no such transformation takes place. Smallpox 

 remains smallpox and cowpox, cowpox. Again, smallpox is com- 

 municable to a person who visits the patient in his room but avoids 

 touching him, while cowpox is never thus transferred through the air 

 unless deliberately diffused in the form of spray. 



The disease in the cow is ushered in by a slight fever, which, how- 

 ever, is usually overlooked, and the first sign is tenderness of the 

 teats. Examined, these may be redder and hotter than normal, and 

 at the end of two days there appear little nodules, like small peas, of 

 a pale-red color, and increasing so that by the seventh day they 

 may measure three- fourths of an inch to 1 inch in diameter. The 

 yield of milk diminishes, and when heated it coagulates slightly. 



