CHAPTER XVII. 



THE GENERAL DISEASES ANB MANAGEMENT OF CALVES. 



In whatever manner tlie calf is afterwards to be reared, it should 

 remain with the mother for a few days after it is dropped, and until 

 the milk can be used in the dairy. The little animal will thus derive 

 the benefit of the first milk, that to which nature has given an ape- 

 rient property, in order that the black and glutinous faeces that had 

 been accumulating in the intestines during the latter months of the 

 foetal state, might be carried off. The farmer acts wrongly when he 

 throws away, as he is too much in the habit of doing, the beastings, 

 or first milk of the cow. 



NAVEL-ILL. 



The calf being cleaned, and having begun to suck, the navel-string 

 should be examined. Perhaps it may continue slowly to bleed. In 

 this case a ligature should be passed round it closer, but, if it can be 

 avoided, not quite close to the belly. Possibly the spot at which the 

 division of the cord took place may be more than usually sore. A 

 pledget of tow well wetted with Friar's balsam should be pl?»ced 

 over it, confined with a bandage, and changed every morning and 

 night, but the caustic applications, that are so frequently resorted to, 

 should be avoided. 



Sometimes, when there has been previous bleeding, and especially 

 if the caustic has been used to arrest the haemorrhage, and at other 

 times, when all things have seemed to have been going on well, inflam- 

 mation suddenly appears about the navel, between the third and 

 eighth or tenth day. There is a little swelling of the part, but with 

 more redness and tenderness than such a degree of enlargement 

 would indicate. Although there may be nothing in the first appear- 

 ance of this to excite alarm, the navel-ill is a far more serious business 

 than some imagine. Fomentation of the part in order to disperse the 

 tumor, the opening of it with a lancet if it evidently points, and the 

 administration of two or three two-ounce doses of castor oil, made 

 into an emulsion by means of an egg, will constitute the first treat- 

 ment ; but if, when the inflammation abates, extreme weakness should 

 come on, as is too often the case, gentian and laudanum, with, per- 

 haps, a small quantity of port wine, should be administered. 



Homoeopathic treatment. — In inflammation give some doses of aeon- 



