702 PATHOLOGY OF PARTURITION. 



into a milk sinus, and partly escapes by the teat during milking. The 

 pus is then mixed with the serum of the milk, and perhaps clots of casein 

 and shreds of glandular tissue, the fluid having a highly ammoniacal 

 odor. The pain is less, but does not cease, and it is generally necessary 

 to make an external opening for the readier and more complete evacu- 

 ation of the matter. There is generally much destruction of tissue, and 

 cicatrization is difficult and tedious, particularly when there are lacteal 

 fistulas. Not unfrequently the abscesses are multiple, and in some in- 

 stances there are as many as there are inflamed lobules. In other cases 

 one abscess succeeds another, owing to the presence of dead tissue in 

 the mass of the gland. 



Even when the abscess opens externally, and the other quarters yield 

 milk, the pus is, of course, liable to pass into it, an'd to render it most 

 objectionable as food. So that during the whole of the suppurative 

 period, the services of the Cow as a producer of milk are lost. Such 

 milk has usually a greyish tint, and often a peculiar odor — sometimes 

 similar to that of pus. 



Fiirstenberg has drawn attention to a cold abscess, often observed in 

 the udder of Cows more particularly, and due to the spontaneous soften- 

 ing of a chronic tumor or induration — the softening being the result of 

 fatty degeneration. The tumor loses its hardness, and the softening 

 process gradually extends ; the skin covering the mass becomes pulpy 

 and thin, and often the tumor opens spontaneously and externally, a 

 thick, yellowish kind of pus escaping; or it may evacuate its contents 

 into one of the milk sinuses. 



The . secretory function of one or more quarters of the mammae may 

 be quite destroyed — a serious result with valuable Milch Cows. 



Gangrene of the whole or a portion of the udder, is not an unusual 

 termination of mammitis, and is, of course, the most serious one, except 

 the death of the animal. It may be limited or diffused. The first fre- 

 quently succeeds phlegmonous mammitis, and particularly when suppura- 

 tion and diffuse or deep-seated abscess exists. In such a case the sup- 

 purative process has isolated a large portion — say a quarter — of the 

 mammae by the pus burrowing around it, and thils cutting off its nutri- 

 tion — the blood-vessels being the last to give way to ulceration. The 

 dead gland is encapsuled by its fibrous covering, and there it may re- 

 main for some time unless removed by a large opening — though some- 

 times the capsule gives way, and the mortified mass is found lying on the 

 ground among the feet of the animal. In this way Nature gets rid of 

 the diseased portion, and recovery becomes possible. The gangrene is 

 generally limited by a dense band of fibrous tissue. In many cases sur- 

 gical interference is necessary, when the mammae mortify ; and when 

 this is judicious, and the animal is not too weak or exhausted, success is 

 complete ; though, of course, the lacteal apparatus is mutilated and 

 greatly damaged. 



When diffuse, gangrene of the mammae is generally fatal. All the 

 domestic animals appear to be liable to gangrenous mammitis, but more 

 especially the Cow, Mare, and Sheep, the latter being oftenest attacked. 



The symptoms are described as extraordinarily intense from the very 

 commencement. There is great depression of strength, and the animal 

 looks prostrated ; the appetite is lost, rumination ceases, the heart beats 

 loud and frequently, and there is grinding of the teeth and convulsive 

 tremors. At the same time the udder swells enormously, the tumefaction 



