256 NORMAL PARTURITION. 



bringing up a puppy by hand. No kind of food is sufficiently concen- 

 trated adequately to provide for the nourishment of a puppy, strong beef- 

 tea being perhaps the best substitute for that purpose. The milk of 

 carnivorous animals has another peculiarity, in the very small proportion 

 or entire absence of milk-sugar. This substance is very abundant in the 

 milk of herbivorous animals ; and when carnivorous creatures are put on 

 more or less of a vegetable'diet, it appears in their milk, and increases as 

 this diet is increased ; whereas, by feeding them entirely on flesh, the 

 sugar vanishes. The proportion of salts is also comparatively large.* 



According to the richness of milk in fixed constituents, Colin classes 

 that of animals in the following decreasing order : 



Bitch Sow Woman 



Ewe Cow Ass 



Goat Camel Mare. 



Milk is a typical food, and when healthy and in sufficient quantity, 

 contains all the constituents for the maintenance and growth of the young 

 creature. t This is particularly noted immediately after birth, and before 

 it begins to seek at all for other food. It is at this period, also, that 

 growth is most rapid ; and it has been observed that puppies double their 

 initial weight in six days only. Colin has stated that, in thirty days, ten 

 •puppies — reduced to nine on the twenty-fifth day — living on the milk of 

 the mother alone, except for the last ten days, showed a total increase 

 of 35/^ lbs., the entire weight having been trebled since birth. A simi- 

 lar increase may be observed in other young creatures while being suckled. 

 When, from some cause or another, the progeny cannot obtain milk 

 sufficient in quantity or proper in quality, it is necessary that this be 

 remedied. A calf can be readily artificially reared in an ordinary estab- 

 lishment, if it has had one or two days colostrum : or a substitute for the 

 mother in another Cow may be procured. It is not so with the fo^l, 

 which is much more difficult to rear, and another Mare, even if procured, 

 will not alwa3's readily play the part of nurse. Nevertheless, many 

 animals can be reared by judicious and patient management, and if arti- 

 ficial food must be resorted to, this should come as near as possible, in 

 chemical composition, that furnished by nature. 



In some instances, the mammary secretion may become a source of 

 embarrassment, or ev-en of danger, when it is too abundant or is not with- 

 drawn when secreted. This happens more particularly with the Bitch, 

 Cat, Mare, or other animal which is suddenly deprived of its young by 

 death, or for special reasons ; and the retention of the milk is often a 

 cause of discomfort and disturbance, culminating not unfrequently in 

 inflammation of the gland. In such cases the milk should be withdrawn 

 until its secretion is diminished or altogether ceases, and mild diuretics 

 or purgatives may be administered to hasten this end. Camphor, in 

 small and frequent doses, has been recommended with this object, as 

 well as an infusion of walnut-leaves and powdered white agaric. 



* According to a French medical journal, Montbrun-les-Bains, in the Drome, is celebrated for nurses, 

 who continue to give the breast for two years and more. When one of these women loses her nursling, 

 she takes a puppy-dog instead, which then becomes one of the family. But it has been observed that all 

 these dogs become affected with rickets, and this has led a medical man to conclude that woman's milk is 

 deficient in some principle contained in dog's milk, and that consequently the latter might be a cure for 

 rickets. An observation published by him would seem to confirm this view. 



t The mammary secretion may be present in animals without these being in the pregnant or parturient 

 state, or even having been so. We have already alluded to Bitches yielding milk without having puppies. 

 Rabbits have done the same without having been fecundated, and have reared the young of other 

 Rabbits : Bitches have done the same. Virgin or barren Ewes have also yielded milk, as have likewise 

 Mares — Mule and Horse — and Fillies. 



