824 THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF 



her vital energies to war4 off chemical decompositions, and 

 prevent encroachment on the various functions. A contest 

 commences between the vital force and chemical action, and, 

 after a hard conflict, in their incessant endeavors to overcome 

 each other, the chemical agency obtains the ascendency, and 

 disease of a putrid type (milk fever) is the result. The dis- 

 ease may not immediately be recognized, for the process of de- 

 composition may be insidious ; yet the milk and flesh of such 

 an animal may communicate the disease to man and other an- 

 imals. It is well known that almost any part of animal bodies 

 in a state of putrefaction, such as milk, cheese, muscle, pus, 

 etc., communicate their own state of decomposition to other 

 bodies. Many eminent medical men have lost their lives while 

 dissecting, simply by putrefactive matter coming in contact 

 with a slight wound or puncture. Dr. Graff made numerous 

 experiments on dogs, with the flesh, etc., of animals which died 

 of milk sickness. He says, " My trials with the poisoned flesh 

 were, for the most part, made on dogs, which I confined ; and 

 I often watched the effect of the poison when administered at 

 regular intervals. In the space of forty-eight hours from the 

 commencement of the administration of either the butter, cheese, 

 or flesh, I have observed unequivocal appearances of their pe- 

 culiar action, while the appetite remains unimpaired until the 

 expiration of the fourth or fifth day." From the foregoing re- 

 marks, the reader will agree with me, that the disease is of a 

 putrid type, and has a definite character. What is the reason 

 of this definite character ? All diseases are under the control 

 of the immutable laws of nature. They preserve their iden- 

 tity in the same manner that races of men preserve theirs. 

 Milk sickness of the malignant type luxuriates in the locations 

 referred to, for the same reasons that yellow fever is peculiar 

 to warm climates, and consumption to cold ones ; and that dif- 

 ferent localities have distinct diseases ; for example : ship fever, 

 jail fever, etc. 



Before disease can attack, and develop itself in, the bodies 

 of men or animals, the existing equilibrium of the vital pow- 

 ers must be disturbed : and the most common causes of this 



