700 PA THOLOG Y OF PARTURITION, 



little cream or sugar. But it gradually recovers its usual composition 

 and increases in quantity, until, at last, in amount and quality, it does 

 not differ from that furnished by the other quarters of the mammae. It 

 sometimes happens, however, that with regard to the lacteal secretion, 

 though the gland regains its normal size and softness, it does not acquire 

 its full functional activity until the next pregnancy and the next period 

 of lactation. Complete recovery appears to take place during the period 

 when the Cow is "dry." 



With the Cow, it generally requires four to five weeks before resolution 

 is complete ; with the Goat the period is less, and it is still less with the 

 Mare. 



Atrophy of the gland occurs generally when resolution is not complete. 

 All the indications of that change are present, though they occur more 

 slowly ; but the lacteal secretion does not return — recovery is not perfect. 



The glandular acini, obliterated by the proliferation of the interstitial 

 connective tissue or the inflammatory exudate which took place in their 

 interior, are no longer capable of performing their function ; and in 

 proportion as these products of inflammation are absorbed after its 

 subsidence, so does the diseased gland diminish in volume, the mammae 

 become deformed and asymmetrical, the teat retracts and assumes an 

 abnormal direction, and but little, if any, milk can be obtained from it. 

 On manipulation, instead of the gland structure, nothing can be felt save 

 a very firm, dense mass, which feels like indurated connective tissue, with, 

 in its texture, some isolated nodules which appear to be, and really are, 

 lobules of the gland which have remained intact and yet secrete the little 

 milk that is yielded. The loss of a quarter of the mammas in Milch 

 Cows is, of course, a somewhat serious termination, so far as the supply 

 of milk is concerned, as this is materially diminished. Nevertheless, the 

 other quarters sometimes partially compensate, by their increased activity, 

 for the injury, and the animal is otherwise in good health. 



Induration is not at all an uncommon teimination of mammitis, 

 especially in the Cow and Bitch, and is often the point of departure, in 

 the latter animal, of various and serious degenerations of the glandular 

 tissue. 



This termination is to be apprehended, in the Cow, when the inflam- 

 mation persists in a somewhat acute manner beyond the sixth or eighth 

 day. Then the general symptoms diminish, the animal suffers less pain, 

 the appetite returns, as well as rumination, if any oedema was present it 

 has disappeared, but yet the gland does not regain its healthy character. 

 The inflammation has gone, the morbid products are partly absorbed, but 

 in different parts of the substance of the gland there are more or less 

 voluminous, well-defined, and rounded masses which have an almost 

 stony hardness, and are apparently adherent to the surrounding tissues. 

 These are evidently indurated lobules which have not undergone resolu- 

 tion, and their secretory power is therefore lost. 



In other instances in which the inflammation has been very intense, 

 recovery does not even proceed so far. The febrile symptoms disappear, 

 and the pain in the udder to some extent diminishes, as well as the swel- 

 ling ; though for a long time the local temperature is higher than usual, 

 and the animal evinces uneasiness when it lies down. The induration of 

 the swollen gland, often visible externally, instead of diminishing, appears 

 to increase, owing to the progressive organization of the inflammatory 

 products, and from the teat there can only be obtained a small quantity 



