7o6 PA THOLOG Y OF PARTURITION 



that when the mammae are at the height of their function, is the time 

 when this inflammation is generally met with. With those animals 

 whose milk is only utilised to rear their progeny, the sudden sej3aration 

 of their young without any precautions is often noted as an exciting or 

 predisposing cause. The great activity of these glands in the Cow, and 

 the long time during which this activity is maintained, is, there can be 

 no doubt, one of the chief reasons why this animal so often suffers from 

 this affection. 



Mechanical causes may produce this inflammation — such as contusions, 

 wounds,* injuries in milkingf or sucking, blows from the head of the 

 young creature, etc. Parenchymatous inflammation of the gland may 

 also be due, according to Franck, to a deep purulent wound in the canal 

 of the teat, especially that produced in dilating this channel, or in 

 the removal of papillomatous tumours from this part. 



Noquet [Reaieil de Med. Veterinaires, 185 1 ) alludes to a Cow in which, in con- 

 sequence of mammitis, for six months the two posterior quarters of the udder lost their 

 power of secreting milk. It afterwards calved, and the sinuses of these quarters were 

 filled with milk ; but none could escape, owing to the teat-canals being closed. By 

 means of a knitting needle, artificial passages were made, but these became deep 

 purulent fissures. When Noquet first saw the Cow, three-quarters of the mammae 

 were enormously swollen and gangrenous. Deep scarifications were made, and 

 repeated dressings applied ; while camphorated draughts were administered internally. 

 The three quarters were destroyed, leaving only the left anterior quarter. Half a year 

 afterwards all had cicatrised, and there only remained a fistula. The animal was 

 in good condition, and was therefore slaughtered. 



In these cases infection may occur from the wound itself, or through a 

 ferment passing into the canals from without. In support of the latter 

 view, which will be referred to again, we may mention that Viseur has 

 attributed catarrh of the membrane lining the milk-ducts and sinuses to 

 the too frequent employment of the teat-tube or syphon, which more or 

 less paralyses the sphincter of the teat, and through the relaxed aperture 

 the air, charged with germs, irritates and inflames this membrane. 



"Overstocking" of the udder with milk has generally been considered 

 a very likely cause in the production of inflammation. The sudden 

 removal of the young, imperfect milking, etc., have also been blamed. 

 Franck, however, appears to doubt the influence of mammary distention, 

 and some observations and experiments would tend to prove that this 

 does not always cause inflammation. For instance, Cows which had 

 suffered from mammitis, and had temporarily lost the function of one or 

 two quarters of the mammae, were found at the next lactation period to 

 have recovered the secretory power of these glands, but the excretory 

 canal in the teat was obliterated. Consequently, great distention oc- 

 curred, and this was not relieved by an artificial opening. Nevertheless, 

 no inflammation ensued ; after the third day there was a marked diminu- 

 tion in the turgescence of the quarters, and in about eight days they had 

 assumed their normal volume. And Kehrer has experimentally shown 

 that extreme distention may not cause inflammation, by closing two teats 



* Gotze (Sachs Jahresbericht, 1867, p. 92), quoted by Franck, mentions an instance in which the 

 posterior part of the udder of a Cow becamed inflamed, and soon there was a severe attack of mammitis. 

 When the animal was killed, a large abscess was found in the gland, and in it two common pins, which 

 Gotze thought might have penetrated there from the rumen. 



t In those countries where the milk of Ewes is utilised like that of Cows, in the production of cheese 

 —as at Roquefort, where cheese bearing this name is largely manufactured— mammitis appears to be very 

 frequent, and has been attributed very often to the rough handling the teats and udder receive in milking. 



Roche-Lubin says that he has often witnessed shepherds acting so violently in milking that the Ewes 

 could scarcely breathe, staggered in their hind-limbs, and sometimes fell from the pain and shock. 



