404 CATTLE. 



must be repeated every six hours. Should not the medicine soon 

 begin to act, the usual quantity of aromatic medicine must be 

 doubled, for in addition to the constipation usually attending fever, 

 there is that which arises from the occasional state of the rumen, 

 and the passage leading to it, and that insensible stomach must be 

 roused to action and excited to discharge its contents, in despite of 

 the stimulating influence of the spice on the constitution generally. 

 The bowels must he opened, or the disease will run its course ; and, 

 purging once established in an early stage, the fever will, in the 

 majority of instances, rapidly subside, leaving the strength of the 

 constitution untouched. 



After the physic has begun to operate, the usual sedative medi- 

 cines should, if necessary, be given. 



The digestive function first of all fails when the secondary and 

 low state of fever comes on. The rumen ceases to discharge its 

 food, and that being retained, begins to ferment, and the paunch and 

 the intestines are inflated with fetid gas, and the belly of the ani- 

 mal swells rapidly. 



Next, the nervous system is attacked — the cow begins to stagger. 

 The weakness is principally referable to the hinder quarters, and 

 rapidly increases. She reels about for a while, and then falls ; she 

 gets up, falls again, and at length is unable to rise ; her head is 

 bent back toward her side, and all her limbs are palsied ; and now, 

 when in too many cases no good can be done, the proprietor, for 

 the first time, begins to be alarmed. 



The duration of this second stage of puerperal fever is uncertain ; 

 but although it is usually more protracted than the first, the period 

 in which hope may be reasonably encouraged is short indeed. If the 

 cow be seriously ill, and oft" her feed, and does not get up again in 

 two or three days, the chances are *very much against her ; the 

 author, however, knew one that was saved after she had suffered 

 considerable fever, and had been down nine days ; and where de- 

 bility is the principal symptom, and the cow seems to lie tolerably 

 comfortable, and without pain, and picks a little, she may occasionally 

 get up after she has been down even longer than that. 



The treatment of this stage of the disease, although there has been 

 a great deal of dispute about it, depends on one simple principle — • 

 the existence and the deorree of fever. Notwithstandinor there is de- 

 bility, there may be fever ; although the strength of the constitution 

 may have been to a great degree wasted, there may be still a 

 smothered fire that will presently break out afresh. In another point 

 of view, much of this apparent weakness may be deceptive ; it may 

 be the result of oppression anci venous congestion, and not of ex- 

 haustion. 



The pulse will be the guide, and should be carefully consulted. Is 

 it weak, wavering, irregular, dying away, pausing a beat or two, and 



