464 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



given sparingly or entirely withheld ; the animals should be given an 

 opportunity to take plenty of exercise; the bowels should be kept 

 in good condition by the administration of such salines as magnesium 

 sulphate, sodium chloride, and sodium bicarbonate. The after-birth 

 should be removed soon after parturition and several uterine douches 

 administered. 



(b) Curative treatment. — The older methods of treatment comprised : 

 warmth and friction to the mammary gland ; the administration of 

 sedatives, such as oj)ium, chloral and bromide of potassium ; stimulants, 

 including ammonia, ether, turpentine and alcohol ; washing out the 

 uterus with water or disinfectant solutions ; the relief of tympany by 

 the use of the trocar and canula (by which instrument medicines may 

 also be injected directly into the rumen) ; the removal of faeces from the 

 rectum ; warm clothing of the body and general attention to the animal's 

 comfort, and to the teachings of hygiene. For all these widely diversi- 

 fied methods good results have been claimed, and, we may add, bad ones 

 at times recorded. F. T. Harvey (Cornwall) estimates the average mor- 

 tality at from 40 to 66 per cent., though he claims for his more recent 

 practice a lessened mortality of only 20 per cent. 



Schmidt does not claim that his method of treatment disposes bodily 

 of the morbid condition, but that it does measurably assist Nature in her 

 efforts to restore the animal to the normal physiological state. It is 

 well known that after the beginning of the attack the animal, if left 

 to itself, rapidly grows worse until the crisis of the disease is reached, 

 at which time death occurs or convalescence begins, usually the former. 

 It has been observed, however, that if the treatment is applied within a 

 few hours after the inception of the disease its progress is modified in 

 such a way that convalescence at once begins, as a rule, and the animal 

 hastily recovers its health, usually within twelve hours, although in 

 extreme cases it may be as late as forty-eight hours. The following is 

 an outline of the plan of treatment of parturient paralysis suggested by 

 Schmidt. The operator should disinfect his hands and the udder and 

 teats of the cow by washing with a 5 per cent, solution of carbolic 

 acid or creolin, or a 1^ per cent, solution of lysol or trikresol. The 

 apparatus needed for the treatment consists of a small glass funnel, 

 a rubber hose three feet long and one-eighth inch in calibre into which 

 the funnel fits, and an ordinary milking tube over which the rubber 

 hose fits. This apparatus should be sterilised immediately before it 

 is used by boiling or soaking in such a solution as recommended for 

 washing the udder. Dissolve from 2 to 2^ drachms of potassium 

 iodide — the size of the dose depending upon the size of the cow 

 and the character of the attack — in about one quart of clean water 

 previously boiled to sterilise it, and allow the solution to cool to a 



