MILK FEVER— DROPPING AFTER CALVING. 403 



quantity of milk which some of them are disposed to give, must 

 strangely add fuel to the fire, and kindle a flame by which the pow- 

 ers of nature are speedily consumed. Whether the present improved 

 method of selection, whereby the properties of grazing and giving 

 milk are united in the same animal, will increase the tendency to 

 inflammation, and particularly to this dangerous species of fever, is 

 a question deserving of consideration. 



Puerperal fever sometimes appears as early as two houi's after 

 parturition ; if four or five days have passed, the animal may gene- 

 rally be considered as safe : yet a fortnight has elapsed between 

 the calving and the fever. 



The early symptoms of fever are evidently those of a febrile 

 character. The animal is restless, shifting her feet, pawing, and she 

 heaves laboriously at the flanks. The muzzle is dry and hot, the 

 mouth open and the tongue protruded. The countenance is wild, 

 and the eyes staring. She wanders about mournfully lowing ; she 

 becomes irritable ; she butts at a stranger, and sometimes even at 

 the herdsman. Delirium follows ; she grates her teeth, foams at 

 the mouth, throws her head violently about, and, not unfrequently, 

 breaks her horns. The udder becomes enlarged, and hot, and ten- 

 der, at the very commencement of the disease. This is always to 

 be regarded as a suspicious circumstance in a cow at that time ; and 

 if this swelling and inflammation be accompanied, as they almost 

 uniformlv are, bv a partial or total suspension of the milk, that which 

 is about to happen is plain enough. 



The disease is an inflammatory one, and must be treated as such, 

 and being thus treated, it is generally subdued without difficulty. 

 The animal should be bled, and the quantity of blood withdiawn 

 should be regulated by that standard so often leferred to — that rule 

 without an exception — the impression made upon the circulation. 

 From six to ten quarts will probably be taken away, depending upon 

 the age and size of the animal, before the desired effect is produced. 

 There is no maladv which more satisfactorily illustrates the neces- 

 sity of endeavoring to subdue as quickly as possible every inflamma- 

 tory complaint of cattle by the free use of the lancet ; for all of 

 them run their course with a rapidity which a person unaccustomed 

 to these animals, and which the human practitioner, especially, would 

 scarcely deem to be possible. To-day the cow is seen with the 

 symptoms just described — she is bled, and she is relieved ; or she is 

 neglected, and the fever has sapped the strength of the constitution, 

 and left a fearful debility behind. The small bleedings to which 

 some have recourse are worse than inefficient, for they only increase the 

 natural tendency of these maladie.^, to take on a low and fatal form. 



A pound or a pound and a half of Epsom salts, dependent on the 

 size of the beast, must next be administered, with half the usual 

 quantity of aromatic ingredients; and half-pound doses of the same 



