ABORTIVE. 



ABSCESS. 



will yet do no harm though it take place. 

 When there are any premonitory symptoms 

 of abortion, they are precisely the same as 

 those which present themselves in ordinary 

 labour, with the exception of their being less 

 marked. 



Fumigation of the cow-house is resorted to 

 as one of the means of preventing the sprear' 

 of abortion : tar, sulphur, gunpowder, feathers, 

 and the like, are burned for the purpose of 

 destroying the odour. We have never seen a 

 single instance of the practice being attended 

 with the smallest success; while it is obvious 

 that, if carried beyond a certain point, it may 

 produce the very evil it is intended to remove 

 or mitigate. 



It is a remarkable feature in the history of 

 this complaint, that those cows that have once 

 miscarried are particularly liable to do so 

 again at the same period of their succeeding 

 pregnancy. Greater care is therefore requisite 

 to guard against those causes which do, or are 

 supposed to, excite it. The treatment of abor- 

 tion, when it does take place, differs not from 

 that adopted in cases of parturition, only that 

 the cow which miscarries should be removed 

 with all that belongs to her from among preg- 

 nant cows. 



If the signs of approaching abortion be dis- 

 covered early, the accident may sometimes be 

 prevented. If the cow is in good condition, 

 then immediately let it be bled to the extent of 

 five or six quarts, and the bowels opened with 

 half a pound of Epsom salts, three or four 

 drams of aloes in powder, or as many ounces 

 of castor oil, administered in a quart of gruel ; 

 but if the cow is in very poor condition, and 

 the miscarriage is anticipated from her having 

 beea exposed to cold, it would be more advan- 

 tageous to avoid bleeding, and give her a warm 

 gruel drink, with an ounce of laudanum in it. 

 If after this abortion does take place, let her be 

 kept in a comfortable place by herself; and if 

 the after-birth has not passed off, let no injudi- 

 cious and unnecessary administration of vio- 

 lent forcing medicines, such as capsicum or 

 hellebore, be given. Nature, with a little as- 

 sistance, is generally equal to the perfect re- 

 storation of the animal. 



Abortion in the Sheep. Ewes are much 

 subject to abortion, in consequence of the 

 numerous accidents they are liable to, such as 

 fright, overdriving, being worried or run with 

 dogs, a remarkable instance of which came 

 under my own observation. A pack of hounds, 

 in pursuit of a hare, got among a flock of 

 sheep belonging to a farmer, and so hurried 

 and alarmed them, that thirty out of a flock of 

 two hundred ewes prematurely dropped their 

 lambs. It is the same in sheep as in the other 

 cases of domestic animals, scarcity of food, 

 and exposure to severe cold, having a great 

 tendency to make the ewes prematurely drop 

 their lambs, or produce them weakly and crip- 

 pled at the full time ; and although there may 

 oe a little danger in giving too much food, 

 such as allowing them to feed all the winter 

 on turnips, the danger is trifling compared 

 with the starving system. (Mlkr.) 



ABORTIVE. A term appb'ed by gardeners 



and iarmers to flowers, seeds, and fruits, which 



10 



do not come to maturity, in consequence of ex 

 ternal injury from the weather, from insects, 

 or other causes affecting their growth. Thus 

 fruit often becomes abortive, in consequence 

 of cold winds or frosts in spring checking the 

 flow of the nutritive juices; and after losing 

 its healthy colour it shrivels, and falls. The 

 same effects arise when the leaves of trim- 

 branches are devoured by caterpillars, or the 

 fruit-stalks sucked by insects (Aphides, Catci, 

 &c.). The only preventives are sheltering 

 from cold, and destroying the insects. 



ABSCESS (Latin, r//W/-.s.s-.s). In veterinaiy 

 surgery, a circumscribed cavity in an animal, 

 containing matter. [In common language, an 

 imposthume or gathering.] The deposition 

 of matter in a solid part of the body is 

 always preceded, and in some degree ac- 

 companied, by inflammation. The local symp- 

 toms are, pain on pressure, heat, swelling, 

 hardness, and, where it can be seen, redness. 

 These are easily recognised, in proportion as 

 the inflamed part is near the external surface. 

 If the part in which an abscess is about to 

 form be soft, yielding, and well supplied with 

 blood, it soon softens and points, the pain di- 

 minishes, the skin becomes thin, a fluid is felt 

 fluctuating under it, and by and by the skin 

 bursts, or a portion of it drops out, and the 

 matter escapes. What is called the process 

 of granulation succeeds to this ; and, provided 

 the matter be completely evacuated, and the 

 outlet be such as not to retain any that may 

 form subsequently, the cavity soon fills up. 



Such are the different stages of an ordinary 

 abscess. The general health of the animal is 

 rarely affected ; but if an abscess form in a 

 dense unyielding texture, in a part which can- 

 not without much difficulty accommodate it- 

 self to an increase of volume, then the swelling 

 may be less,, but the animal will endure a 

 great deal more pain, [as is often exemplified 

 under similar circumstances in the disease 

 called felon or whitlow in the finger or human 

 hand.] The irritation, indeed, is sometimes so 

 great, from this cause, as to induce fever, and 

 even death; and hence the formation of an 

 abscess in the foot of an irritable horse is 

 not an unfrequent cause of death. During 

 the deposition of the matter in such cases, 

 we have general symptoms added to those 

 termed local. There is loss of appetite, 

 thirst, a hot skin, quick and hard pulse, 

 constipated bowels ; in short, the animal 

 is fevered. When an abscess forms in a 

 part remote from the surface, its presence is 

 not easily recognised. The general practi- 

 tioner has here an advantage over the veteri- 

 nary surgeon. The expressed feelings of the 

 patient, and the occasional slight shivering fits 

 which accompany the formation of matter, are 

 guides which the veterinary surgeon can 

 rarely or never command. The shivering, if 

 it occurs, passes unobserved, and the animal 

 can give no account of himself; dissection, 

 therefore, sometimes reveals large abscesses, 

 whose existence was not even suspected dur- 

 ing life. Fortunately these are not frequent. 



It is a curious circumstance, and one that 

 well illustrates the preservative principle of a 

 living being, that, unless there le some r 10- 



